Threes, Class V’s, Good Knees, Cheese, and Bees!

After a poorly thought, themed, and toned 13'ers Facebook group post, I tucked my tail between my legs and banished myself away where even Zuckerberg couldn’t find me... The Weminuche. I hoped that this post hadn’t ousted me from the mountain community, and decided to provide a trip report of this 'venture with some beta as a peace offering.

Two summers ago, I had climbed Wham on Vestal, and Arrow with a friend. The days we had were shorter weather windows, and we enjoyed scenery rather than peak bagging- choosing to abandon the Trinitys. This was my first trip back to the Weminuches since an ACL tear in March 2025, and I couldn’t be more excited. After over a year of PT all time & anytime possible, I felt confident in my ability to tackle some bigger days with a big pack and big terrain. I hope to complete the Centennials (with a ski of Mt. Buckskin next May), and so a Jagged (Yagged, Jag, Son of a Gun, etc.) summit was on my radar for this summer as well. I charted a ‘line that went’ between these objectives and hoped to crush myself (as is common in this wilderness).

Accounting for the classic Wemi sufferfest (not just going in for Jag), previous rope-bringing for Teakettle/Coffeepot (these would have been a much harder longer committing downclimb IMO), and comfort in my climbing ability… I decided to not bring a rope for Jagged, and I’m glad that was my choice. Downclimbing is much more efficient, and none of the cruxes felt too difficult. I will admit, the rappel from the top would have been uber major pittage!

While GPX files for probably every peak in CO exist, and I can always do more research on trip reports/beta, I really enjoy doing my own route finding with a little information on cruxes/decisions/shortcuts. Similarly, I hope that this trip report helps to answer questions on what terrain may look like and not specifically which gully or crack to exactly take. There is a file at the end with GPX points and some of my approximate route, but no full track. I am also happy to share more, discuss ideas, and always love learning about other folks' routes, trips, and trails.

My plan was to leave my car at Molas Pass, pack into just below Vestal Basin, knock out the Garfield/Electric group, head up to the Trinity‘s, nab the all elusive Kurzhorn and then slip over towards Balsam Lake. From there, my route was as good as a line off drawn on a map. I hoped to gain the saddle between Peaks 7/8, and then again the saddle between Leviathan and the ridge South of Peak 6. To make Jag day short and have the ability to study the route ahead of time, I wanted to camp at the “bow shaped lake” at 12,700 right below Jagged Northeast face. Wake up the next morning, summit that sun of a gun, drop to Sunlight Basin, nab Peak 10 and Knife Point, head over the saddle between Sunlight and Windom, cruise the 14er trail out to Needleton, catch the train to Silverton and hitchhike back up Molas Pass. Yeehaw! Good thing I’m solo so nobody can be mad at the route except me!

I had plans to do this trip a week before (and also the week before that), but a much needed monsoon cycle full of water and lightning encouraged me to do some hiking out of the car until conditions improved. Monday the 3rd, I was stoked on the upcoming weather window and with my sabbatical coming to a close on the next week, it was time to launch. This timing gave me one less day to summit these objectives, but much clearer weather... and I was ready. I drove down to Molas Pass on Tuesday evening and got one more night in the car with a full belly and weightless water.

On Wednesday, I woke up to my alarm at 5:30 and after a quick gear run through (cheese? check.) I left the trailhead shortly before 6 AM. I had a pretty good time down the Molas hill, a less good time up the Elk Creek hill, and moved past the Beaver Ponds within three hours. I headed up towards Vestal basin and stopped pretty frequently to enjoy some raspberries. For one trail side berry bush stop, I felt my skin crawling.. weirdly per the usual in the Wemi. Not quickly enough, I realized that I had brushed against a hornets nest, was standing next to it and they did not appreciate my presence or invasion of their sweet berry bushes. Flailing my arms and legs and smacking all over, I ran away as quickly as I could on that steep deadfall filled terrain. After I got away, I evaluated and found (just?) three stings- to the wrist, back of the knee, and ankle. The one on the knee was the most painful and stayed swollen until the next day, woah! Good time to be reminded that I’m (still) not allergic to hornets.

After a quick stint with colorful language and intentional breathing (no more berry bush stops out of spite), I continued up the Vestal approach to about 11,000 where I flipped over the stream and found a nice spot to swap packs between Electric and Arrow. I dropped my big pack and loaded up my day pack for the Garfield group, and reached the saddle between Electric and Arrow around 11:30.

