My climbing at the Bottomless Pit, June 2021.
Dear friend,
I offer you a number of photo albums with a brief description and an associated music clips. Don't judge me harshly.
1. The red tent.
As usually, I was camping in the mountains solo. This tent is good enough just for a summer because it's waterproof ability is below average. Nevertheless, it is cheap and very light.
Click to view
https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/mgADF3exRAy9L99PmY1YBA.A_QO49vuGrT9BHBoxKO8zk
Bonus track:
2. The couloirs of the North wall of the Bottomless Pit.
The lowest and the easiest couloirs of the Bottomless Pit 400 - 500 ft. up from the camp, i.e. to 12100 ft. above sea level; mostly loose rock, loose rock with stones, and rock rubble somewhere. I climbed them for the warming up to be sure that I'm in a good shape and to remind my climbing experience.
My biggest fun.
I climbed up the couloir, crawled through the rubble, and saw an alpine meadow at the top. I threw my backpack under a big rock, took off my seat and hat, and sat down to rest under the shady rock. At that moment, the Samsung Galaxy Watch beeps on my hand and reminds me: isn't it time to warm up?
https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/Etjq6fxORn26YI8ezvtoDA.6a1qCbGYM8HyLG2ITJ0cZC
3. The alpine meadows of the North wall.
Just walking and and enjoying relaxing meditative landscapes...
https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/zfZDM6jAQrWM2N9wbb-pBA.wC22GIynor4oJAPAO97VKt
4. On the North wall of the Bottomless Pit.
One could climb higher by the North wall. There no couloirs on the high part, so I dropped the camera bag under the rock, took just the camera with the extra wide lens on, even without the lens cup, and took an easy walk on the ridge being stopped with some rock wall. It is definitely climbable, but that time I was in a relaxing mood. Observe the landscapes of the Bottomless Pit as well as the forest and rock of the Cirque valley on the other side for the ridge. One can see Cirque from a very different point of view when summiting the Pikes Peak by the Barr's trail.
https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/QE9iv6zsRNuW47eysWTpyg.OZrx_2zcyp36dgbT94OY4B
Bonus: the Cirque from the Barr's Trail.
https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/Ee9PTUpeRfKLj9T7kYNS5w.cLQ-pIHUnPKWiWOyjFJFPl
5. Traversing above the Railroad couloir and climbing the familiar ~14k rock.
My biggest scare.
I went to the southern slope on the morning of June 22. The flocks of F-16s from the local airbase occasionally plowed the clear skies; being in the valley, one could see and hear them from afar. I was choosing between the Railroad couloir and the Y-couloir. Both were partially blocked by melting snow with streams running from underneath. I really did not want to test alone the weight-carrying capacity of the snow and, potentially, its depth; besides, I had nothing of my snow-climbing gear with me. Finally, I decided to go not by the Railway couloir itself, but traverse left-side over it. At first I only gained height on the rush, then the ascent became more fun. After the long climb, I went out under the big wall and had a rest before the last ascent to the rock. I've been on this rock four years before. This time there were no reason to try a pass over it to the Barr's Trail on the other side - I had to go back anyway; so I took a few shots, took the camera bag off and was ready to climb up empty-handed, just in the gloves and hard hat on. Once again - I was under the wall south of me, but already very close to the local summit, ~ 4 km above the sea level. At that moment an F-16 flew above me from behind the rock. Since the wall blocked the jet rumbling from the south, I heard it... no, I filled it as a rocks and air vibration with my whole body when the fighter was right above me, and it flew lower than they did in the morning...
https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/nSnwO-9FTvuxGSqALEj9jg.eA_0HwzWRlSOrhVJOPgbIu
6. Waterfalls of the Bottomless Pit.
The waterfalls begin literally from the source of South Fork French Creek and continue downward in a cascade. Streams of meltwater gurgle up the mountain slopes as they emerge from under the snow tongues. In the valley they quickly disappear from view, diving under the sand, and surface after a hundred or two hundred meters. For this reason, the water filter at the end of Bottomless Pit is simply unnecessary: what is there to filter in the meltwater that will not be filtered out by a natural hundred-meter-long filter? Below, more and more separate streams from different slopes merge to form a rather large creek. The rumble of the waterfalls can be heard along the entire length of the creek, just you leave the forest on the way to the end of the Bottomless Pit. You can admire them up close, as far as I'm concerned - there's a lot to admire; it's also good to take a shower in them.
https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/Lqfuw2BvScOF6DAi4XWlFQ.VibLMMoUgd5qUUZWQhqsLe
P.S. I didn't pay much attention to the waterfalls this time, but there are photo albums from previous hikes.
https://flic.kr/s/aHsm5Mva55
https://flic.kr/s/aHskwGaxUB
https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/stPf-fD0Ti2XcvdcVq6tjQ._2cj49G1loinAg1DrNPKWn
7. The flowers of the Bottomless Pit and Barr's Trail.
Surprisingly, this time for a five days in the mountains I've seen neither deer nor mountain goats - no any live creature bigger than a marmot. Therefore my attention was switched to Flora. Most of the pictures has been taken on the way back home, i.e., on the Barr's Trail; some in the valley and on the slopes.
Rose bushes.
https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/rCfPhJ8eQqOAAHfW-mqGyw.0jL34gEAJLq9wc73r6GQKI
Wild rose-bushes, white.
https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/MU43JNiwSHmFcg0TA--lBQ.PglGyQt1lqZWfAW8F33wZj
Wild flowers yellow.
https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/AQOkckPIQNKFPYwWStHnGQ.gL0miNMZ_HgWa2R-gHpunf
Wild flowers blue.
https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/3RU5BmRFTmK0AA-rAWosGA.IWHJjtPqrY8OfbmDzx0CLX
Assorted flowers: Bottomless Pit and downhills of the Pikes Peak.
https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/KG4LAFDzSX66luI5DIpynA.cljnKMnmzk6YKgRG4DEz1o
8. On the way down.
I really missed two more days in my favorite valley: one to relax after one day of ten miles hike up and three days of climbing, and one more day to climb the West wall; nevertheless, my food was already over, and the computer was waiting for me in the city after repair. See you next time, dear mountains! You need just to call me.
https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/GZu3LgojR2qVHD3v4x6yHg.MR0UlqRrPmpvk3cCr7o6a4
9. Pikes Peak Cog Railway in Manitou Springs.
The trail was over... Another options to go to the summit of Pikes Peak are to go by car of by the cog train. I used them both, but not this time.
https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/bzKQQydaTomys-klOge8uQ.zlBpTvy1oAzB2Qwda4dsUY