T1 & T2

Date: 8/29/2024
Partner: Solo
Trailhead: Yankee Boy Basin
Summits:
T1
T2
T4 (Attempt)
Distance: 5.1 Miles
Elevation Gain: 3450ft
Duration: 8hrs 30min
GPX

T1 14ers.com Page
T2 14ers.com Page

I hiked to the southern side of the Gilpin/Sneffels ridge and descended west down steep loose terrain on the north side of the Block Tops above Blue Lakes. The descent was filled with baby heads that seemed prone to slide... can't say I enjoyed it. If you take this route maybe do it with snow or take the trail from Blue Lakes Pass proper.

At the bottom of the slope I traversed talus and climbed the gully that leads to the T1/T2 saddle. This gully is steeper than it looks from a distance and is filled with hard pan and loose rock. Ascending it without snow was sketchy and I can't say I would do it again. I was concerned about having to descend it... but up I went.

From the T1/T2 saddle I climbed T1 and then traversed over to T2 looking for other descent options along the way. I found a much friendlier gully about 100ft below T2's summit. This gully was softer with sand and mud and even had some glory surfing lower down.

Back in the basin on the north side of the Block Tops my plan was to retrace my steps back to the truck in Yankee Boy.

However when I found myself below the steep slope on the west side of the Sneffels/Gilpin ridge I was not excited about climbing it. Thats when I had a random neural firing and climbed to the T4/Gilpin saddle to check out T4.

The gully to that saddle looked pretty awful but it didn't seem like I had any good options. So up I went. The climb to the T4/Gilpin saddle was pretty bad... but not as bad as the one I had done earlier to T1/T2. I won't being doing either again without snow.

When I arrived at the T4/Gilpin saddle, the steep loose mess that is T4's eastern aspect presented itself. I thought 'surely I am not going to climb that'. So I traversed a loose ledge on the south side of T4 looking for other options. Not finding anything I gingerly returned to the saddle.

After two suboptimal gully climbs I wasn't sure if I wanted more sketch... but here I was. After some hemming and hawing off I went up T4.

Sometimes rock quality is better than it looks, but not in this case. T4's east aspect is probably the worst rock I have been on and a fall would not be good. I turned on my InReach. Don't trust anything on this peak.

After carefully climbing a few short sketchy pitches, I found myself on more manageable terrain. However I began to contemplate the down climb and thought that maybe I shouldn't be up here solo without any information. I poked around a bit looking for ascent options to the summit. However I didn't see anything obvious (at least that I would want to down climb) and I decided to call it a day and head back down... yikes!

The down climb was precarious, slow and careful. On the way down I noticed two pitons with some rotten webbing. Damn... I should have brought my Rad Line... next time!

I was happy when the down climb was over and I headed up to Gilpin's northwest gully and made my way back to the truck.

Although there were some stressful moments, the day was a success. I now had first hand knowledge on the lay of the land and the quality of the rock.

When I got home that evening, I pulled up Boggy's Mountain Project report, and read it for the first time. Damn... I was so close to T4's summit and I had covered most of the sketchy terrain. I should have read it beforehand! Thanks again for the write-up and feedback on this report Boggy!

Before attempting the traverse I really wanted to climb T4 on it's own and get a view of the X-Traverse.

A week later Kristi and I returned with two 30m Rad Lines and some webbing. Details from our day can be found in my T4 report.