Lackawanna-Peak

13,823' Lackawanna Peak

photo- Zach Taylor about to drop into the south face of Lackawanna. photo by Dan Chirpich,2014

5/26/2014

Members of trip: Dan Chirpich & Zach Taylor

Ascent route: southwest gully of 13,660B

Descent route: south face of Lackawanna

"Lackawanna" is the unofficial name among mountaineers for the USGS named Pt 13,823' that sits just adjacent to Independence pass on the east side of the pass. It is a fairly gentle and accessible peak by Colorado 13er standards. The winter closure gate for Independence pass sits at the trailhead for the south face of Lackawanna peak. The northwest ridge trailhead for Lackawanna sits a few miles west of the road closure.

It is a tradition among Colorado ski/snowboard mountaineers and some backcountry skiers to come up to Independence pass as soon as it opens in late May and climb and ski the peaks with easy access until the snow melts off. I usually try to get up there once a year during this time to play on the pass.

Lackawana had been on my hit list for a while as I began a new mountain journey after finishing the 14ers...climbing all the centennials. I had looked at a couple of Lackawanna's routes in my Roach 13er book and then I saw the south face mentioned in Brian Miller and Ben Conner's new ski guidebook. After looking at routes I was pretty sure that the south face would make the best snowboard descent.

Dan and I had met at a 14ers.com happy hour last year and struck up a conversation about ski mountaineering and avalanche science. We stayed in touch and tried to get out a few times. Finally we got our schedules together to do Lackawanna on the 26th.

I drove up Independence pass to find the trailhead on the 25th. One of the nice things about Lackawanna's close proximity to Hwy 82 and Independence pass is that there is almost no approach to this peak at all. You park at its base and began hiking/climbing up the mountain. I got in after dark and drove under the south side of Lackawanna looking up for a view of the south face for our climb tomorrow. I found the avalanche path I believed that fed out from under the south face. There was a pull off right there off Hwy 82 so I pulled over and camped there for the night.

Dan drove up late in the evening. We got up a bit before dark and were hiking up the south side of Lackawanna around 5am.

photo- A look up at the southwest gully of Pt. 13,660'. photo by Zach Taylor, 2014.

photo- A look out over the Sawatch from the south gully of Pt. 13,660'. photo by Zach Taylor, 2014.

We hiked for a few minutes until we hit snow line and then we began skinning up the south gully. Near the top of the gully I noticed that my altimeter's altitude reading did not match the reading it should be if we were topping off the south face of Lackawanna. I was a bit confused but figured we would figure it out once we topped out on the ridge.

photo- A look at Grizzly peak from partway up Lackawanna. photo by Zach Taylor, 2014.

We hit the ridge and then things became clear. I had missed the avalance path running out from below Lackawanna the night before and had driven to the next south facing avalanche path to the west. This was the southwest gully off the southwest ridge of Pt. 13,660B. We looked around and could see Lackawanna a couple more miles along the ridge we were on and on the other side of Pt. 13,660B. No problem! The snow conditions were holding for us and the day was warming slowly so we still had time. This little set back just meant we got to climb Pt.13,660B too!

We put our skins back on and began skinning along the ridge to the summit of Pt. 13,660B. The going was easy and we summited Pt.13,660B pretty quick. We then skied down the east ridge to the adjacent saddle with Lackawanna and began skinning up the northwest ridge of Lackawanna.

photo- Zach Taylor skinning along the northwest ridge of Lackawanna. photo by Dan Chirpich, 2014.

photo- Dan Chirpich skinning along the ridge toward Lackawanna. photo by Zach Taylor, 2014.

It was an easy and very skinnable ridge so we made the summit pretty quickly. This area of Colorado offers some of the best views in the state. It was a beautiful, mild late May day and we enjoyed unobstructed views of the rest of the Sawatch, the Elk, Front, Gore, and Mosquito ranges. After out little detour over Pt. 13,660B we decided it was time to get down and ski the south face before the snow got too wet. We took a couple summit pictures and took off about 100' feet down to the east of the summit to the entrance of the south face descent.

photo- Zach Taylor on the summit of Lackawanna Peak. photo by Dan Chirpich, 2014.

The line looked pretty nice from up top. We would ski down the west facing shoulder for a few hundred feet and then drop into the south face. There was a nice cornice above part of the south face and I decided it looked like a good huck. We dropped in enjoying turns on the west shoulder. It was quite nice and composed of primarily decomposing snow.

photo- Dan Chirpich skiing down the west shoulder of Lackawanna just before dropping into the south face. photo by Zach Taylor, 2014.

Dan lined up the camera to take a picture of me hucking the cornice. I dropped in and aired off the cornice.

photo- Zach Taylor airing off a cornice onto the south face of Lackawana. photo by Dan Chirpich, 2014.

The landing was perfect corn. We took turns ripping corn turns down the south face. The line was around 35 degrees in pitch for most of the descent, maybe a little steeper at the top. Time for action shots!:

photo- Zach Taylor riding down the west shoulder of Lackawanna. photo by Dan Chirpich, 2014.

photo- Dan Chirpich skiing the south face of Lackawanna. photo by Zach Taylor, 2013.

photo- Zach Taylor riding the south face of Lackawanna. photo by Dan Chirpich, 2014.

It was a really fun descent and the snow conditions were great. The corn was excellent all the way down. Snow ended about 800' above the road and we down climbed a few cliffs below the face and hiked out to the road to hitch a ride back to our cars a couple miles up the road.

photo- Zach Taylor hiking out below the south face of Lackawanna peak. photo by Dan Chirpich, 2014

photo-Dan Chirpich hiking out the gully below the south face of Lackawanna. photo by Zach Taylor, 2014.