Starting off from the Cataract Gulch Trailhead at sunrise (7:15am). To Hardrockers, this trailhead is known as the Sherman aid station. This trailhead is at 9,600' feet.
Nice light on a neighboring peak as we hike up from the trailhead.
In the shaded parts of the trail the snow was a few inches deep.
The log was dry but Dan is a scaredy pants.
Very nice waterfall not far below treeline.
The view into upper Cataract Gulch. Our goal, Half Peak, is just out of sight on the right side of photo.
Our first view of the summit of Half Peak (13,841'). The summit is the highest point to the right along the ridge.
Our route was up the East Face pictured here. We hiked across the basin and busted out up the slopes. Scrambling through the upper cliff band just below the summit was fun.
A great view of 14er Sunshine Peak (14,001') at the edge of an unnamed lake in the gulch.
Getting to the east slopes of Half Peak involved a small amount of bushwacking through willows. It wasn't so bad.
I call this composition “Half Peak and the waning moon.”
We found the snow to offer better footing than the steep, loose rock alternative.
Once we hit the ridge and started scrambling we had a great view down Half Peak's daunting north face.
More fun scrambling action despite the rock not being super great quality.
The summit plateau is huge. The true summit is over there. Almost there.
Dizzy D (a.k.a. Dan Hadlich) on the summit of Half Peak. It took us 3:46 to reach the summit.
Self portrait, Half Peak, 13,841', 10/18/2007, 10:56am. Number 95 of Colorado's highest 100 for me.
Rio Grande Pyramid seen from the summit of Half Peak. We were on the summit of RGP the day before.
Grenadiers.
Handies Peak.
He means business.
The Wilson Group near Telluride on the horizon.
For our descent we headed down the standard south ridge route. Dan balances on the catwalk section.
We did a bit of scrambly running on the ridge when it was solid.
Dan poses on the south ridge with the summit of Half Peak in the background. Also seen back there to the left is Handies Peak.
Dan took this picture. I think you'll agree it's so-so.
Dan also took this photo. You'll notice none of the photos I took include my shadow.
Still on the south ridge with the impressive east cliffs of Half Peak in the backgorund.
The north-facing slopes all looked very snowy.
Running downhill is much easier than running uphill. Therefore, on the descent, we ran.
At the Cataract-Pole Creek saddle. The Hardrock race comes through here. This small lake is pretty much right on the divide.
Cataract Lake in all its fall glory!
Once we got to the northern end of Cataract Gulch we really started running in hopes to make it back to car in a round trip time of less than 6 hours. We failed to meet our goal by 3 minutes but it felt great to stretch out the ol' legs and lungs.
Back at the Sherman aid station but sadly, no aid station. Our round trip time was 6 hours, 3 minutes.
