Pico Aislado & Milwaukee

From Lower Sand Creek: Milwaukee + Pico Aislado + PT13020: 12.5mi / 6750ft / 9 hours(estimate)

Robby hiking north in the basin that leads to the Milwaukee saddle. Although our route was lower we had to go to the saddle for the amazing views of South Colony Lakes.

Crestone Needle, Humboldt and South Colony Lakes.

We scrambled up class 3 ramps and ledges to the low point on the saddle above

Alex crossing a sketchy ledge with massive exposure

Alex exploring potential routes up. I wanted to climb the gully just ahead but we end up climbing steeper rock just before that to avoid more down climbing.

Not sure if we picked the easiest route to the summit. This stuff felt like low class 5. Robby carefully climbs Crestone Conglomerate with patches of grass and prickles mixed in.

Big exposure

Alex closing in on the summit. Upper Sand Creek Lake below

Topping out Pico Aislado appears

Summit Celebration with Pico

Crestone views!

Music and Tijeras. We had wondered if Music's north ridge to Milwaukee goes. Looks like it does!

Alex approaching Pico. We would climb the black crack that goes straight up the middle of Pico's east face

Alex climbing the gully on Pico's east face

Robby climbing the gully on Pico's east face

Summit Celebration with the Crestones

Robby descending Pico's south ridge towards PT13020

Looking back at Pico from the 13020 saddle

Mountain Hunk ponders if he is more good looking than the Crestones

After summiting PT13020 Alex hikes to the Tijeras - Music saddle. The climb to this saddle was steeper than it initially looked.

On the upper meadows of Tijeras... Robby looks for the class 3 down climb through the cliffs. We followed our GPS track from the day before.

Robby down climbing the Tijeras cliffs

Alex down climbing the Tijeras cliffs

Hiking through the meadows back to camp at Lower Sand Creek Lake

Oh what a send off... Tijeras on the drive out

Crestones on the drive out

Amazing views in the Wet Mountain Valley south of Westcliffe