San Luis Peak

September 27, 2020 / 14,014’

RT STATS: TOTAL TIME - 6 HR & 14 MIN, 13.62 MILES, AND 3,547’ ELEVATION GAIN

TIME STATS: 3 HR & 22 MIN TO SUMMIT, 22 MIN AT SUMMIT, 2 HR & 30 MIN BACK TO TH

RATING (HOW MUCH I LIKED THE HIKE): 6/10

San Luis Peak was my 21st 14er this year and officially has left me with a remaining 11 of the 58 CO 14ers to complete! This was the third 14er of the weekend. My dad and I stayed in Lake City the night before, since we hiked the nearby Handies Peak. We woke up early and left Lake City at 4:30 am to head over to San Luis Peak (the middle of nowhere). San Luis is a Class 1 14er, but, relatively (compared to other Class 1/Class 2 14ers), not many people come summit the remote San Luis. I had heard that this hike was very pretty, so I was excited to see if it actually was.

We arrived to the trailhead (elevation: ~10,500’) a little after 7 am. This is where the fun begins!!! A few minutes before we started the hike, I reached to grab a water bottle. AND I FORGOT THAT MY PHONE WAS TUCKED BENEATH MY ARM. My phone falls face down and, of course, my phone screen is now cracked. Unfortunately, this is not the most expensive accident to happen this year. At the beginning of August, on my way to Blanca and Ellingwood, I had the pleasure of having a coyote dart in front of my car somewhere south of Pueblo at like 3 am. Both of these events were bad luck….except that the coyote was 100% not my fault….sorry buddy.

Anyways, we left the trailhead at about 7:20 am.

The first few miles of the hike were relatively flat. Awesome.

Around 2 hours in, the elevation gain…and THE WIND started picking up. Once we got above 12,500’ in elevation, the wind just kept getting progressively worse.

Soon enough, we reached the saddle that was at an elevation of a little over 13,100’. There was a peak directly in front of us on this saddle; however, San Luis Peak was to the left (first picture below). I started getting flashbacks from Mt. Princeton. All of the talus once we left the saddle reminded me of Princeton…

The wind was progressively getting worse. But… SUMMIT >>>> AWFUL WIND >:) >:)

3 hours and 22 minutes/6.75 miles later, we reached the 14,014’ summit of San Luis Peak. It was freezing cold and windy. I couldn't move my hands. My hands were so frozen that I had to have my dad open my protein bar wrapper. I gave up on opening it myself after I realized that my hands were not moving and, thus, were of no use... My dad’s sunglasses flew off, but he found them like 15’ below the summit. We had the summit to ourselves, so that was and is always neat. 22 minutes later, we were leaving the summit.

***Correction: When I say that we left the summit, I mean I hauled off the summit. The wind was knocking me down and I wanted to get back down to around 12,000’ or so, so I could chill again. We got back down to around 12,000’ a little over an hour later/the 9.37 mile mark. It was finally not windy and more would be a relatively flat 4+ miles back to the car!

6 hours and 14 minutes/13.62 miles later, we arrived back to the TH, just after 1:30 PM. I’m so excited as you can see in my kristin selfie. 47 14ers for me….yay!!!! 3 14ers this weekend for me (and 4 for my dad). Albeit, it was 3 of the easiest 14ers that I completed this summer, but still an accomplishment! We took the route back through Buena Vista so that we could go to La Casa Sanchez (my idea hehe). I ordered the chicken fajitas as usual. Fun weekend in the San Juans!