Handies Peak

14er,Colorado,Handies Peak,San Juan Mountains, Sloan Lake, Jones Mountain, Niagara Peak, La Plata Mountains
Handies Peak Summit View : Prints Available

Looking southwest from the summit of Handies Peak (14,053 ft.) towards Sloan Lake, Jones Mountain, Niagara Peak, and La Plata Mountains in the far distance.

After a wet rainy week stuck inside the house, by Thursday I’d had enough and decided to get out and hike up Handies Peak, a fourteener here in the San Juans which I haven’t hiked before. Despite the cold wind and nasty looking clouds, I continued up the peak, encouraged by the occasional glimpse of blue sky. Sure enough, as I approached the summit the clouds started clearing off a bit, so I sat up there for a few hours bundled up in my down clothes and waited for sunset – which never really did much, but anyways it wasn’t a bad place to hang out for a while!

14er,Colorado,Handies Peak,San Juan Mountains, Sunshine Peak, Redcloud Peak
Handies Peak Summit Sunset : Prints Available

Fast moving clouds at dusk on the summit of Handies Peak (14,053 ft.).  Redcloud and Sunshine Peaks are two more 14ers visible on the left side horizon.

On a side note, earlier this summer in July, Adam Campbell, a runner in the infamous Hardrock 100 endurance race, was nearly struck by lightning high on Handies. He and his pacer were both knocked off their feet, but otherwise uninjured, and he continued on to finish third place!

One thought on “Handies Peak

  1. Beautiful shot of Sloane Lake and peaks from Handies Peak. The wife and I were going to hike the Matterhorn Creek this summer. But, because we have been there, the wife wanted to do something new. American Basin. What I was wondering, have you hiked the trail heading west from American Basin? From Goggle Earth it looks like there might some good photographs of Jones and Niagara Peaks from the pass.

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