How to get there:
Go east from Alamosa or west from Fort Garland on US 160, to the
road US 150 that heads north to the Sand Dunes National Monument.
Go US 150 north exactly 5.1 km, then turn right onto a small
dirt road. This road heads straight towards the Blanca mountains.
Drive this road as far as your vehicle/driver finds reasonable, then
park somewhere off the road and start hiking. Route description:
The route is most easily divided into two parts, from
the trailhead to Como Lake and from Como Lake to the
summit.
Most climbers will camp in the vicinity of Como Lake due to
the long approach and, in particular, the large vertical gain from
the trailhead to the summit. Jeep road:
This road can be quite hot, carry enough water.
There is a jeep road from the trailhead and all the way to Como Lake,
this road has the reputation of being the worst in Colorado. However,
the first part of this road is not at all very unreasonable, with a
sturdy 4 wheel drive vehicle one can drive approximately 3 km without
trouble. The first spot indicating what will come is perhaps some rocks
in a left switchback part way up the hill. There are numerous places
along the road where one can pull off and park.
The road (from the trailhead) first climbs gently, later more
agressively with hairpin turns up the hill. Eventually it contours
into the valley formed by the creek from Como Lake. The jeep road
continues for a while on the right hand side of the creek, but
eventually crosses the creek and continues its seemingly
endless climb. Finally, one arrives at Como Lake, elevation about 3600 m.
It should be stressed that the final part of this road is extremely
rough and should not be driven, this applies in particular to the section
after crossing the creek. Climb from Como Lake:
The jeep road continues well above Lake Como to some small lakes called
Blue Lakes. (Very rough, few motorized vehicles can survive it.)
As you hike up the valley, Ellingwood Point is dominating the view,
a nicely shaped, pointed peak. Little Bear Peak is towering on the
right hand side, while Blanca Peak is partly hidden as part of the
ridge connecting it to Little Bear.
The
road ends just in front of a steeper "step" in the valley.
At this point, one is tempted to proceed straight ahead up
among the rocks, however, there
is quite a good trail continuing if one turns left, crosses the small
meadow and use the zig-zag trail all the way over to the left. After this
hill, the terrain again is more gentle as one pass Crater Lake with
Ellingwood Point towering on the left side. At this time of the year, two
distinct snowslopes separated by an area of rocks, lead towards
Blanca Peak. We chose to crampon up the left snowfield. The snow
was quite firm and excellent to walk on, the slope is rather
moderate. This slope connected with the Ellingwood Blanca ridge quite a
bit higher than the saddle on the Blanca side. From here we followed
the ridge to Blanca's summit. The ridge falls off steeply to the
north-east, also following the ridge all the way to the summit
requires some moderate scrambling near the top. It appeared that the
normal route goes into the south-west face near the summit, thereby
circumventing the steeper part of the final ridge. However, this
alternative featured loose rocks and a couple of snowfields in early
June, not necessarily either easier or safer than staying on the
solid ridge rock. Comments:
I did this climb with Pål Jørgen age 12. A cold
front with clouds had arrived in the night and we decided the
weather did not permit a continued climb of Ellingwood Point.
We started from Base Camp at Como Lake at 0645, summitted after
2.5 hours at 0915, spent 30 minutes at the summit and about
1:45 on the return hike, arriving back at Como Lake just
before 11:30.
In August 2002, I was back and climbed this peak a second time, this
time with my friend Arnt Flatmo.
Resources:
Images
Our starting point for Blanca,
this is already 1.5 km from the trailhead, however, it turned out
we could have driven quite a bit higher into the hills in the back.
A jeep trying one of the easier spots on
the famous Lake Como Road. This picture is from my
second trip in 2002.
Ellingwood Point,
this is NOT Blanca, but Ellingwood as seen from the
valley above Como Lake.
Base Camp, Como Lake.
Little Bear is behind left of the tree. The route to Little
Bear heads up the snow filled couloir just right of the tent.
The summit of Blanca Peak.
Ellingwood Point is just right of Pål Jørgen,
while the summit on the west ridge can be seen on the left side
just above the head of his ice axe.
