4-Pass Loop & Avalanche Pass, 7/18-25, 2009

The stats

Four-pass loop
~29 miles, 5 nights
Elevation gain & loss: 7,400'
Starting elevation: 9,655’
Trail Rider Pass: 12,420'
Snowmass Lake: 10,980'
Buckskin Pass: 12,500'
Crater Lake: 10,076'
West Maroon Pass: 12,500'
East Fork-Frigid Air intersection:11,650'
Frigid Air Pass: 12,415'

Avalanche Pass
2 nights
4.1 miles one-way
Starting elevation: 10,806'
Pass elevation: 12,100'

Satellite image of Four-pass loop. Campsites indicated by red dots. (click to enlarge)

Satellite image of Avalanche Pass (click to enlarge)

Preface

To date, no other previous backpacking trip was filled with as much anticipation as this one for me. The Elk Mountains have long been one of my favorite places in the state, which is a very close second behind the San Jaun Mountains. Probably more like a 1A-1B ranking. This is purely based on the scenery. To me, the Maroon Bells are the centerpiece of the Colorado Rockies. Not only are they virtually in the dead-center of our mountain topography, but their overall popularity and visual prominence plays into this as well. Prior to the start of my backpacking career in 2008, I could only dream of visiting such landscapes deep within the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness. I certainly revisited pictures in my book collection as well as reviewed a number of online pictures and trip reports. This wilderness is as good as it gets in Colorado.

The four mountain passes and related trail network around the Maroon Bells is called the four-pass loop. Makes sense. You can start at any of four entry points. The longest entry/exit would be via Snowmass Creek trailhead, which is 8.3 miles with 1,220' elevation gain, so that gets scratched from virtually everyone's list. The easiest approach is by far the most popular—Maroon Lake, where it is 1.8 miles and 500' to get on the loop section. I opted for the Lead King Basin approach, which is the second easiest at 2.5 miles and 700'. I started here as I would also be going up to Avalanche Pass immediately afterwards, which is about a ten-minute drive to its trailhead versus a few-hour drive by highway or 4WD to get to it from Maroon Lake. For reference, the Schofield Park spur is 2.7 miles, ~1,235'.

While I planned this trip for peak wildflower time frame, I ended up shooting almost everything but flowers. The flowers were out, and a couple sections had very small concentrations, but overall they weren't that profuse. No worries, as there were plenty of good-looking mountains to photograph.

Regarding Avalanche Pass, I was looking more forward to this part of the trip over any part of the four-pass loop. Avalanche Pass has had a certain mystique for me since the late 90s when I first saw one of John Fielder's pictures from here of Capitol Peak. It is pictured at the end of his To Walk in Wilderness book (which is a most excellent book, by the way; it is a one-month trip report purely within the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness). I was blown away by Capitol's profile and its rise over the surrounding peaks. It was one of those scenes that was so captivating. Of course, not being into hiking at the time, there just is no way to visit places like this, so I just had to live through other people's pictures. I don't know why I didn't make time for this 2008, but it was the first one on my list for 2009. The place easily lived up to expectations and more, as I would consider it to have the best view in the Elk Mountains short of being on one of the fourteener's summits. Even better is that it is not visited by all the crowds.

Day 1

The night before didn't get off to a great start as I got off work an hour late and ended up leaving at 7 PM. Usually, that wouldn't be a problem as it's about a four-hour, fifteen minute drive for me to get into Lead King Basin, but I wanted some time once at camp to get things sorted out for the next day. This was compounded by the fact that I ended up missing my turn and ended up driving up Sheep Mountain which turned into an hour round-trip of wasted time. The thing about it was that it had been a number of years since I went up via Lead King's turnoff after Marble; I usually like to drive past the Crystal Mill and enter it from Crystal. I should've known better, but I did drive on a road that I did not know existed. I could have turned around a little earlier when I knew this side road was not the correct route, but once I'm on an unfamiliar road, I always feel the urge to drive on to see what's there, even if it's dark out! At any rate, I arrived in Lead King at my campsite a little after midnight, and though I had no intent of shooting sunrise anywhere, I still wanted to be on the trail by around 8 AM in case there were going to be any thunderstorms.

It was a shorter night of sleep than I would have like and ended up waking around 8:00. I already felt behind schedule and felt rushed getting things together. Lightning is my biggest fear on these backpacking trips and I don't care to play around with it. I had to get over Trail Rider Pass to reach my first camp, and who knows how long it would take me to get up and over. When I arrived the previous night, I found the trailhead pullout was filled to capacity with about five vehicles, so I found a campsite a couple hundred feet further down the road. This probably worked out best as it is a really nice campsite and offered a bit of seclusion immediately off the road. It may have turned out to be a much bigger blessing than just that (read on . . .).

