6/3/2023 Route: East Face Posted On: 6/3/2023, By: winter_wisher Info: I was able to reach the upper TH with my stock 4Runner, though there were a few tricky spots along the way. Similar to the SE Ridge update from today, crampons and ice axe are critical for the East Face route, perhaps more so. I climbed the face, tapped the summit, then boarded down. On my descent I (intentionally) released a pair of small wet-loose slides to get rid of any potential surprises. Underneath this loose, shallow layer of new snow was a melt-freeze layer of ice rounds. It was this grainy layer that made my ascent prone to slipping. Though it was manageable with a few good crampon kicks, that much kicking took me a while. This layer also made the ride down quite icy until halfway down the face. After that it was smooth sailing. |
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2/12/2023 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 2/13/2023, By: angry Info: Pro tip: don't forget your pants. Big ups to kalestew for coming in clutch with the bibs so I didn't have to do this pantless and for joining me to upper th and figuring out my garmin issues to track progress and make sure I got out safe. Snowmobile tracks from gated road closure to Matterhorn Creek turnoff. Faint skin track that fizzles out half mile below upper 4WD th. Broke trail in snowshoes, punching through anywhere from 6 inches to knee deep. Doing this solo took hours longer than anticipated. Crampons/axe useful. Minor wet slide activity on NE aspect of neighboring peak. Rollerballs on SW, very warm day meant even more postholing on way out. Uncompahgre looks wind scoured compared to photos I saw last week. Storm incoming so this is probably irrelevant. |
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2/8/2023 Route: East Face Posted On: 2/8/2023, By: Chrisfish25 Info: Went up Uncompahgre first. Skied over to Wetterhorn. Awesome snow. Awesome day. Stability is in, for now. Skimmer going up Needle TH to Unc & out the Wetterhorn road. Go get it! |
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10/29/2022 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 10/31/2022, By: Will_E Info: Did Wetterhorn and Matterhorn Saturday, I started just above Capitol City. Several vehicle tracks up to the start of the 4wd road, but no tracks up it. Consistent snow started around the start of the 4wd road, but never got more than 6"-8" deep. I took snowshoes with, but left them at treeline, snow was pretty sugary. The boulder field before gaining the ridge was a slow going pain in the butt, lots of trap door snow. Most of the snow along the ridge was avoidable or inconsequential. A little harder getting up the final pitch due to where snow was than I remember from my winter trip a few years ago. I cut across the boulder field and cut up the west side of Matterhorn before joining the main ridge route. Snow at the top of Matterhorn made for a couple tricky spots, I wasn't expecting that. Nice day, warm, sunny and very little wind. |
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9/17/2022 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 9/19/2022, By: dustinbarrett Info: Lovely trail conditions, a little bit of frost accumulation in the shadows but nothing yet that made the technical sections feel slick or unsafe. The road is very spicy...we managed to make it all the way up in a stock Nissan Rogue but it was questionable. A couple spots we bottomed out and had to back up and retry. I've driven up a lot of bad roads in stock vehicles; if I could do it again I'd likely just park at the bottom and save the wear & tear on the car. It's only 0.7mi and you're driving so slow it barely saves you any time. Wouldn't try it if you don't have something with good clearance, good tires, and a skilled driver. The road up to the Unc TH is not quite as bad as this one, and much longer so feels worth it to attempt. |
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9/15/2022 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 9/16/2022, By: jtfoss1 Info: Despite a clear forecast, there was some small hail and a bit of rain. After the final notch, the slab to the final ascent wall and the final ascent wall were wet and had a little bit of snow on them. Given these conditions, these sections felt a lot scarier than we were expecting. Some warm weather (or even a little bit of sun) may dry it out to make it more easily passable. |
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9/2/2022 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 9/2/2022, By: mtgoatmike Info: Such a great mountain! The class 3 section is really fun. Cairns all the way from the yellow dirt section to the summit. I went straight up from the catwalk to the summit. Plenty of flowing water above treeline...there was one small stream that did have a rainbow sheen to it. |
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7/22/2022 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 7/28/2022, By: slinda Info: Awesome climb the morning of Tuesday the 26th! Saw about 3 people total during an overnight (camped around 11,700, some good campsites in the area, definitely easier to find a spot with a 1-man tent, but right at treeline there were plenty of spots). Hit the trail at 5:30, got up to the top around 7:20. Had plans to do Uncompahgre, but clouds started rolling in around 8AM, so I figured I'd cut my losses and feel satisfied with just the 'horn. The class 3 stuff was an absolute blast, and the info on the site is super accurate and incredibly helpful! A great intro to some higher class 14ers - cannot WAIT to get on some more technical terrain. Because I had so much extra time allotted to bag Uncompahgre, I hiked around the area and found a huge herd of sheep on the northwest facing ridge just under Matterhorn. An unforgettable couple days! Incredibly bummed to go back to Chicago next week. :((( |
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7/17/2022 Route: Traverse to Uncompahgre Posted On: 7/18/2022, By: bsiegs Info: Summer conditions on both Wetterhorn and Unc - linked them up by traversing over to the stock ridge trail and more-or-less following that until the meet up with the Unc standard route and then returning back to Matterhorn Creek TH. The stock ridge trail gets pretty narrow in spots with a lot of high grass / other plants so it's not the most pleasant but it's fine overall. From the lower TH (before the final 4wd section) it ended up around ~17.5mi and ~6.5k vert. Also, there was a rescue in the late afternoon off of Wetterhorn due to lightning - reminder to start early this time of year! |
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7/9/2022 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 7/10/2022, By: codyli34 Info: Summer conditions. Didn't try 4WD road, but looked pretty bad while walking up it. |
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7/8/2022 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 7/10/2022, By: cloudPeak Info: Summer conditions for sure. A car with a good foot of clearance can make the 4wd road albeit the road is still difficult. Trail was well maintained and easy to follow up to the yellow dirt section, then cairns along the way are the best guide. Had no problems following the trail using the photos. |
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6/13/2022 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 6/13/2022, By: zootloopz Info: Summer conditions! Traverse from Matterhorn. Loose. Class 4+. |
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6/5/2022 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 6/6/2022, By: seanhouseworth Info: A few snowfields in the valley up to the ridge, and a little snow/ice lingering in first climbing section, but it's ready for summer. Didn't try the 4WD road as it looked pretty rough this year and there were a couple of good camping spots at 2WD trailhead we couldn't pass up. Saw a Tundra at 4WD trailhead that looked like stock clearance but really good tires. |
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6/4/2022 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 6/8/2022, By: Terrapin17 Info: Pretty much Summer conditions besides minimal snow crossings. There was some snow in the class 3 portion of the hike but it can mostly be avoided. |
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5/29/2022 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 5/29/2022, By: soundchaser2112 Info: Route is about 95% dry but poles and microspikes were still handy in a few places. There are several steep gullies still filled with snow up in the class 3 section of the route that you'd want spikes and ax if you chose to traverse them, but it's probable easier just to scramble around them to avoid the snow |