My brain was excited for that first Wemi summit, so I headed up the Southwest route of Electric first. Other reports have mentioned a “left“ gully, as the easiest ascent. I went up the left gully (mostly gray colored with a dark band in the middle) in the below photo

While unenjoyable-looking, this gully had some stable rock and fun scrambling! Underrated peak of the trip. After reaching the summit of Electric, I looked across the basin at the rest of the day's plans. I was beginning to run low on water so I figured a stop at Garfield Lake wouldn’t be bad… plus I could head all the way to the far side of the basin to Garfield Peak. The travel down Electric was the same route, and went relatively quickly. Working to the South side of the lake, I filled up my water and motivated myself to start up towards Garfield. Similar to a lot of Wemi, the Garfield basin is dramatic and a stellar place to forget you’ve got a ways to go still. I reluctantly started up my leg engines and headed up towards the Garfield/West Pun saddle. The rock was steep and talus unenjoyable, but not the longest stretch I would encounter. Garfield ridge seemed to keep going, and was pretty darn fun to scramble on. A few rocks moved and reminded me I was a way from civilization.

A quick rest and summit register on Garfield sent me over to tag the West Summit of Point Pun. I had heard that the East Summit was the marked highpoint, but USGS has elevation for the West Summit and I wouldn’t find a return to the basin very Punny if the other summit got promoted (lol as an unranked peak). The rock was fragile and the most reasonable route was pretty convoluted and loose, albeit still a good time. Picking my way through the cliff bands, it stayed class 3 with pretty good exposure.

I reached the summit of West PP at about 2:30, and after accepting that the ridge did not go and it wasn’t worth it to waste time exploring, I returned to Garfield Lake to refill my water bottle and head back up East/Main Pun. While only slightly less spicy than West PP, this one was a great time and maybe more traveled than its sister West Summit. I used the North Face for most of the travel and this seemed quite logical. The green rock showed the way to go and slight bypasses to the East were plentiful. Once reaching the summit, I ate some honey stingers, checked out the weather for tomorrow, and headed down. I knew that the ridge between Pun and Greystone Peak did not go, so I headed down at a contour that allowed the least amount of vertical loss.

After reaching the decision point below Greystone, I noted a set of braided switchbacks on the far North Ridge of the West face, but elected to go straight up a gully that led to the West ridge. After many steps in a quick scamper, I reached the summit of Greyrock at about 4:30p. The day had already lasted longer than I anticipated, and I knew the trip was just getting started. I returned down the North Ridge of Greystone, down the gullies I had ascended between Electric and Arrow, and back to my camp at 11,200. After set up, dinner, and a quick few bites of cheese, I snuggled in for the night excited for the next day.

I woke to my alarm on Thursday at six, right on time with the sunrise. It was nice to spend the evening out of Vestal basin, knowing that it might not be as silent above. I heated some water for oatmeal and had a few bites of cheese to start the morning. I intended to head up to traverse the Trinity’s W-E, return to Vestal Lake for my pack, and then head towards the lake above Balsam Lake. I packed up camp and headed up to, and turned right on the approach to Vestal Lake. I forgot how stubborn this initial shelf is but was quickly reminded of its existence with my heavy pack on. I huffed and puffed up this trail to about 11.8 where I was able to stick my pack in a tree, and food in my bearvault on the ground. From here, I took off to the South side of Vestal Lake and to the saddle West of West Trinity.

The zigs and zags up the gully were moderately find-able, and I reached the saddle below West Trinity after just a little suffering. I could not see the summit, but knew it had to be up there somewhere and began scrambling the ridge. Going West to East allows you to up-climb the difficult parts and stick almost entirely to the ridge proper. Sounds good. I climbed up the ridge of West Trinity with a couple deviations mostly to the Southside. After a few (always) unwelcomed false summits, I reached the summit of West Trinity, and stared onto my next objective. From here, the ridge didn’t seem reasonable and dropping West down the South face was ze way. I followed a reasonable use trail with some cairns, , and quickly found myself at the 13,400 foot saddle.

Going up Trinity was kinda like a jungle gym. The scrambling never seems to end, and you could choose any route, depending on your spice level. A notch about 200 feet below the summit made me scratch my head a couple times and I gave up and wrapped again around the South. I reached the summit of Trinity Peak and was treated to a spectacular view of the Grenadiers and into the Needles. What a beautiful place to get this unique view from this peak sought after for a while.

