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Hi Everyone,

I'm interested in a bunch of Wemi items this Summer and would love to find partners for a few class 3-4 peaks. I probably won't do all of these (and will be happy if 2-3 work out), but I'm exploring the following:

Trinity Traverse
Arrow Peak
Storm King/Silex/Guardian
Pigeon/Turret (not 15)
Jupiter Mtn
Animas/Monitor (not 13)
Leviathan/Vallecito/5/6

I'm a slowpoke by 14er/13er standards. For reference, the Manitou Incline by COS takes me about an hour or so, and the Vestal Basin pack-in took around 6 hours a few years ago. I'm looking to buy train tickets soon, but assuming that the spots haven't filled up too badly, I'm pretty flexible at the moment re: dates. PM/email if you're interested!

I’m interested! I’ll message ya.

I still need Arrow and I've been up to Vestal Basin twice from Molas. Not fast either and would be happy to have partners.

I'm interested in the Trinity Traverse.

I've backpacked in there from Molas Pass and did Arrow and Vestal. I could easily be convinced to do those again.

I'll PM interested folks with contact details.

I've also done Pigeon/Turret and Jupiter but may be interested in others on the list.

laswa-guide

hellmanm wrote: ↑Mon Jun 02, 2025 9:08 pm Animas/Monitor (not 13)

Personal opinion, I thought Thirteen was the most fun of these three and it had by far the best rock of these three. It's Class 3 from the saddle with Animas and only becomes Class 4 if you climb it to/from Monitor. Probably 30 minutes round trip of excellent scrambling and will give you the best available views of its ranked neighbors. Well worth the small amount of additional effort, I think.

Somewhat unrelated, the numbered Weminuche peaks are spelled out, Thirteen, Fifteen, etc., for both official and unofficially named peaks. All "Peak Twenty Two" of them. It's the Tenmile numbered ones that officially use digits in their names, e.g. Peak 1 through Peak 10.

supranihilest wrote: ↑Mon Jun 16, 2025 9:03 am [quote=hellmanm post_id=801191 time=<a href="tel:1748920105">1748920105</a> user_id=44695]
Animas/Monitor (not 13)


Personal opinion, I thought Thirteen was the most fun of these three and it had by far the best rock of these three. It's Class 3 from the saddle with Animas and only becomes Class 4 if you climb it to/from Monitor. Probably 30 minutes round trip of excellent scrambling and will give you the best available views of its ranked neighbors. Well worth the small amount of additional effort, I think.

Somewhat unrelated, the numbered Weminuche peaks are spelled out, Thirteen, Fifteen, etc., for both official and unofficially named peaks. All "Peak Twenty Two" of them. It's the Tenmile numbered ones that officially use digits in their names, e.g. Peak 1 through Peak 10.

Oh, hadn’t realized re: numbering but you’re right. And also re: thirteen from animas — v true! It’s that pitch from monitor-thirteen that scares me, but the rest looks more reasonable.

Just a thought for your itineraries - it’s really easy to combine Vallecito and Guardian in same trip as with Storm King and Silex, with a camp in Leviathan Basin. Don’t head for Leviathan lake- instead aim to set camp on the northern side of the basin, where there is a nice broad bench. This bench affords easy access to Silex and the Guardian, and a scenic approach to Storm King by going underneath Peak Nine. It also is surprisingly straightforward to cross upper Leviathan (west edge) southward to gain Jagged Pass in order to then climb Leviathan and Vallecito (and enjoy a spectacular up close view of Jagged Mountain).

Hey Mike, I will have some availability in Aug before fall semester starts if you want to try to link up for Storm King/Silex/Guardian

Marmot72 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 18, 2025 4:02 pm Just a thought for your itineraries - it’s really easy to combine Vallecito and Guardian in same trip as with Storm King and Silex, with a camp in Leviathan Basin. Don’t head for Leviathan lake- instead aim to set camp on the northern side of the basin, where there is a nice broad bench. This bench affords easy access to Silex and the Guardian, and a scenic approach to Storm King by going underneath Peak Nine. It also is surprisingly straightforward to cross upper Leviathan (west edge) southward to gain Jagged Pass in order to then climb Leviathan and Vallecito (and enjoy a spectacular up close view of Jagged Mountain).

