Willow Lake Ice

After a great day of climbing in the Pikes Peak region, Eric, Branden, and I were driving back home in my car, when I suddenly get a text from my good friend Anthony. The text included a picture, with the sole caption “Go climb this”. The picture included one of the most beautiful pitches of waterfall ice I have seen in Colorado.

It was my assumption that this particular flow forms quite regularly, however after some discussion with friends, I came to realize that this climb forms rarely. There was only a handful of ticks in the last 3 years, and I was surprised to find very little information on it.

I am usually attracted to aesthetics, so this climb immediately went on my list of must-do climbs. The ice was at Willow Lake; a high alpine lake located deep in the Sangre De Cristo mountains in Southern Colorado. The climbing area presented some initial challenges: A far drive, and a long approach. The drive from where I live was almost 3 hours, and the hike was almost 10 miles R.T. with nearly 3,000 ft of elevation gain. In the winter, heavy snows and deep post-holing can make it nearly impossible to even reach the lake.

Initially, my two climbing partners were hesitant to go with me. Eric, living in Greeley, meant it would be a nearly 6 hour journey for him, and for Branden was about 4 hours coming from Denver. After some consistent nagging and convincing, I talked Branden in joining me for the climb on president’s day weekend, as Eric unfortunately got sick.

On Sunday morning at about 3:30 AM, we set off on the drive. From Bailey to the trailhead, it was a little under 3 hours. The drive was long, and I struggled to stay awake and attentive at that hour. Lane guidance is a blessing.

We arrived at the trailhead at about 6:30, and first encountered some minor access issues. The road wasn’t in rough shape, however there was fairly deep snow on the last 1.5 miles which we didn’t want to take a chance in getting stuck in. We found a good stopping point, dug out some snow, and parked the car. We began the hike around 7 am.

The trail in

The hike was short to the actual trailhead, maybe 30 minutes or so. There was deep snows at the trailhead, however a 4X4 truck with excellent snow tires certainly could have made it. I was driving my brand new CRV, so I didn’t want to trash it. There was not a soul at the trailhead.

The trail in was packed down for the majority of the way. The hike started with steep switchbacks, then you gain the ridge. One you gain the ridge, the view was spectacular until you reached the lake. You had 13-14,000ft peaks surrounding you the entire way in.

The mountain peaks with fresh rhyme.

All in total, the hike took about 3.5 hours. We were lucky to have a nice boot pack until the last half mile. Once we nearly reached the lake, the tracks ended completely, and we had to put on snowshoes.

We arrived at the lake by about 10:30 am, about when we expected. It was lightly snowing, but the environment felt real. It was in the alpine, which meant cold, wind, and a general sense of being remote. It felt similar to hiking to Black Lake in RMNP.

Willow Lake

Once at the lake, we kept our snowshoes on and trudged over to our main ice climb. From a distance, the climb looked very steep, mean, and dusted with snow. As we crept closer to the climb, I began to scout different lines up the climb to take. After some discussion, I decided I wanted to try and lead it. We put on our crampons, harnesses, and climbing gear; I ate some food and drank some water, and I began climbing.

Looking up at the climb

In my opinion, the bottom of the climb was the most frightening. It consisted of onion skin type of ice, which is prone to breaking off, and your ice axe simply just fractures the entire layer. I chose to climb the right side of the falls, as it looked more moderate, and offered a nice break about halfway up.

Given the alpine environment, I was expected the ice to feel more brittle, however, to my surprise, the ice was fairly soft. The snow that fell over the previous 24 hours helped to insulate the ice, which made my I felt fairly smooth on the first half of the climb, stopping to rest at one point to warm my hands. The temps were probably the upper teens to low twenties. Once I arrived in the ice cave, I stopped to take a good rest.

After resting, I continued up the last half of the climb, which was most likely the steepest. I slowly made my way up to the top, resting on a screw before pulling the final bulge. I topped out on the ice climb precisely at 1pm.

Topping out.

When I got to the top, the wind started to pick up. I had read there was some new tat at the top of the climb, however, there was deep snow and all the vegetation was buried, so I figured it would be difficult to find. Given how late it was, I didn’t want to spend more time than I needed to searching for an anchor, so I just built a two screw anchor.

After I built an anchor, I belayed Branden up. We both reached the top of the climb at about 1:45 pm.

Branden topping out.

Once we topped out, we debated on the descent. On Mountain Project, it says there is a walk off to the left. Due to extremely deep snow, and the likely possibility of wind loading, we opted to rap via a no-thread. The ice was bomber, and it was likely quicker than trenching in waist deep, wind loaded snow for another hour. I quickly made a no-thread and we rappelled back down to the ground.

Our no-thread and backup screw.

After we returned to the ground, it was lightly snowing again, and we still had a long hike back to the car. We quickly packed up, put on our snowshoes, and started walking back.

As I started walking, I began to realize that my right toe was giving me quite a bit of pain. I am not new to toe pain from ice climbing, as I have a bad habit of kicking too hard into the ice. This time, the pain was quite severe, so I opted to take some ibuprofen on the way down so I could make the walk back tolerable.

The walk back went by fairly quick. The snow was a bit softer, but it wasn’t terrible. We were greeted by sun and warmth the closer we got back to the car. We ditched our snowshoes when we were on our packed trail, and we arrived back at the car around 5 pm that day.

Here are our stats for the climb:
Left house (Bailey): (3:15 am)
Arrived at TH (6:30 am)
Began the hike: (7:00 am)
Arrived at the lake: (10:30 am)
Began climb: (11:15-11:30 am)
Topped out: (1:30 pm)
Back on ground (2:00 pm)
Arrived back at car (5 pm)