The view to East Trinity is a bit daunting but again, splitting time between solid ridge and loose gully dropped me to 13,400 again. The main (cairned) route down this looked to be in the gullies, but ridge down and up appeared send-able until proven otherwise. I’d find that it goes with some exciting moves, but all reasonably solid. At the saddle, the NW ridge of E Trinity called to me, so I obliged. These gullies slightly reminded me of the Crestones, despite the fact that the rock was slightly less nice.

East Trinity went quickly and I soon found myself ready to descend back into Vestal basin. I used the typical de-approach off the East ridge into a gully at 13,300 on the far South ridge of Peak 3.

Kicking my feet in front of another was pretty rewarding as I traveled down towards the 12,400 lake below the Trinity’s. I hadn’t seen another person all day, and took my chances skinny-dipping in this lake (after refilling water) and hoped (or not) that somebody was on the summit of Vestal for my rebirth.

After a body refresh and water fill up, I proceeded down to the basin and then back up towards Vestal Lake to get my pack. I reached my pack at about 3 PM and pondered my next plan. I was more exhausted than I anticipated and wasn’t sure what the travel was like back to Balsam Lake. I figured that once I flipped over the saddle between Vestal and Trinity, I was at the point of no return and had to ponder my choices. Looking back, I regret this decision, but returned to Vestal Basin and set up camp for a full night of sleep. To my sight, there were just two more groups camped here and wouldn’t be too busy. I pondered skipping my plan and just doing Wham again, but smacked that thought out of my brain and refocused on Jagged as I fell asleep before the sun set. No cheese tonight, gonna need it tomorrow.

I awoke Friday at 6:30 absolutely electrified for the day ahead. Since it was my second time cleaning up camp, I was so much faster and hit the trail by about 7:30. Once again, I headed up, and pushed through the South side of Vestal Lake, up the slabs that lay below 12,500, and across to below the Kurz/Trinity saddle. This gully went quicker than the day before, and upon reaching the top, I dropped my pack and quickly ran over to the summit of Kurzhorn. A simple class 2 jaunt that you can stay on the ridge for besides an obvious gendarme bypass.

Grateful to not have abandoned the Kurz, I headed back to my pack and hoped for the best below the saddle. There is a ledge at 12.5 above Balsam Lake that contours (down to about 12.1) into the upper basin from the Trinity/Kurz saddle… I hoped this would be a way to save 1k or so. After flipping over, I found a pretty well traveled/cairned route that did in fact hold this line all the way to the intersection with the creek that floated into Balsam Lake. Nice! After a water refill in the creek, I determined my next moves towards the saddle between Peaks 7 and 8. I began to see the North face/summit of Jagged, and at one point noticed some folks on the summit.

I expected this part to be a little trickier, but the most gentle path was also the friendliest, and I quickly found myself climbing up the NW side of the drainage towards the 7/8 saddle. About 200 feet below the saddle, I looked up to see… A person? The Weminuche is nice to not see people, but enjoyable to have chats and hear others’ adventure plans.

After saying toodles to my new friend Brian and his dog, I reached the plateau at 12,700 and traveled around the East side. Once I got around the SE ridge of Peak 7, I got a view of what would become my new *least* favorite piece of terrain I’ve encountered! Following the S ridge of Peak 7 down to Leviathan Lake, I planned how I wanted to take on the next ascent to the Leviathan saddle. I left the West side of Leviathan Lake and headed up along the creek slightly angled towards the NW ridge of Leviathan Peak. Once reaching the main drainage at 12,300, I headed STFU (straight the FU) and pushed through the first push. At 12,600, I opted to go to hikers right (skiers left/West side) of the cliff face. I may have chosen wrong.. oh well, more direct.

After reaching Leviathan saddle, I dropped my heavy pack and headed up towards Leviathan and Vallecito. The West ridge of Leviathan is a false-summit-fest but a fun scramble. I reached the top of Leviathan peak at about 3. Yoinks. Looking over to Vallecito, you can’t miss the East ridge of Leviathan. This sheer edge and rock formation is a thing of beauty and raised many questions. I found myself wondering if some massive force pushed this mass upwards, or if erosion was to thank… there’s probably a book or website somewhere.

