Hike Mountain Boy Peak White River National Forest, CO

Aug 05, 2023 — For the second time this year my friend Jason roped me into running a race with him, this time in Aspen CO. Although I dreaded spending any time in the fancy little money town, we ended up having a lot of fun and were done by mid-morning. After learning that Jason had never been to Colorado before and with most of a day to kill, I very firmly suggested we bag a peak. I was happily surprised he didn't push back, so off we went to Independence Pass for a quick outing, both of us psyched to add more mileage to our caffeine-fueled post-race legs. Mountain Boy Peak is a 13er just south of the pass, so we weren't surprised to see our trail ahead dotted with hikers. Most of them were headed to the first bump along the trail to get a slightly better view, while fewer ventured farther to Igloo Peak, an unranked lump just over 13,000 feet. Mountain Boy Peak's summit itself sees far fewer visitors for reasons that would become apparent to us soon.

The first mile or so follows an old doubletrack road converted to trail, narrowing to singletrack as it ascends slowly up to a false summit of Igloo Peak. After a dip along the ridgeline we were ascending to Igloo Peak. Along the way we passed some cool volcanic rocks just on the north side of Igloo Peak, but the trail wraps around them without difficulty. On the summit of Igloo Peak, I assured Jason there was still more to come, but I had neglected to research what the approach for Mountain Boy Peak would be like. Put plainly, the terrain to get down from Igloo Peak was garbage.

We started directly east off Igloo Peak on Class 2+ terrain with some light exposure. The crest became a loose mess, but a social trail led us south through some deep scree. We wanted to get back to the ridge as soon as possible, but we wanted to first avoid a particularly steep section of hardpan slope, so we continued descending along this scree trail until an easier move avoided the sketchier stuff. A faint social trail contoured us to the saddle separating Igloo Peak from Mountain Boy Peak. I felt bad. This was Jason's first peak in CO, so I hoped it wouldn't leave a poor impression, but he assured me it was fine and a cool experience. I vowed to try to find a better route on the way back.

A social trail continued toward Mountain Boy Peak, ascending diagonally along its western slope. We enjoyed the views toward the looming Grizzly Peak and down toward the bright Grizzly Reservoir. At a certain point the trail didn't seem to be ascending quite to the summit, so we headed up the tundra to Mountain Boy Peak. Unfortunately, I had to interrupt our summit enjoyment due to an approaching dark cloud, despite Jason's clear excitement for the stellar views.

We backtracked to the saddle. I noted that we could just drop off the ridge and use the tundra on the northeast side of Igloo Peak to return, but a social trail piqued my curiosity. It led just below the steep nonsense of Igloo Peak's north face. Rather than drop significant elevation, we agreed to try this route. Overall it was far better than our descent from Igloo Peak earlier, but still not much fun. The slope was angled steeply enough that it felt dangerous at times, and the social trail wasn't defined enough for us to feel confident the route would lead us safely back to the ridge, but it did. A couple of steeper sections pushed us into Class 2+ territory. It wasn't really scrambling, but certainly dangerous. We made our way to the large volcanic boulders we passed on the way up to Igloo Peak earlier and located the approach trail. In hindsight, I'm still not sure what the best way to reach Mountain Boy Peak from Independence Pass might be, but it could be worth bypassing Igloo Peak completely by using the tundra on its northeast side to reach the ridge below Mountain Boy Peak.