Dallas Peak

12 Aug 2002 - by Paul Wilson

The parking in Telluride is an issue. On Saturday the chain was still blocking the road up Mill Creek to the TH with a lock at both ends of the chain. On the way out one the locks was gone so the chain could be lifted over the post to allow vehicle entry. There are no restrictions for hiking or biking on the road or trails up Mill creek.

If luck is with you and the chain is not locked at one end proceed to the trailhead and replace the chain. Make sure you have a hack saw in case the lock reappears on your way out. I believe the lock that comes and goes is not the sheriffs lock but the land owners lock. I would not cut the sheriffs chain.

If the chain is locked at both ends then drive toward town (EAST) turn right at the Mahoney Dr (SOUTH) and park in the free public parking lot. The other lots or parking places in town are filled due to the festivals that go on each weekend. A full time parking marshal issues the tickets. Use a car shuttle to drop the packs and park the last vehicle 1/2 mile WEST at the first subdivision road and find a dirt lot on the left. This place will hold several vehicles but if it is filled up the owners will take action.

Forget about parking at the Texaco station as the owner is up tight about parking there.

The town will tow any vehicle parked along the road from highway 145 to town according to the town marshal.

If the chain is double locked one can hike directly up/down hill to avoid the long switchback of the vehicle road to save time. In any event walking along the road only adds 30-45 minutes to the backpack to the 11400' camp site.

The best guide to find the N face crack would be Roach & Roach using the "East face" description (testy to follow due to lots of detail). The summit block route is a 25m pitch rated as 5.3. The rappel between the chockstone and the summit block is also 25m so at least a 60m rope is required and that would leave little margin for the steep sloping landing in sand. A small rack is required. I used 3 small stoppers and 2 slcds for the climb and 2 stoppers for the anchor. The rappel anchor has 3 faded 1" webbing with 2 rap rings. It would be good to bring new webbing (take 25 feet ).

On the descent of the E face we use an existing runner for a rappel down the harder section.


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