Climb Mt Audubon - Indian Peaks Wilderness, Colorado:
August 3 2006
Mt Audubon as seen from Brainard Lake (10,300ft). Audubon is the big sucker on the right.
Next left is Paiute Peak then Mount Toll and Pawnee Peak which I hiked the previous Saturday.
A close up of Audubon's summit 13,223ft.
Unfortunately this was going to be a race against time. I started climbing at 9.17am which is too late.
Thunderstorms are forecast for 12.30pm. So I set myself the test of summiting no later than 11.30am only two hours away.
But I have to climb 2,730ft starting at 10,500ft!
At 11.17am I finish climbing the 500ft talus slope and stand at the top of the long north-south summit ridge.
I don't need to say anything about this view.
The view across to Paiute Peak. But as predicted the clouds are in coming fast.
We have to scoot!
Tree line is about 2,000ft below. The summit ridge and the talus slope are very exposed. I am worried about lightning.
I advise each group I meet still coming up the talus slope, to turn around. I am pretty experienced in these mountains.
Postscript: We all got down safe and sound. There was thunder and lightning on some of the nearby mountains but we only had
a few spots of rain and some fog. The forecast was amazingly accurate with the weather clearing
mid afternoon before closing in again, in the late afternoon and evening. I had no time for photographs.
Lightning kills more climbers in the summer Colorado mountains than any other cause.
August 4, 2006.
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