I retraced my steps down the West ridge of Leviathan and then took a shelf to Vallecito at about 13,400. This shelf does in fact go, and was convenient for East Lev ridge access, skipping the ridge feature at 13,500 that makes that ridge ‘not go’. A straight shot down the ridge and up Vallecito’s W got me to the summit pretty quickly. With stellar views of the next day’s objective (Yagged), it was tough to pull myself off this peak, but the reminder of camp needing to be set up quickly invaded the peace. I doubled back across the shelf and to the Vall/Lev saddle at 12,600. From here, it made more sense to contour down to the bow lake off Jag N face, and then regain the pass to grab my pack. Sigh. It went quickly and before too long I was setting up camp at 12,700. I found a nice spot on the south side of the lake, and made some food, including the gourmet Sharpè Chéddær cheese variety, and spent the evening psyching myself up & out as I looked at the next day’s objective.

Game day Saturday. I opened my eyes early to the sound of silence, and laid in my tent for a bit. I wasn’t in a huge rush today, and was excited to enjoy every minute of it. At about 6:45, I got out of my tent and ate some granola and mandarins staring up at the sun gracing Jagged’s epic and mesmerizing North face. I had prepped my pack the night before and started walking at about 7:30. I quickly wound up at the saddle West of Leviathan, and after a few deep breaths and steps found myself starting across towards the first crux. In the words of Papa Dole (my dad)- DFIU.. this is a rough one to F it U on.

The first crux crack system was slightly wet, an obvious cairn laid confidence below the start, and I started upward. The climbing wasn’t too hard yet, and I found myself climbing the rocks to the hikers right (slightly West) of the grass, rather than the grass shelves themselves. The climbing didn’t seem to go over class 4 on these rocks, and I much preferred this option compared to the dirt steps with slick grass on top. I aimed towards the wall of rock with the wet streak and continued upwards. A couple cairns reminded me I was about on route, and passing the first anchor was an exciting pass.

I reached the second crux and decided to climb up, although the bypass (c4 grass to the right/West) seemed like a reasonable way down. Up to the “tiny little saddle”, away from the couloir, and a few more moves led to the flip over to the South side.

The route to the summit from here is pretty clear. There’s really only one ‘reasonable’ route from where you stand. After the (well named) ‘ledges of doom’, you come around the corner and voila- yep you’ve seen this one!

Being 6’3” has its perks, and awkward moves fall into that category. After a couple stems on the walls, I was up top of the chalkstone chimney and after a few more scrambly moves upward, had reached the summit of THE Jagged Mountain! What a successful, incredible feeling. Reminder to self: still had to get down!

Up top, I met another party (Zach and Kyle) who had come from Ruby and up (part of) No Name. We shared some smiles, laughs, stories and got some proper “hi mom!” pictures. Awesome to meet these guys up here, and they were pretty rad! I expressed my plan to go through the Sunlight/Windom saddle, and they convinced me to go through No Name instead. I hadn’t been down No Name and it did look like an easier saddle to gain. So I changed plans and laid on the summit for a few minutes as they headed down. Another crew was headed up as well.

The downclimb for Jag felt more straightforward than the ascent, but still just as puckering for short bits. To descend the top crux chalkstone chimney I was tall enough to simply hold the top rock and slowly lower myself down until a toe touched. Not the most graceful, but did the trick. Before this, I slid my pack through a hole in the rocks and hung it on a lower rock. I used the upper traverse on the ‘ledges of doom’ for the ascent and descent, likely because it felt slightly less exposed. Crossing the saddle went smooth and I headed down the North facing wall past the wet streak towards the tiny saddle.

I headed down the class 4 grassy bypass for the second crux, apologies for not getting a photo of this. The dirt and grassy ledges are pretty easy to follow. I reached the awkward cracks section, and downclimbed this one nose-in. After this, I worked my way across the NE face towards my tent(rather than returning to Jag pass) and began to skip and run and run hoop and holler- solo ropeless Jag success!

For note, 2/4 parties on the day used a rope. A busy weekend/time of year in the basin meant that all 3 crux anchors had good webbing and biners(..?). Conveniently, the top rappel station was pimped out with bolt hangers, but no chains or mussies. Reminder that rap rings exist, cost less, and weigh less than carabiners!

I ate some food (extra cheese!!), watched another party head up, and packed up camp before making the executive decision to abandon Peak 10 and Knife Point for another trip, and head out via No Name (remember that part at the beginning about nobody but me being annoyed at the route?). I headed back to the Leviathan/6 ridge saddle, and then contoured over to the closest gully saddle to Jag’s NE ridge (13,020). This one looked miserable to gain from ‘bow lake’ and the descent looked better than other options. The descent from here was ‘tedious’ but I’ve been told I overuse that word in talus haha.

