From: ajs@hpfcla.HP.COM (Alan Silverstein)
Date: Wed, 6 Aug 86 19:30:14 MDT
Subject: Re: Trip reports on the San Juans
Newsgroups: hpnc.general

Thursday, July 17 - Friday, July 18: Wetterhorn Peak, 14015'

After passing back through Lake City with stops, I headed west out of town at 1740 on Wednesday, on the same road that comes down from Engineer Pass. The easternmost three miles or so go through a neat little gorge that ends right at town. The well-marked right fork up North Fork Henson Creek is 9.4 miles and 20 minutes from town. From here it's 1.8 miles to the road/trail up Matterhorn Creek, which is easy to miss; check your topo map. There's a good camp area right nearby.

Now, Borneman and Lampert's book just doesn't mention 4WD roads. They always assume you must hike them. Well, the road up the creek is tough, but you can gain 0.7 miles and about 600' on it in 4WD. There's a large, flat, open area by the creek where you can camp just below the gate on the road (at about 10800'). The gate is a good distance before the Wilderness Area Boundary for some reason.

I got in late and up late the next morning (Thursday). Wondering if/when Dave was going to arrive, and being in no hurry, I didn't start up the trail until 1010. The monsoon season was just getting started; the weather was iffy. A mere two minutes along, I heard a sudden loud CRACK very nearby, which sent me right back to the Jeep!

After a couple hours goofing off (and recovering), I started up trail again at 1230, knowing full well I wouldn't make the peak that day. So I took it slow, stopping often to evaluate the weather and take pictures. By 1530 I made my way up to about 12000', high in the Matterhorn basin, above timberline but down in a gully, when the rain and lightning started. Rather than cruise down, I spent an hour and a half inside a garbage bag waiting to see if it would stop.

Finally I started back in a light drizzle. After a short time it stopped raining completely, and, finding myself drier and warmer, looking up at Wetterhorn Peak, I decided, what the heck, to climb some more. So I sidehilled up to about 12500' on the SE ridge, where at about 1830 (two hours before dark), I was clearly too far away to make it to the peak -- which then got enshrouded in clouds again. Sigh.

It was an interesting day, and a valuable lesson. You do get cold sitting around in the rain, plastic or not. But that basin, oh, what a gorgeous place! More like Switzerland than anywhere I've seen in Colorado. Wetterhorn Peak towers over the basin to the left. At the right end of a long, high ridge is Matterhorn Peak, 13590' I think. There are flowers everywhere, many varieties. The basin is all green tundra and orange and brown rock. There are deep gullies cut into the tundra, colored bright orange. From where I stopped at 12500' you get a good look at Uncompahgre Peak to the east, over a 12458' saddle.

Shortly after returning to the Jeep at 1910, Dave showed up in his truck. (We joined up for the next ten days.) He confirmed that what I'd heard at ten in the morning was a sonic boom -- audible all the way over at San Luis Peak. Sigh. If I'd kept going, I'd have made the peak that day, though it's not a good one to climb solo.

The next morning (Friday) we headed up from the same camp at 0640 under heavy clouds and light drizzle. We followed the trail up and to the right to the 12458' saddle. Here you are about a mile east of Wetterhorn.

We never found any clear trail to the peak's SE ridge, so we cross-countried (wet) to the west. Eventually we made the 12900' east basin below the peak, at 0900. From there we found different routes onto the SE ridge -- I like to go "direct"! -- and joined up at about 13500'. The upper ridge is narrow and steep (fun).

Above this point you climb on very steep but pretty good rock up the SE face of Wetterhorn. It's not well marked; I did add some cairns when sure of the route. It takes you over the ridge onto the east face, then comes back to a large, fairly flat area beneath a sharkstooth at 13850'. The rock is generally good, with lots of scrambling and bouldering.

From the tooth you take an upper rock cut. Suddenly you see the sheer SW cliff face of the Horn and a lot of territory to the west. Fortunately, the last 150' is not as exposed as "The Book" leads you to believe. It's a short climb up small ledges which criss-cross an indented gully, which parallels the cliff. The gully continues down below the place you join it. I measured the slope at 50 degrees with a meter.

We arrived on top at 1025 (3:45 for 3200'). The summit is indeed surprisingly level, about 40' across, with steep or sheer drops on all sides. There are flowers right around the summit, as on many of the San Juan 14000' peaks, and there's a small cairn. To the north you get good looks at Coxcomb, Redcliff, et al, and of course the ridge, Matterhorn, and Uncompahgre dominate to the east.

We didn't stay long due to ominous looking clouds, and falling corn snow. We decided to forego the long trek over to Uncompahgre.

The trip back to 13700' was uneventful, being careful. We split up here, with Dave going "straight" back. The weather looked a little better so I took off down the east face, on gravel, scree, and boulders, heading for Matterhorn Peak. I stayed about as high as possible below the ugly ridge, dropping to about 12700' and traversing, then climbing back to perhaps 13000' on the SE ridge of Matterhorn.

Unfortunately I took long breaks to eat and assess the building thunderheads in the distance. By the time I was 1/2 hour from the summit, it was too late to continue. At 1310 I turned downhill through a lovely field of flowers, mainly yellow alpine sunflowers, but mixed with red, purple, white, and blue.

I was back at the Jeep five minutes less than an hour later -- it's a quick easy descent from there. Except for the huge herd of sheep, that is! Apparently some Basque ranchers have run sheep in the Wilderness Areas since before they were sanctioned, so they are "grandfathered" and continue to do it. The sheep don't seem to do much damage, though, and they get out of the way fast as you walk through them...

It was raining again when I got back. Bleah.

We drove out to the "main" road, then 4.1 miles east to the Nellie Creek turnoff. You can (and we did) drive in with 4WD, 4.3 miles to the gate at the Wilderness Area boundary (11400'). The road was bad, with much mud, two deep creek crossings, and many sharp turns. We camped just down from the boundary.