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Red MountainJuly 4, 2009 - Ascent via Northwest Ridge from summit of Culebra PeakBefore starting into the narrative proper, a Thank You is in order for the owners and staff of the Cielo Vista Ranch. But for their willingness to offer the climbing community access to the ranch, the opportunity to climb Red Mountain would not be available to the vast majority of folks seeking to climb the "centennial" peaks. For the doubters, I'll readily and strongly opine that the fee for the climb is more than reasonable, given the superior quality of the resource to which climbers are granted access. That said, I'll say Thank You to the Cielo Vista Ranch, Bobby Hill, Carlos, Carole, and all the other individuals and organizations, whose efforts allowed me the chance to climb both Culebra and Red Mountain. My ascent of Red Mountain was combined with my climb of Culebra Peak, beginning at the summit of Culebra. My climb of Culebra, my last 14'er is covered in detail in the Culebra narrative, which provides a description of the trip as a whole and the approach and retreat from its summit. At present, the only route to the summit of Red Mountain, excepting routes requiring trespass across other ranch lands, is the Northwest Ridge. Our group of five stood atop Culebra for no more than five or seven minutes before moving off to traverse to the slopes of Red Mountain. The clouds were not yet an issue but the day had all the ingredients for thunderstorms, perhaps sooner than later. Red Mountain and Culebra are very different peaks. For every ridge aspect of 14'er Culebra, Red Mountain has an opposite hulking mound characteristic. The ridge from Culebra's summit drops, steeply at first, and then more sedately until intermediate point 13,599 must be climbed or skirted before
We dropped back down the flank of Red Mountain and again crossed atop Pt. 13599 and then started on back up Culebra's flank for the second arrival at its summit. A bit of fatigue was showing here and there as our group spread out a bit over the course of the ascent, but we all arrived at the summit within a minute or two from first to last. The trip back took a bit longer but I'd say that our whole trek to and fro Red Mountain took little more than 90 minutes. Overall, a good solid group, no doubt about that. If you choose to climb Culebra, I'd add Red Mountain onto the trip, it is a Centennial, a peak of different character, and it lengthens a climbing day that might otherwise come and go in 4 hours. Our plan was to be off the two by the noon twitching hour and, even with a 6:30 start, there was plenty of time for both peaks.
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