The upper valley between 12,100 and 11,800 was a massive flood plain (in a bad snow/water year), but at least no deadfall (subtle foreshadowing). The cliffband between 11,700 and 11,100 had a nice contour that stayed above the creek bed.. for a while. I ran into Zach and Kyle as they finished packing up their camp, and we headed down into the unknown together.

Once reaching 11,000 staying on the North side of the creek was the (No) name of the game. There was a lot of deadfall, a lot of braiding, and a few wet steps. We ran into Bill and his son who I had met at Molas the previous week. The two were also headed up to Jagged for their centennial finisher! They had come up the trail, we were coming down, and both parties hoped the trail got better. Oh boy. Schwackin’ on, we passed a guide headed up (who again asked if the trail gets better.. oof), got drizzled on for all of :35 seconds, and reached The Animas at about 5:30! Gratefully, we let the stink wash away in the river and sat eating any leftovers we had. We guesstimated that we went under >20 dead fallen trees, and over another 100+. Fun in the Wemi at its finest!

Kyle and Zach were going to spend the night right there and catch the Durango-bound train in the afternoon. I was hoping to catch the locomotive to Silverton around 10, and so I opted to push through the last couple miles. We said our goodbyes and I headed back slightly East to find the semi-existent trail to Needleton. The last bit was still relatively wander-y, and the fun of Watertank hill should be experienced by everyone! I got to Needleton around 8, made dinner, saved 3 bites of cheese for the morning, hung my trash, and fell asleep with a satiated food & mountain appetite.

I was awoken shortly after 4 to the snap of a limb… oh boy that’s something big. I went out of the tent to see what it was. Scanning around with the headlamp, there was a black bear (3-5 y/o?) staring back at me from about about 50 yards away. I introduced myself, and had a conversation with (to?) it. Then I remembered I was tired and started to talk louder at this kinda cute lil critter and threw some sticks in their direction. The punk took off up the hillside to the West, and I figured they had reached the point of annoyance. Turning back to my tent, I noted that my bear bag (hanging 30 feet up) had been climbed up to, and the limb snapped. Ah. The bear bag was locate-able thanks to the rope attached, but the bear had still dragged it a good 500 feet or so. I put the bag in my tent with me (tired stupid or logical?) and went back to sleep.

I woke up at 7:30 and enjoyed the morning. I had forgotten to fill up my bladder before dropping below Ruby Creek, and treated myself to some Animas water… mmmm. I ate, packed up and enjoyed the last bit of time in the Wemi. As the train came around the corner, a crew of 6-8 came across the bridge and joined in cheering on how close ice cream was. To my surprise, 35-40 people got off the train in Needleton (with packs).. wow! On a Sunday afternoon? Busy Wemi, but what a beautiful place for people to get to enjoy responsibly!

I kicked my feet up on the train and enjoyed the view. Here, I finished the last 3 bites of cheese and celebrated another successful Wemi trip and a confirmed cheese crushing course. Chatting with a couple others heading in, I warned them about the hornet nest on Vestal Creek and enjoyed meeting passionate mountain folk. Shoutout to Andy, thank you for the Banquet- hope you had a blast on your trip!

Got to Silverton, walked towards Molas with my thumb up, and got lucky enough to hitch a ride- thanks Dana & wife! Back at my car, I chugged water, and ate some donut holes while blasting some Red Hot Chili Peppers (ever heard of them?), and no drive home is complete without a stop at Culver’s with... you guessed it! yum yum yum cheese curds!

As a whole, Jagged was about on par with what I expected. Once you start off Jagged Pass, you feel locked in with the exposure, and pretty airy, but not particularly long. The cruxes were indeed cruxy, but manageable and short enough to breathe through. If you find yourself somewhere that doesn’t seem like too many people have been, you’re likely not on route for Jagged. The approach is bad I think no matter where you come from (besides Vallecito?).. but what a blast to link up these peaks in this short amount of time. Very grateful to be able to recreate as I do, in the place I do, and meet the folks who are doing the same!

Hope we cross paths sometime. See ya in the mountains! Maybe this will help guide or provide a chuckle to one person, if not.. oh well!

Total-ish:
44.5 Miles

22,600 Vert