Day 11 of Autumn 2023 Trip to Mountain States, Snowdon Peak of Colorado

The twelfth day of my autumn 2023 trip to the mountain states. Today I climbed Red Mountain 3, and enjoyed the most vivid colors of San Juan Mountains from its summit.

Planning

I knew end of September was probably too late for Colorado’s highest mountains (the 14er’s), so I didn’t plan this trip focusing on conquering high mountains. But since I was visiting San Juan Mountains around peak foliage time, I nonetheless thought it’s appropriate for me to set aside a few days to explore the mountains.
In the vicinity of Silverton, the most popular trails were "Ice Lake" and "Columbine Lake", both leading to alpine lakes. Having done "Gunnison Route" the previous day, I was feeling bold and looking for something more adventurous, i.e. mountain peaks, for which I found Red Mountains, Snowdon Peak and Engineer Mountain, all of which had relatively easy access from developed road. Weather forecast indicated strong wind for the next day, so I planned the non-technical "Red Mountain 3" on the next day. For this day, my research indicated "Engineer Mountain" was YDS class 3 while "Snowdon Peak" was class 2-3, so I picked the relatively easier "Snowdon Peak". After Silverton my next stop was Durango, so this arrangement resulted in more driving distance, but I gladly took it for safety.

With good weather in the forecast today, I didn't bother waking up early, and reached the trailhead just past 10am.

 

Snowdon Peak Trip

This mountain was named after Snowdon, the highest peak in Wales. From the developed trailhead of Andrews Lake, its standard route (northeast ridge) was 9.8km out-and-back with 728m of elevation gain, the last bit of which required scrambling and route-finding.

Here's GPS tracking:

The trail started out as a casual stroll through the woods. (Pine trees, so there's no foliage.) 1.7km in, it departed from the (more established) Crater Lake Trail and headed east. It's also when the forests grew sparser among a meadow scene.

A minor complaint was that, after the fork of trails, there were many fallen trees blocking the trail, requiring some effort to scale over.

3.5km into the hike, the trail completely emerged from the trees as it started a steep ascent (p2 below) towards the saddle point between "Needles One Peak N1" and Snowdon Peak. I didn't prepare hiking poles for this trip so this slope put me through some struggles.

After that the trail disappeared into a rocky ridge leading southeast. There were occasionally class 1-2 scrambling moves along this ridge (p4-5 below). The gradient was very gentle along this ridge, and it offered great views of surrounding mountains (p1-3 below) should I want to seek reprieve from the physical efforts.

Along this section, my destination was constantly in view. Just that its orientation meant its sight was often against the sun for most of the day, limiting the contrast of its rocks.

After the ridge, mountains further to the east and southeast popped into view. They were the Grenadier Range and Needle Mountains, featuring the highest density of peaks (on OpenStreetMap) among San Juan Mountains (if not among the entire Colorado).

Then it's the final, most technical and most thrilling part, following Snowdon's Northeast ridge to its summit.
Before embarking on this homestretch, I used my camera at its longest focal length to take the following photo of the rocks near Snowdon's summit. During the climb, I used my cell phone to take photos of my surroundings to mark the conditions of the path. By comparing and identifying the rock formations, I somehow managed to pinpoint my exact locations during my climb on the following photo! (This came as a surprise even to me.)

While mountaineering routes following ridges most of the time, in the case of Snowdon Peak, a couloir (red arrow in the photo above) created a gap along the ridge. Thus its standard route was to bypass the couloir to the east (left in the photo above).
After following the ridge for a while, I felt the gradient was getting steeper, so I thought I should start to deviate from the ridge (125503). A few minutes later, I found myself at the bottom of a very steep slope (125947). I tried going a few more steps up (red dashed line in the photo above) but it only seemed to get more intimidating. I didn't want to keep going up, only to find the steep gap of Naked Lady Couloir in front of me (in which case I had to manage the more technical descent back, but luckily, based on the photo above, I wouldn't), so I traced my steps back. After spending a few minutes gathering myself up, I realized I couldn't head west/right (towards the couloir), so my only option was finding another route further east/left. Since the rocks immediately to my left were sort of exposed, I had to descend down a mini gully (131121), after which I successfully found a new route nearby (131134) with a marked cairn.

The crux of the route is likely the narrow ledge next to a steep wall (132109), but it's certainly manageable. After that, the remainder part to the summit was straightforward.

Summit of Snowdon

In the end, I made it to Snowdon's Summit at around 1:30pm, just over 3 hours since departing trailhead. Snowdon's summit was relatively flat and open, with unobstructed views around. Essentially, most of the San Juan Mountains were visible.

The relative lack of wind and the presence of cellular coverage (!) meant I spent 50 enjoyable minutes on the summit, before heading back down at around 2:20pm.

During my descent, I decided to take a detour to check out the top of Naked Lady Couloir (blue line in route map above, p2 below), since its presence created so much trouble to me. Luckily, I wasn't lost this time.

In the end, I made it back to the trailhead at 5:20pm.

Brief Review of Snowdon

This was a very accessible mountain with a paved trailhead along US550. Its roundtrip distance under 10km meant it fitted as a day hike (and some change). I saw online that categorized it as "class 2-3" but in my opinion it should be a solid "class 3". It's a very manageable trip but nonetheless required some route-finding skills to stay on the best/easiest route. Its relatively lack of popularity meant there wasn't a lot of information online, so it required proper preparation. Throughout the day I ran into another couple that made it to the ridge/overlook, but I believed I was the only one summitting for the day.

Remainder of the Day

Below is a timelapse video from my windshield-mounted GoPro, recording my entire drive from Silverton to Andrews Lake Trailhead and back.

• 0:00 Leaving Silverton
• 1:43 Molas Pass. Snowdon Peak right ahead.
• 1:56 Andrews Lake Trailhead. The video continues after my hike.
• 2:12 Passing Molas Pass again on my way back. This was the second of three mountain passes between Ridgeway and Durango, it probably had the best views among the three, especially with the afternoon sun lighting up mountains to the east.
• 3:07 Deadwood Gulch (not much to see there)
• After that, I was hoping to find a roadside turnout overlooking the town of Silverton. The one at 3:27 should be ideal, but instead I headed towards “Silverton Overlook” on Google Maps, which is where this video ends.

On my way back I made a stop at Molas Pass. This was the middle of the three mountain passes between Ridgway and Durango. The afternoon sun beautifully lit up the distant mountains in Weminuche Wilderness.

Then I made a few more stops along US550 on my way back, this time focusing on the foliage on the mountains that surrounded Silverton.

Finally, I was back at Silverton just past 6pm. There was still some time before sunset, so I gave the town a quick walking tour (as it could get really cold after dark).

That concluded the day.
END