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Warning- this is a trip report for those at the beginner to intermediate 14er quest stage (like myself). If you are bagging peaks like the Tetons, you might want to skip this read (unless you want some bed time material ).
I discarded the idea of South Maroon this weekend. With all the recent info. on how there is still snow up there I just didn't have the guts or the commitment to make the 8+ hour drive and potentially have to turn around near the summit. I was ready to try something harder than the class 2 Sawatch I have been doing, but South Maroon is probably still out of my league just now.
So anyway this Wetterhorn is a great mountain! I haven't done any class 3 yet this year (and I've never tackled class 4), so this was pretty exciting. Also, I get a bit freaked out by exposure, so my adrenaline was definitely flowing. But for those of you like minded folks, take heart. This one is not so bad. If I can do it, you can do it.
I drove up yesterday from Albuquerque - about 7 hours in the car! It's really pretty though. I forgot how great the drive is along the Rio Grande past South Fork and on up to Creede and Lake City. I was able to make it to 1.4 miles past the Capitol City town site. The road is great to Capital City (site of former City) for passenger cars. You can really cruise (20mph or so). At Capitol City, the road gets steep and rough, one of those where the speedometer doesn't even register forward car motion. But our Legacy wagon made it to about 0.2 miles past the Uncompahgre National Forest Boundary sign. There were three big rocks in the road here that looked sketchy. I probably could have angled right and made it (in case you want to try). I backpacked in to about a quarter mile past the four wheel drive parking area. There is a nice primitive site here. There is another nice site about another 1/4 to 1/2 mile up the trail (both sites are right along the trail, which runs on the east side of Matterhorn Creek).
Why I set the alarm for 2am I don't know. I guess I was thinking about when I'll be doing Longs in 3 weeks. So I snoozed until 4 and was on the trail by 5am. There is a right turn (east) about 1/2 mile from the 4 wheel drive parking area - someone put a piece of tape here that says "Wetterhorn - go right - really!" It's confusing because the trail that goes straight here has "Wetterhorn" in it's name too, but you really go right. You can actually see Wetterhorn from here (if it is light enough) peaking above a massive mesa to the north.
The trail is well marked all the way to the southeast ridge at 13,000 feet. From here I stayed on or just to climber's left of the ridge all the way to the big "ship's prow" formation near the summit (13,700 feet ?). I took my time and kept the difficulty at class 3 or less (my class 3 may be other's class 2). There's some exposure, but not too bad. The route was dry.
I went around to the right of the "prow". Immediately on the other side of the "prow" I turned left through a small well cairned notch. It's pretty obvious. As soon as I crossed over this notch I could see the summit route. You cross the notch and look right and there it is. It's pretty steep and some parts were wet, but if you take your time it's really not much worse than a steep staircase. And there seem to be plenty of somewhat flatter areas where you can rest and reasses your next move. The whole route is maybe 200 vertical feet (if that?). After what seems like less than half way up I found it was more comfortable (vertigo wise) to traverse 20 feet or so to climber's left. There's another ditch here that you can go up. Or (like me) you can go right up a solid ridge in between the two ditches. This ridge was steeper than the ditches, but somehow it felt more comfortable, because it was dry and because it had these big vertical tooth like rocks that said "grab on buddy!" Of course, you might want to test those holds yourself as San Juan rock is notoriously fickle.
I was so worried and focused on the route, I couldn't believe it when suddenly there I was at the summit. It was quite a thrill to stand on top. There were several others who came up after 20 minutes or so. Everyone agreed it was a great day! People commented on how great the San Juan scenery is. I never noticed before, but I think it really is unique. There seem to be more of these gigantic mesa like formations that tower above you like massive monuments as you head up the trail. Then when you get to the summit you look down on all these crazy mossy carpeted monuments plus you see the backdrop of spectacularly shaped peaks in almost every direction.
Coming down was perhaps a bit more anxiety provoking, but I went slow and was able to feel in control the whole time. I got down to near the 13,000 foot ridge and started to relax. So I promptly set my fanny pack down only to watch it roll about 50 feet down the west side of the ridge! Fortunately, the ridge is not so steep at this point and I was able to retrieve it easily.
On the way out I noticed Matt Esser's name in the registry for the day before. Wonder if he'll be posting soon...
Happy Trails |
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