I was on the trail at 8:40 and was in the wilderness a few minutes later. My trip was underway, and beauty and adventure awaited. Twenty minutes into the trail, I came to the stream crossing that originates from Geneva Lake. A couple years back, I had taken a day hike through here and all the way up to just before the Trail Rider Pass turnoff and suddenly remembered what I faced then—that there wasn't any option to jump across the stream without taking a number of steps in it and getting wet. That didn't keep me from looking again, though! I don't take lightweight sandals for stream crossings to keep my shoes and socks dry in order to save weight, but I usually don't have a problem getting them wet. So, just as the first time, I ended up trudging right through and soaking my shoes.

Very shortly after getting on the Trail Rider Pass trail, it starts a pretty rough grade that lasts for quite awhile. It doesn't really stop until the small lake comes into view in the basin just below the final summit grade. It was fairly rough and took my breaks, but thankfully, it didn't seem all that overwhelming. I ended up eating a well-deserved PowerBar and water-filling break when I reached the small lake after the main uphill section was behind me, which was just before noon. Clouds were sparse and behaving themselves quite well, and by this point, I was pretty confident that if there was going to be a storm, it would be a ways out. This was more comforting than you know!

Somewhere between the lake and the the pass, I wondered if I remembered to lock my doors. I honestly could not recall like I usually can. What a reassuring feeling to have at this point, but I certainly wasn't going to backtrack. I figured there wasn't much point in worrying about it, as what was done was done. I didn't worry about it at all, but definitely thought about it a few more times during the trip.

It took me about a half-hour to travel halfway up the final section to the pass. It is a pretty decent grade and hunger had caught up with me after all the uphill exertion. It was a nice spot for a break and had a great view. It also allowed me to dry my shoes and mostly dry my socks from the early stream crossing. The skies were still mostly clear and I was in no hurry being that I knew I wanted to spend awhile on the pass, and had the whole day to play before I had to reach Snowmass Lake. And stay up on the pass awhile I did—two hours, twenty minutes worth just soaking in the views and waiting for the sun to get as low as I could allow it for picture-taking purposes before I knew I had to get going, which was at 5:50. I've read multiple trip reports where others note they only see a handful of people, sometimes less than ten, for the duration of the entire loop. Naturally, I saw at least ten in the first three hours, and was somewhere in the twenties by the time I descended Trail Rider. So much for solitude! That's alright, my first day was a Saturday and I was pretty much expecting the traffic to be like I saw.

The 1,500' descent to Snowmass Lake took about an hour, including a quick photo stop higher up. Once I entered the campsite area around the lake, I quickly realized I didn't know how close to the lake I was going to be able to camp with all the campers that were there. Thankfully, after a few minutes of walking by all of the sites en route to the lake shore, I found an area that was secluded enough, and maybe more importantly, simply vacated. I set up the tent and headed to the lake shore to find a good place where I'd want to shoot sunrise. When I did, it was time for one of those oh-so-good Mountain House meals to hit the spot after a long day's work. The fish were really jumping and it was very relaxing even though I had yet to sit down. When done, I headed back to camp to turn in for the night where I left the tent fly off for the first time. Perhaps ironically, at some point during the night (4 AM comes to mind), I heard some noises from what seemed like two or three feet out my door, which is the end my head sits! I heard a few snorts, or heavy breathing! I usually can't bring bring myself to make any noises in such situations, as I just want to curl up in my fetal position with my tail between my legs, but I mustered enough courage, or whatever you might call it, to yell out. I didn't see anything when I got my head out of the bag to look. Thankfully, whatever it was walked off after that and snapping a few twigs along the way. Of course, my gut feeling every time your hear noises, no matter how slight, is that it is a bear. I don't think deer, marmots or porcupines breathe like what I heard, but all I know is that I'm still alive writing a trip report about it! Oddly, it didn't take much work getting back to sleep after this event I would've been happy to live without.

From my trailhead campsite looking up the valley. The trail leads around the slope on the right.

Leaving camp. Did I remember to lock the 4Runner?!

Finally on the trail. I've been waiting a long time for this day to come.

Wilderness entry

Cascades from Geneva Lake's outlet at the stream crossing

Stream crossing = wet feet and soggy socks for awhile

Looking back down towards the trailhead with the Lead King road switchbacks on the right and Treasure Mountain above. The trailhead is downslope below the visible road section. Crystal lies directly behind the hill on the right.

One of the first open views of the Bells with unnamed 12,490' on the right, which separates Fravert Basin from Hasley Basin. North Fork of the Crystal river runs through the valley.

Starting up the initial portion of Trail Rider Pass looking back down to the head of Lead King Basin

Looking down the trail and over to the Bells

Treasure Mountain and Lead King Basin

Looking up to Hagerman Peak

A look over to unnamed 12,626'

One of the first open views of Trail Rider Pass

Trail Rider Pass

Another look over to the Bells and Belleview Mountain, which is at the head of Fravert Basin

Belleview Mountain

A look down the trail along the start of the final stretch looking back at the lake that is the same lake three pictures up. A couple other hikers can be seen on the trail.