Canby Mountain

Canby Mountain - 4110M

288M Prominence

37.799413 -107.545912

August 3, 2024

Colorado Trail detour

Canby Mountain was probably the most exciting side peak that I climbed along the trail, and it served a purpose too. The original CT directly goes around the base of the mountain in a semi circle, and going up and over virtually made my route a straight shot. The night of the second, I camped at an immense altitude of over 13 thousand feet, my highest camp along the trail, from this point you could already see Canby and the interesting rock tower ridge to it's South East. In the early morning I got up as the sun was rising and made my way down the trail, until getting off near where the scree slope started on the North East ridge. At the scree slope, I slogged my way up, trying to be careful with my foot placement not to slide down. The scree got progressively steeper until it started to morph into more of a boulder field with some pieces of more solid rock. The rock was extremely unpredictable though, and some of it came loose the minute you grabbed it. I tried to keep good contact on the rock in case a foot or hand gave out. The scramble was fun though, and boy was it worth it once I pulled myself onto the summit. The early morning golden sun was casting an incredible shadow of Canby across the mountains to the West, and the views were immaculate all the way around. The knife edge South East ridge looked very daunting from above. The descent was a bit of a guessing game, as I never had a visual of what it may look like ahead of time. Based on the topo maps, I essentially drew a straight line down the other side and made my way down. I was soon met with an interesting selection of gulleys that cut through and stood up out of the huge scree field on this side of the peak. I felt comfortable enough threading my way through one of them, but the small scree beads on the gulley floor made it a complete slide. I made it down unscathed, then ran down the remaining scree before connecting back into the CT. Later on I found out that There was a simple class 2 route up the West side of Canby, but that's no fun.

Camping the night before with Canby in the background

Canby on the way up at sunrise

The steep scree and boulder slope I ascended 
on the East ridge

On the summit

Looking down the jagged South East ridge

Looking North from the summit

Incredible summit views at sunrise, with the ridge casting a shadow below

Looking down the gulley I descended, a slide
of scree feeding the huge scree slope below

Canby Mountain route