Ah yep I can see a few options in that basin. Would you camp at the high flat area (12'400 or so), or at around 11'200 in the basin? I've been playing in CalTopo and exploring a few choices:

hellmanm wrote: ↑Wed Jun 18, 2025 7:22 pm

Marmot72 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 18, 2025 4:02 pm Just a thought for your itineraries - it’s really easy to combine Vallecito and Guardian in same trip as with Storm King and Silex, with a camp in Leviathan Basin. Don’t head for Leviathan lake- instead aim to set camp on the northern side of the basin, where there is a nice broad bench. This bench affords easy access to Silex and the Guardian, and a scenic approach to Storm King by going underneath Peak Nine. It also is surprisingly straightforward to cross upper Leviathan (west edge) southward to gain Jagged Pass in order to then climb Leviathan and Vallecito (and enjoy a spectacular up close view of Jagged Mountain).

Ah yep I can see a few options in that basin. Would you camp at the high flat area (12'400 or so), or at around 11'200 in the basin? I've been playing in CalTopo and exploring a few choices:

Screenshot 2025-06-18 at 7.19.04 PM_11zon.png

I've camped twice here: 37.65571, -107.56272. This is right on the shore of the little, unnamed lake in the bottom left of your screenshot. There's a couple of flat spots right there on the lake, and the water is clean. Lower down in the basin you'll have deadfall and tall grass/plants to deal with. Your upper spot at ~12,300 is covered in rock slabs and won't have good access to water. I've never camped up there but Whiley has and she was not psyched about her choice. That and you have to consider the tradeoffs - carrying your stuff up another ~1,000 feet or going light and fast from a lower camp, plus not sleeping as well higher up. I almost always prefer to sleep a little lower and have lighter packs when going higher. That said, I'm personally not a fan of the Leviathan approach, having done it a couple of times. It works but it's long in both directions and once you've crossed the Vallecito there's not much of a trail. If it's wet you're going to be soaked from the waist down. That's probably the easiest approach for Leviathan and Vallecito (the peaks) though.

As a contingency plan if you only have the weather for Storm King/Silex/Guardian, camp in Stormy Gulch. I was surprised how easy that approach was. It took Richard (desertdog) and I something like 2.5 hours from Beartown and about the same back. It's short enough that we were able to drive in from Silverton, do the approach, and I had time to do Eight, Seven, and Storm King, all the same day. Following the route Otina lays out in her trip report for Guardian and Silex was also quite nice. Combining Guardian and Silex with Storm King is a much bigger undertaking than you'd think looking at a map, so be aware of that. If you're willing to do long days you could probably do the approach and Storm King or approach and Silex/Guardian same day. Those three could be done two days/one night, or three days/two nights at the most, which is what we did.

TL;DR:
Leviathan and Vallecito: Leviathan Basin
Storm King, Silex, and Guardian: Stormy Gulch
Combining the two groups: Leviathan Basin

hellmanm wrote: ↑Wed Jun 18, 2025 7:22 pm

Marmot72 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 18, 2025 4:02 pm Just a thought for your itineraries - it’s really easy to combine Vallecito and Guardian in same trip as with Storm King and Silex, with a camp in Leviathan Basin. Don’t head for Leviathan lake- instead aim to set camp on the northern side of the basin, where there is a nice broad bench. This bench affords easy access to Silex and the Guardian, and a scenic approach to Storm King by going underneath Peak Nine. It also is surprisingly straightforward to cross upper Leviathan (west edge) southward to gain Jagged Pass in order to then climb Leviathan and Vallecito (and enjoy a spectacular up close view of Jagged Mountain).

Ah yep I can see a few options in that basin. Would you camp at the high flat area (12'400 or so), or at around 11'200 in the basin? I've been playing in CalTopo and exploring a few choices:

Screenshot 2025-06-18 at 7.19.04 PM_11zon.png

We (mtnman200 and son, & Terri Horvath) camped between your two circles.
Probably at 11,500ish, and for us, I think it worked out great.
Terri did Leviathan and Vallicito from there, and the Macks did Jagged from there.
I did Pk Six the same day.
Also we did Silex and Guardian one day, Seven and SK another.
Terri and I attempted Nine, but got to the ridge and turned back (because of me, mostly).
.
Anyhow, the pack in went mostly fine until the last mile or so? Tired, sick of carrying big pack, and rambling around the woods trying to find this spot for camp! I think the Macks found it fairly easy a couple days later when they joined up with us.

When I was there in 2015 with Benners, we camped around the area of the lower circle. Weminuche dozen was our three part trip report. In our exploring, we thought that it would’ve been better if we had camped in the area of your upper circle. It would make the bush whack into the basin easier because you would trend that direction earlier and there is a trail for much of that. it’s not on the maps.