13,662′, 13,616′, 13,598′, 13,872′ & 13,722′
07/13/2026
Class 3
11.19 miles, Total gain: 5,246′, 8h 55m.
Having a chance to grab 5 peaks in a day we headed out on a route that someone had posted on 14ers.com. We made great progress up Carbonate Mountain and the beautiful ridge over to Cronin Peak (tagging Cyclone and Lo Carb on the way). On the summit of Cronin we had a light wind and zero cloud.
The ridge to Grizzly was a slight surprise as we thought the day would be mainly tundra and easy hiking. Apparently not. The ridge turned out to be a fun, if loose, class 3 scramble to descend to a saddle before starting up the boulders that comprise the South East ridge of Grizzly. By the time we reached the saddle clouds had rolled in and were beginning to look menacing. We climbed the ridge as fast as we could, tagged the summit, and beat a hasty retreat into the valley below.
The hike out was through a beautiful basin that is clearly not often traveled. We saw Elk, Grouse, a Moose, and had a hell of a bushwhack to get back to the car, mainly on game trails through forests, with much deadfall, talus fields, and boggy grassland.
