Colorado's Blanca Peak proves fatal to experienced climber
A long day of mountaineering needs only one thing to go wrong to turn into a tragedy. Climbers should be cautious when deciding routes based on rating systems.
A big mountain is no place to learn about climb ratings.
Blanca Peak has one of the biggest walls in Colorado, right up there with Longs Peak and the Crestones.
Unlike those peaks, you don’t easily see the giant walls of Blanca Peak, the fourth highest summit in Colorado. The soaring slopes above the San Luis Valley, visible from scores of miles away, rise relatively gently to 14,344 feet. They are not the big wall. You need to drive the rough bouncy road up the Huerfano Valley to see Blanca Peak’s magnificent north face.
It was on those slopes recently where a solo climber fell to his death (see Backpacker magazine’s article below). This climber must have had vast experience, to accomplish what he did.
This is not about him, but for those who would follow. Most all mountain hikers, myself included, eventually get into a place they shouldn’t be. They push beyond their experience, their physical ability or the weather. Don’t do it. No mountain summit is worth it.
I visited the Blanca Peak area in 2020, took one look at Blanca’s potential route from Lily Lake, and called it a day. There was no way I was going to set foot on that mountain from that direction.
It didn’t matter how often I read there was a relatively “easy” route to the ridge. I looked and looked and looked and didn’t see it.
Every climber must interpret how a climbing route is graded and how it will go in existing conditions. Variables are endless: size and strength of party, weather, route finding etc.
To bring order to chaos, climbing has adopted a system of scoring route difficulty, as explained in this chart taken from the REI.com website.
Use it as a guide, not an absolute. It says a potential fatal fall begins at Class 5. But what happens if you take a “short fall” at Class 3, night is falling, you are solo, and wet, cold weather is moving in. It could also be fatal.
And what if you get off route by a few feet and suddenly are making Class 4 moves when you thought it said Class 2?
And what happens if your friend Joe is moving well across Class 4 and you’re having trouble on Class 3 that day. And who exactly determined which was Class 3 and which is Class 4. Classification is supposed to be by definition, not variable by who does the rating, but believe me it is not.
So many things can go wrong so quickly when climbing big mountains. It’s a wonder there are not more incidents that need rescue.
The climber who perished on Blanca Peak in September, as described in the Backpacker article, apparently was making a huge mountain traverse, climbing 13,855-foot California Peak, 14,042-foot Ellingwood Point, then Blanc and descending by a different route, Gash Ridge.
Without knowing more about him or what he was doing, there is nothing more to say other than his ambition put search and rescue volunteers in harms way.
On my trip to Blanca, I met a climber even more ambitious, planning to add Little Bear and Mount Lindsey (also 14,000 foot peaks) to complete the “grand slam” of four 14ers from Huerfano Basin.
Down climbing something as difficult as Gash Ridge (rated Class 4 to 5.5, according to Backpacker) after reaching the summit at dusk is likely something thousands of climbers have done safely all over the world since climbing began. Stories are legend about climbers who have done this on Mount Everest and K2.
Until the day it’s not safe.