I was a little nervous approaching the Citadel to Pettingell Peak traverse. Most the route has a technical difficulty of Class 3-4 which is in line with what I’ve been doing lately. However, there’s one cliff on the ridge traverse that is rated 5.4 (technical climbing) that I’d have to downclimb or rappel. I was bringing a rope, harness and anchor slings to deal with this section. So why was I nervous?
Vertigo is sometimes described not as a fear of heights but a fear that you won’t be able to stop yourself from jumping. I’ve never had issues with vertigo (not since I was young anyways), but I was worried that I may try to downclimb the crux and not rappel it.
I left the Herman Gulch trailhead about 5:30 am and started hiking by headlamp up the trail towards Herman Lake. I’d been this way 2 months prior, back when the trail was still covered with snow and a group of us with the CMC climbed the Citadel. Now the trail was dry and the weather looked good for a long ridge traverse.
At the junction with the CDT and Herman Lake trails, I left both options and headed off-trail for the upper valley staying just below Herman Lake. The travel was a little harder now than 2 months ago when snow had nicely covered all the willows. But up ahead I could see the Citadel.
Instead of climbing the central couloir that splits the two summits, I headed to the east ridge of the mountain and climbed up to a saddle below the peak. Then I turned right and followed grassy slopes initially.
The few gendarmes on the ridge were easily avoided, however the guidebook I was referencing showed someone climbing one of the spires “Because it was there.” I decided to do the same, but found the rock a little loose and not as fun as I’d hoped.
With some anxious thoughts I looked north at the ridge between Citadel and Pettingell. I could pick out the crux cliff, waiting for my decision.
The south summit of the Citadel soon came into view and and I traversed right below the initial cliff and found a gully that brought me nearly to the summit.
To the east I cast a covetous eye on Hagar Mountain, another peak I’ll have to climb one of these days.
From the south summit I cast another weary eye on the ridge traverse then headed for the north summit.
On the north summit I found an abandoned water bottle. Both times I climbed this mountain I’ve packed out a little trash from the summit. Last time I had a moment of instant karma and immediately found a part of my camera I’d dropped after pocketing the trash. I hoped the water bottle would have similar luck for me.
I started off on the ridge, finding the climbing solid and fun. The view back at the Citadel’s twin summits was also impressive.
Soon I came to the crux and found two separate rappel anchors other climbers had left.
I decided to use the lower one since I only had a 30 meter rope, and doubled it should just reach the base of the cliff.
The blue webbing on this anchor looked in horrible shape. I cut it out and replaced it with some black webbing I was carrying. The old webbing was in even worse shape than I’d thought, as one section was down to just a few strands of nylon. There was only one rappel ring, so I backed it up with a short loop of tied cord.
With the anchor fixed up, I tossed the ends of my rope and verified that they hit the base of the cliff. Then I suited up into my harness and rigged my rappel device and a backup autoblock cord. The rappel went smoothly and I was soon at the bottom ready to pull my rope down.
With the crux dispatched, I could relax and enjoy the little class 3 climbing remaining before the ridge turned into a simple walk.
About 9:20 I arrived on top of Pettingell Peak. One other hiker and a dog greeted me, the first people I’d seen all day. We chatted and picked out peaks all round us from the Front Range to the Tenmile, Sawatch, Elk and Gore ranges. After about 20 minutes we all left the summit. They headed directly down to Herman Lake while I continued my ridge traverse, following the continental divide with more class 3 scrambling on Pettingell’s east ridge.
Ahead I could pick out Hassell Peak, a ranked 13′er further along the divide that I planned to add to my day.
Pettingell’s east ridge turned out to be a fun scramble as well. Some of the difficulties would have been easily bypassed on the south side of the ridge, but I stayed as much on the ridge crest as possible.
Soon the ridge flattened out and I met up with the Continental Divide Trail which I followed to Hassell Peak.
I greeted one other hiker on this summit and we chatted for a while then agreed the weather didn’t look like it would hold much longer. We parted and I decided to follow the CDT back into Herman Gulch.
Looking at my watch, I thought it was possible that I could get back to the trailhead by 12:30p. That would be a 7 hour day, the exact time estimate my guidebook had for the Citadel to Pettingell traverse alone. Ego driven, I decided to jog portions of the trail back to ensure a sub 7 hour day.
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