Two weeks prior, Josh and I climbed Chaquita and Ypsilon in the Mummy Range with his friends Chad and Jake. We talked then about climbing more of the tall peaks in the Mummy Range. Early in the week, Josh asked if I was still interested in going up from the Lawn Lake trailhead. We made plans to meet at the same time and place we had before for Saturday morning. Josh picked up a cold that week, but felt he would be ok. We also decided to get an earlier start since we knew it was going to be a much longer day than the previous hike. We left Loveland at 4 am Saturday morning, listening to Josh's bluegrass and was at the Lawn Lake trailhead by 5. This motivating music is what played in my head during the long approach.
I packed too much for the previous hike, and wanted to lighten my pack this time by not bringing as much food, water, and clothing. I still brought what I needed for an overnight bivouac in case that became necessary.
Full Moon
Before we got on the trail, I tried three times to take a picture of the full moon between two large pine trees. I couldn't really see in the dark, but it seemed like they weren't coming out very well. The next time I took a picture (below) I saw that the shutter was sticking and not coming open all the way. Tapping it lightly causes it to spring open, but it must have only been partially open when taking the picture above. We used our headlamps until it became light enough to see.
Mummy Mountain
We tentatively planned to climb Fairchild, Hagues, and Mummy, knowing that we could deviate from that depending on how we felt once we got to the saddle between Fairchild and Hagues. This was the first good view of Mummy Mountain we saw.
Fall River
The source of Fall River is the Crystal Lakes and Lawn Lake. The trail follows Fall River to its source.
Ypsilon
Until we were up high, we caught fleeting glimpses of Ypsilon--our summit from two weeks ago.
View of Mummy Nearing Timberline
Lawn Lake
When we got to Lawn Lake, we saw a few tents. We had yet to see anyone or anything else and we were nearly 6.5 miles in to the hike. There used to be a dam here until it broke in 1982, flooding the town of Estes Park.
Looking Back At Lawn Lake
Mummy's Cliffs of Insanity
With apologies to William Goldman, I named the craggy cliffs on the west face of Mummy The Cliffs of Insanity. They are quite spectacular when looking up at them.
Early Morning Hagues Peak
From here we could see our destination. It still seemed so far away!
Looking Down on Lawn Lake
This was the first real break we took. Despite Josh's cold, he was strong (as usual) and we made good time up to here. I was beginning to slow down and the bugs were maddening. Fortunately, I learned my lesson from climbing Elbert, and had bug repellant wipes which we applied here. The bugs would not bother us the rest of the day. I was sun-burned from the last trip, and put on SPF 45 sun block here now that the sun was up and not blocked by the mountain any more.
It was about here where we encountered our first climber. He was surprised we started from the trailhead since he thought we had camped at Lawn Lake. He started from the trailhead as well, and when we complimented him on catching us, (or to be fair--me--since I was starting to hold Josh back at this point), he said that his 25 year-old son is a mountain goat and a much better climber. The mention of a mountain goat is interesting since I often feel like that on craggy exposed climbing.
Fairchild From the Saddle
The Saddle is between Fairchild and Hagues at 12,400 feet. We took a short break to figure out what we wanted to do. The climber we met earlier had already pushed on to Fairchild. It was 9:30, and we knew we had a long way to go to climb all three. We decided Hagues and Mummy were more important than Fairchild today, and headed towards Hague.
Ridge To Fairchild
I wanted to grab a picture of the ridge we would have had to climb two weeks prior if we had decided to summit Fairchild after Ypsilon. It would have been a fun challenge, but we were wary of what it would take to climb back up to the Alpine Visitors Center once we got back to the Chapin Creek trailhead.
Ypsilon Past Fairchild
I may be wrong, but I think this is a picture of Ypsilon just to the right of Fairchild from the Saddle where we had a break to orient ourselves.
Looking Up At Hagues
From looking at the map, we decided that the best approach would be to climb horizontally past the summit of Hagues, climb over the ridge and summit from the other side which was less steep. As we climbed along, we scrambled over loose boulders, and it seemed to take forever to get where we were going. This was my fault again since I began to feel the altitude at 12,700 feet, and was more deliberate in my climbing holds as we traversed. At one point, Josh asked if I was alright with exposure (I am--I seek it out sometimes!) and we decided to make a push straight up for the summit.
This was the best part of the trip! We both wished we had helmets with us. I kept having to look above me to make sure I would not hit my head when pulling up. I kept three points on the mountain for safety reasons except for one spot where I had to do a dyno move to swing my legs over to a spot where I could continue up. As we neared the top, we saw our climber from before above us. He held to the ridge you see in the photo above, (you can't see the straight up route we took in the picture), and was able to make better time.
Crystal Lakes From Hagues
Lawn Lake From Hagues Summit
On the summit block, I took several pictures of the views around us. This vantage point happens to be the Larimer County high point.
Hagues Peak USGS Summit Markers
Others On Hagues Summit
I took a picture of the others we saw on the summit. Our friend from earlier was there, along with a party of three which included a 61-year old and a father and son. The father was 71 years old although we didn't see him until we were coming down the saddle between Hagues and Mummy.
At the summit, we learned that a plan had crashed into a glacier below the summit of Hagues in the 1970s. Josh walked over to the glacier, but wasn't able to see anything. I tried finding info on it online, but the following link was the best I could come up with. The summit elevation of Hagues Peak is 13,560 feet, and is incorrectly stated in the obituary.
Mummy From Hagues
Never Summer From Hagues
Snowy Ridge From Hagues
Longs Peak, Estes Cone, and Twin Sisters
You can see the Crystal Lakes in the bottom right. These are small lakes between Lawn Lake and the Saddle. We were at the summit at 12:30, and stayed there about 20 minutes. For some reason, I wasn't able to bring myself to eating the sandwich I brought.
Lawn Lake
At first, we started to the north side of the saddle between Hagues and Mummy which is where we encountered the 71 year-old father. I hope I'm still climbing when I'm that old! Then we were on the south side of the ridge. The boulders were loose, and it was slow-going. Knowing we had two more hours to get to the summit of Mummy, and realizing we had another 8 miles to go once we descended back to the trail, we decided to head down. It was steep (although not as steep as our route up to the summit), and I took my time to be sure I didn't sprain an ankle on any of the loose boulders going downhill.
Columbines Descending Hagues
Nearing the trail, Josh noticed a few clusters of columbines. Here is a snapshot of one of them. Happy to be on a trail again, we jogged part of the way down, and passed a lot of people this time. At two points, we encountered white-tailed deer that didn't seem very afraid of people. I kept thinking we were closer to the trailhead than we were, and greedily consumed the rest of the 3.5 liters of liquids I brought before we reached the split to Ypsilon Lake.
We reached the trailhead again at 5:15 pm. The trip took a little over 12 hours. The official length of our journey is listed at 17.8 miles and 4810 feet of net elevation gain, but because of the roundabout way we took to the summit, I believe we hiked 18 miles with a gross elevation gain of nearly 5000 feet.
