I wanted to get my wife more experience with snow climbing. We’ve done a few short and easy snow climbs in the past, but I wanted to get her experience on a more traditional, snow climb in a narrow couloir. With Dylan being a excellent climber and teacher, I asked that he come along to help coach. Then Dylan’s dad later was added to the team.

So after a concert the night before, which we all attended, it was a early 3:30am wakeup call the next morning to get to the climb while the snow was in good shape.

The couloir we picked was the Independence Couloir on American Peak. American Peak is 13,814’ high, but low compared to neighboring peaks like Handies Peak (14k+). The Independence Couloir is rated moderate and just edges over 40 degrees in steepness.

We drove to Silverton and unloaded the side-by-side for the drive over Cinnamon Pass and down to the American Basin/Handies Peak trailhead.

We started the hike just before 7am. The trail was mostly melted out at first, but soon we encountered a few drifts, then snowfields and eventually mostly snow. We made our way to Sloan Lake on the Handies Peak trail. After climbing over some moraine above the lake, we could finally see the couloir. It looked steep and doable, so we headed up some easy snow slopes to the base. At the base we donned crampons and started up the couloir. The climbing was never too difficult and the snow was pretty good, but the snow was just hard enough too keep you on your toes.

Soon we reached a saddle just west of the peak. The ridge was bare, so we took off the crampons and headed up the remaining 200 feet to the summit on a use-trail.

The summit had amazing views! The Grenadier and Needle Ranges to our south and the Sneffels range to our northwest gave us incredible mountain views! The day was perfect, with full sun and little breeze. After enjoying the summit, it was time to get down before the snow turned to mush.

We stopped at the top of the gully and donned our crampons again. I won’t lie, I was intimidated looking down the steep snow slope. However, my wife just went for it. After 2 or 3 minutes, the edge wore off and it wasn’t bad at all. Soon we were back at the lake and into hiking mode.

Dylan and John headed for Handies Peak, while Carrie and I headed for the trailhead. At the trailhead, we napped, enjoyed the scenery and snapped photos.

Turned out to be an excellent day in a beautiful area with great company!

We drove over Cinnamon Pass to the end of the road in American Basin. This is a popular trailhead, for the 14er Handies Peak. This road is a rugged, steep 4x4 road. There are narrow ledges, creek crossings, steep switchbacks, etc. Only proceed if you have high-clearance and good tires!

See the GPS track for details. We basically took the Handies Trail to Sloan Lake. From Sloan Lake, the Independence Couloir is the broad gully just right (west) of American Peak. Once you top out of the gully, turn climber’s left and ascend the peak on a climber’s trail through the talus.