Triple Crown

Wednesday - May 10th - 2006

After a pathetic attempt at the Big Bluestem loop on Sunday, I was anxious to get out again. I've had my eye on the "Triple Crown" - Green Mountain, Bear Peak, and South Boulder Peak for awhile. These peaks tower the flatirons, and I figured a linkup would be pretty cool. My plan was to climb Green Mountain via Saddle Rock/Greenman, then hook up with the West Ridge of Bear Peak, climb South Boulder Peak, then descend Shadow Canyon and run the Mesa trail back to Chautauqua Park. The city of Boulder has a nice map of these trails.

I watched the weather forecast Tuesday night, and they were calling for overnight snow above 9500 feet, and possible rain at lower elevations. I figured that was OK, since South Boulder Peak is the highest of the 3, and tops out at ~8500 ft. However, on my drive to Boulder I could see snow on Coal Creek golf course (louisville), and it looked like the flatirons also got a light dusting. oh well - not the end of the world.

When I got to Chautauqua, it looked like it had snowed about 1/2 - 1". The trails looked clear, so I figured it wouldn't be that big of a deal. I was wearing shorts, running shoes, and a long-sleeved capilene t-shirt. I started at about 7:30, jogged the baseline trail, and started up the amphitheatre trail to Saddle Rock. Snow was already starting to melt off the trees, and it felt like it was actually raining. very surreal. I forgot how steep (read: painful) the amphitheatre trail is, and I couldn't run very far up it. Even "power hiking" would be too generous of a term. At this point, I just wanted to keep moving, and get my heart rate below 200. The trail was wet and snow-covered in some points, but didn't cause any problems - I made it to the Greenman trail after about 40 minutes. I've been up this way before, and I've also gotten lost a couple of times - so I was a little nervous. For the last 600-700 vertical feet the mountain was completely covered in about 1.5" of snow - and I quickly lost the trail. bushwacking wasn't particularly difficult, but it did cost me some time. I reached the summit blocks in exactly 1:11 - nearly 10 minutes off my previous fastest time. I spent about a minute on the summit - it was a gorgeous day - no wind, no clouds, and the view of the Indian Peaks was spectacular.

I started down the west ridge of Green Mountain, then turned south towards Bear peak. the trail was snow covered - it was easy to run on, but I did manage to lose the trail a few times. After about 15 minutes I came to the trail for the West Ridge of Bear Peak and I stopped to consider my options. I'd never been on the West Ridge of Bear Peak before, and after my route-finding problems on Green Mountain, I figured I'd have more trouble ahead. I didn't really want to end up spending 2 more hours bushwacking (I told work I'd be online by noon), so I decided to head down Bear Canyon, and out to the Mesa trail. It was a great run down - so much better than running down either Gregory Canyon or Saddle Rock because it's not very steep and there aren't many rocks. Plus, the area to the west and south of Green Mountain is just an awesome place. Great views of the north face of Bear Peak and South Boulder Peak, and it's never crowded (especially on a weekend after it snows!). The trail was a little damp, especially towards the bottom, but not bad.

Parts of the mesa trail were borderline miserable, especially around NCAR. The trail was all mud, and I made faster progress by walking. I ran the last 1.5 miles, and just missed finishing in under 2:30 - hopefully I'll break that next time.

Total Mileage: ~8.2
Total Elevation: ~2600ft

Here are my approximate splits:

Amphitheater Trail: 7:00
Greenman Trail: 41:00
Green Mtn. Summit 1:11:00
Bear Peak W. Ridge 1:29:00
Mesa Trail 1:58:00
Finish: 2:32

the blue lines/arrows show my route, with the red lines/arrows indicating the route for all 3 peaks.