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Wetterhorn Pk. via SE Ridge from Matterhorn Creek TH and Matterhorn Pk. via S. Slopes.
9 miles, 4,600 feet (estimates).
Climbers: Steve Hoffmeyer, Chris Junda
This was a Lake City weekend for Stevo and I. It's been a couple years since I've been down there. A beautiful area but a long drive from Denver. We left Friday afternoon and made it down there and found a good camping spot about a mile from the 2WD TH by 7 PM. Got camp set up, had some food and hit the sack when it got dark.
Up early Saturday (4AM). Got camp packed up, drove up to the 4WD TH and were hiking up the trail with our headlamps by 5:15 AM. We proceeded up the Matterhorn Creek trail and managed to miss the right turn for the trail to Wetterhorn in the dark. We knew the drainage we needed, so we just headed up there and after a short bushwack we found the Wetterhorn trail. Under gradually lightening skies we climbed up into the amazing basin below Matterhorn with Wetterhorn on our left. As we got higher, Uncompagre appeared to our right. We were rewarded with the view of the first sun of the day hitting the upper portion of Wetterhorn as we continued up the basin.
We followed the trail as it curved around to the SW and up to the SE Ridge. The views up to the summit were spectacular and somewhat intimidating. Once on the ridge we followed the cairns NW up the ridge. The climbing was class 3 without exposure. Eventually we passed by the "Ships Prow" and the harder part of the climb began. This final portion is class 3 with areas of exposure, especially the final summit pitch of a couple hundred feet. The rock is good and so are the holds but you would not want to fall here. Stevo and I both found the downclimb of this section to be the toughest part of the climb.
Our timing was excellent as we had passed one group of about 6-8 people, who had left from a high camp, lower down the ridge near thee saddle and had the entire ridge all the way up to the summit to ourselves. We spent a few minutes on the summit to enjoy the views and soak in the San Juans. Simply amazing!
We both wanted to get the hard downclimb out of the way and off our minds, so fairly quickly, down we went. Taking care and climbing facing in we picked our way down and were soon off the exposed pitch. We started meeting other climbers as we descended, maybe 10-12 total. We continued the descent down the ridge and then took a break on the tundra just below the saddle. Here we ate, drank and considered Matterhorn. I was tired but it looked like a fun peak, so we decided to give it a try.
We climbed down into the basin and then up the steep, grassy S. slopes of Matterhorn. This climb was about 1300 additional feet and after about 400 feet of it I was wishing I was somewhere else taking a nap. To stubborn to stop, I pushed on in Stevo's wake and we finally made the summit after a short bit of easy class2/3 rock near the end. It was worth the effort as Matterhron offers superb views of both Wetterhorn and Uncompagre. We took some more pictures and then headed down.
It was an easy climb down the ridge and we rejoined the trail at the bottom of the basin and cruised out the trail to the TH, arriving around 2 PM.
What a wonderful area and spectacular peaks! |
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