Blanca Peak: Near The Summit

08/03/2017 By WingsAndTales
I had a fun and successful backpacking trip with COpackrat to get this cache. I was able to drive to 10,100' and then we were on foot from there. My hat's off to anyone who can drive further up that road. The mosquitoes were plentiful with all the rain we have had this year. The cache was in great shape despite it being almost four years since the last find. I was still trying to line up the spoiler photo with the rocks at GZ when COpackrat made the find. Now we need to find an equally challenging cache to drop off the White Jeep TB that we picked up. TFTC

08/03/2017 By COpackrat
Took a little hike with WingsAndTales today to get this cache and a couple of summits. The container and log were in excellent condition, in a nice safe hidey-hole. The weather didn't sock in and graupel, rain, etc. until we were on our way down Ellingwood, and we had a wet walk back from there. Took the white jeep from the cache to drive down to where she left Wild Blue. Thanks for getting me back up here again (?) :-)

07/18/2017 By DrPowercat
It's probably there, but i came up empty.
I rarely give the search much time when above 14,000 feet for obvious reasons. That might explain why I have as many DNFs at that altitude as I do finds.
Made it to the top of my 30th 14er, though. More than makes up for it.

08/18/2013 By estes01
Blanca was the last of the 14ers, with a physical cache on it, for me to do. And what a finish! Not sure about the accuracy of my gps, but it shows 5,790 in elevation gain and 13.5 miles…this includes a backtrack to get the hiking pole I left propped up on a tree. ernie66 just had to do another nearby 14er – Ellingwood – while he was in the area. As it didn't have a cache on it, I wasn't interested…at least that was my excuse.

The road to Lake Como was covered in layers of large, loose river rock and for the first couple of hours we had to use our headlamps to navigate. There is no way I would attempt this road after about 10,480' (Jaws 1) without at least a 3" lift on my jeep and 33" tires. Even then I'm not sure I'd do it. After leaving the campground at Lake Como the trail passes through a wooded area and ends at the very scenic Blue Lakes basin. This would be my first choice for a camping spot if I was doing this hike over two days. The remaining hike was all about the majestic beauty of the 3 surrounding 14ers and navigating the talus, switchbacks and towering cairns until we reached the ridge between Ellingwood and Blanca. After that it was a fun rock scramble along a jagged ridge where ernie66 kept reminding me not to look to my left…into the abyss. We sat and had our lunch right in front of the cache site while we waited for the traffic to clear, signed the log as the 4th cachers since it was placed in July 2010 (you should have left more paper, Vort) and headed to the summit. Fantastic spot for a cache. Thank you.

08/18/2013 By ernie66
It took about 6 hours of hiking for estes01 and me to reach the cache, and at over 13 miles round-trip, one of the longest hikes we've done for just one cache. The hike starts on a very gnarly Jeep road and the starting point of your hike will depend on your vehicle. We reached almost 10,000 feet before encountering an obstacle we didn't feel comfortable driving over in the dark, but there were ATV's, rock-crawlers, and highly modified 4WD vehicles at the end of the road near Blue Lakes. A trail of oil in the center of the road suggests that a recent attempt punctured an oil pan. Even walking, it's not easy because the entire route is loose rocks on steep slopes. The plaque at the so-called "Jaws 2" obstacle was sobering -- it commemorates the death of a Jeeper in 2002 who rolled off the edge there, apparently a frequent occurrence.

The cache is in great shape. We took the two trackables Spivey left in the cache 3 years ago and left a White Jeep TB. It's a quick side trip to the summit of Ellingwood Point, another ranked 14er. Great cache, thanks!