This is Mt. Sneffels (elevation 14,150'), near the town of Ouray, Colorado. This is a Brett Atkinson photo. Taylor and I stayed in Ouray and drove up Yankee Boy Basin to the trailhead. From that point you can day-hike the summit if the weather cooperates.

 

Here's Taylor climbing the "Lavendar Col". You can see the trail coming over Blue Lakes Pass in the background.

 

The view started really opening up at the saddle between Sneffels and Kismet.

 

From the saddle, we headed up another couloir (they call this "Scree Col") towards the summit. By looking at this shot Taylor took of me (lower right of photo), you can see why you might want a helmet here. Next time.

 

About halfway up the couloir, Taylor's route-finding skills required him to do a "friction scramble" across these rocks.

 

From the top of the couloir (where I was sitting when I took this), you can see down the north face. You have to come back down a ways and find this V-shaped notch to continue towards the summit. Taylor found the notch (pointing at it here), peeked through it, and found the way up.

 

This is what "The Notch" looks like from the top.

 

Tay's final summit push....

 

No explanation required.

 

Eventually, the old guy made it too.

 

Since we were alone, we had to do a self-portrait.

 

We signed the summit register, which was rolled up in a sealed tube.

 

Ah, youth.....

 

Here's the view to the southeast. The tallest mountain on the horizon is Wetterhorn Peak, another 14'er.

 

The view to the west was pretty awesome, too.

 

Taylor heads back down The Notch.

 

This was the last shot on the roll. Right after I took this, it started to snow big-time! Pretty cool to a couple of Texas boys in late June, but when it started to thunder we got down as fast as we could.

 
 

I couldn't resist a couple of parting Sneffels photo's for the page. Here's one by Brent Doerzman.

 
 

And another by Darren Kilgore.

 

 

back to home page