BETA PHOTO: Devil's Thumb from the West. The route starts fro...
Description
Devils Thumb, Indian Peaks Wilderness Reference: Gerry Roach's Indian Peaks Guide.
Et Cetera: November is probably a bad time of year to pick this climb. When you do go after it (next summer?), make sure you have a good-weather day, because you're above timberline for the entire adventure. There is absolutely no place to hide if the weather gets electric. If you pick the right day, though, you should be in for a long, beautiful excursion.
Getting There
The long, laborious way is to hike in from the Hessie trailhead west of the 'town' of Eldora. That's six miles of trail plus another mile of very steep trail and (then) bushwhacking north along the divide. This might well mandate camping at Devil's Thumb Lake with all those attendant hassles.
The lazier, beautiful, enjoyable way is to drive over Berthoud Pass and continue heading for Winter Park. When a sign presents itself on the right directing you to Rollins Pass, take that road. It's dirt, but is fine for passenger cars as it's never steep (it's the old railroad grade) and is in quite good condition. Park at the summit of the pass. We bivied there.
The Climb: Rope up at the saddle beneath the looming north aspect of the Thumb. Head up past an old pin, left up a ramp, around the corner onto more easy climbing with amazing exposure. Belay on any of several classic ledges. You're on the east side now. Continue the up-and-left-and-up routine across the east face, then step left (onto the south face) onto a ledge with astounding exposure! This will redline your Wow-Meter! Ease up buckets to the ...[more]
By Tim Stich From: Colorado Springs, Colorado Sep 3, 2006
The road on the West side of the Divide out of Winter Park is called Corona Pass Road and is on a brown sign on your right after you start leaving town. From the East side, the road is called Rollins Pass. There is a collapsing tunnel joining the two roads, which is why the pass is closed to cars. From the East you can take a small switchback up just before the closed tunnel. You could sneak through the tunnel, but why do that? It's spooky and dark in there!
You can easily average 15-20 mph in a 4 X 4 on either road and it is 15 miles to the trailhead if you are on Corona Pass. Once at the trailhead, take the High Lonesome trail and go up three rises and go down three alpine grassy meadows. The trail will stay well down from the ridge on your right. Once going down into the third meadow, you'll begin to see the Thumb on your right.
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