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Culebra Peak

Hiking Culebra was a very unique experience. Since it is on private property, the ranch controls access to it, which changes things a bit. We drove in Saturday and built a fire ring and made burgers while watching the sunset. In the morning, everyone drove up the 4x4 road to the trailhead together. Matt and I split off the defined trail (which is preferred here to preserve the tundra) and headed up the slope to gain the ridge. I was really looking forward to the view up there, but the clouds had rolled in by that point and there were no views. We reached the summit in good time and with company (including my new marmot friend) and stayed a bit to chat and rest. Shortly after starting down again, the hail started coming down as well. Then we ran into a small group that had gotten turned around and a little lost and we tried to steer them correctly down the mountain. The intense cloud coverage made it pretty hard to see, but we just kept going down what seemed to be the trail. Then we passed an obvious landmark that none of us remembered seeing on the way up and things got more tense. Next another group joined us, and we concluded we had gone astray. Then there was a crack of thunder and we got a little more nervous. We pulled out the maps however, and figured out where we were and where we needed to go. It was pretty cool to see a group of strangers come together to get us out of this situation. We moved across the mountain as one big group now until the clouds parted just enough to show us that we were on the right track. We all gained the ridge again and took a big sign of relief. Matt and I headed toward the snow field for a fun glissade and quick decent from the mountain. The others joined in and we all had a blast sliding on our butts. A great end to a fun adventure.

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