All Locations > Colorado > Alpine Rock > Indian Peaks > Indian Peaks Traverses

Continental Divide Tour

Name: Continental Divide Tour
Rating: 4.0

Easy 5th YDS 1+ French 3 Ewbanks I UIAA 5 ZA M 1c British

Routes in Indian Peaks Traverses

	Audubon-Arapaho Traverse T Easy 5th 1+ 3 I 5 M 1c
	Blue Lake Traverse (Aka the JV Traverse) T 4th 1 2 I 2 M 1b
	Continental Divide Tour T Easy 5th 1+ 3 I 5 M 1c
	LA Freeway (Long's to Arapaho Traverse) T Easy 5th 1+ 3 I 5 M 1c
	You're So Vrain T 4th 1 2 I 2 M 1b

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Type:	Trad, Alpine, Grade V
FA:	Long Ranger, Aug. 2020
Page Views:	1,707 total · 29/month
Shared By:	Oak Nelson on Sep 4, 2020
Admins:	Leo Paik, John McNamee, Frances Fierst, Monty, Monomaniac, Tyler KC Page Updates (admin only)

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Explore this route in 3D

Use onX Backcountry to explore the terrain in 3D, view recent satellite imagery, and more. Now available in onX Backcountry Mobile apps! For more information see this post.

Access Issue: Closed Area - City of Boulder Watershed Details

Parts of the continental divide between Navajo and S Arapaho fall inside the City of Boulder's Silver Lake Watershed, whose boundary crosses and re-crosses the divide in multiple places. In theory the watershed is a closed area, but the W boundary isn't marked, and in practice the City doesn't restrict access to peaks on the divide such as S Arapaho, N Arapaho and Navajo, even though their summits or parts of their approaches are inside the watershed. It's unclear if they have a policy for other peaks on the divide but inside the watershed such as Arikaree and Deshawa. Peaks that are well to the E of the divide such as Albion and Kiowa are clearly off-limits.

Watershed boundary map: caltopo.com/map.html#ll=40.…

Description

Inspired by the Pfiffner Traverse and variations thereof, this route features the complete ridge traverse from Trail Ridge Road (RMNP) to Rollins Pass Road (just south of IPWA.) Staying as close as practical to the continental divide the entire time, this route features ~40 summits over ~60 miles, with ~28,000 feet of elevation gain at an average elevation of ~12,400 feet. As adventures go, this is as good as it gets on the Front Range.

Large sections of the route are easy hiking/running/scrambling across tundra and scree fields; however, numerous exposed 4th and low 5th-Class cruxes do exist, with optional harder variations. Because of this, the recommended direction of travel is North to South. Some of the most beta-intensive sections are listed here in order of appearance (though much additional, unlisted and exposed 3rd/4th-Class terrain exists):

McHenry's notch: 5.4.
Isolation notch: 5.6? (beta available here).
North face of Paiute Peak: 5.3?
North face of Mt. Toll: 5.6 (or low 5th bypass).
Kasparov Traverse bypass: 4th/low 5th (difficult route finding).
North face of Navajo Peak: 4th (beta available here).
Deshawa: low 5th (beta available here).
North ridge of Arapahoe: 4th (beta available here).

Much of the route of the route follows shorter traverses, with detailed beta available here: LA Freeway and Audubon to Arapahoe.

Water and weather can both be an issue, so be sure to plan accordingly. The full traverse took me three full days, though I'm sure both that some can do it in half the time and that some would rather take double.

A downloadable GPX track can be found here: https://caltopo.com/m/RN24.