TR: Bookend Couloir, North Traverse Peak (13,035’), Gore Range, 2.9.07
Trip Report: iskibc
JP, iskibc
Aerial view of the Gore Range in October:
Photo taken by John Spencer.
The Gore Range was named after Sir St. George Gore, a wealthy Irishman who organized a hunting expedition through the Colorado Rockies in the mid 1880s. He was guided by the famous mountain man and storybook frontier Jim Bridger, who showed St. George the beautiful and awe inspiring peaks of the southern Gore Range and lush greens covering the Vail Valley. During their hunting and trapping expedition, they encountered many challenges, with one of them being travel through the Gore Range.
One of the first documented maps of the Gore, 1933:
There is nothing “easy” about this mountain range. Nothing. Long in-and-out approaches with little-to-no trail system and lots of vertical gain (8K-13K+) through rugged and steep terrain make any trip into the Gore a challenging yet rewarding experience. There are 13 trailheads that access the Gore Range. For a small area you think the place would be overrun by skiers, climbers, backpackers, day hikers, peak baggers, etc. That’s not quite the case. Most trails dissipate after the first 2 miles or so, leaving one with a thick and adventurous bushwhack the rest of the way.
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