"Peak Q"

Route: from pitkin trail
Posted On: 10/12/2024, By: Laxer04
Info: We climbed Q from the Vail side to avoid the long backpack into upper slate. We went over and got Peak R as well. Summer conditions, any snow is avoidable. No summit register. Saw a mother bear and her cub in the valley between the partners and Q/R. Long day, but a nice alternative to Upper slate 

Route: From Upper Slate Lake
Posted On: 9/2/2024, By: SionaRW35
Info: Trail from Rock Creek to Slate Lake was pretty chill. Bushwhacking from Upper Slate Lake to the gully between R & Q is time consuming (1.5 - 2 hours) and I would never want to do it in the dark. The gully has plenty of snow and ice but all is avoided easily. The NE rock rib is the way to go and class 3 mixed with loose-ish class 2+ to get to the upper part of the route. Once you start traversing around the north side there are cairns to follow. The class 4 (maybe 5?) chimney to gain the airy summit ridge has a pointy rock that IS loose, but still this loose rock is a necessary hand/foot hold. Use caution here and on the airy ridge to the summit. 

Route: Peaks T, S, R
Posted On: 9/8/2023, By: Archie57
Info: I spent a few days back in the upper Slate and Black Creek drainages, climbing some of the more southern alphabet peaks. On my second full day I climbed straight up from South Slate Creek to Peak T. I climbed the summit boulder after some scoping and an exploratory first effort :) What a heady downclimb! THE SUMMIT REGISTER IS A BROKEN GLASS JAR. IF YOU ARE CLIMBING THIS IN THE NEAR FUTURE let me know otherwise I may have an excuse for a big optimistic day trip in October in order to replace it. The traverse over to S was very fun. I dropped down off ridge proper in heading towards R, but stayed above talus on grassy ledges before reascending the ridge and R via via some wonderful 3rd class granitic grassy gullies in its upper southeast slopes. I finished the day by descending R's normal NW slopes, then up Peak K's SE Slopes, then down to the upper south black creek to sleep. Overall windier than this time last year, but still awesome rock and good September sunshine. Gotta love fastpacking the Gore. 

Route: From Upper Slate Lake
Posted On: 7/3/2023, By: Laxer04
Info: I didn't climb the peak, but here's a good look at it from the summit of nearby Peak L on 7/2/23. Ton of snow for awhile... 

Route: from Upper Slate
Posted On: 9/22/2022, By: SnowAlien
Info: Route finding was better than expected, especially since we started still in the dark. There's a faint trail to the waterfalls. From there we headed up, founding the route of least resistance around the slabs. Sporadic cairns guided the route (we reinforced them on the hike out). Once out of the trees, we traversed across the talus field to the bottom of a grassy gully (big cairn there). From there we made it to South American lake and the base of the peak, all in, the approach took about 2 hours. We ascended a talus gully (much better and more stable than it looks), then hopped on the NE face around 12.2k looking for the aesthetic and more stable ascent line. Only about bottom 3rd was solid with enjoyable slabs, the rest of the face was much looser than expected. We persevered through grassy ledges and talus and ran into snow on the upper reaches. No register. We reversed steps back to camp for ~7 hrs RT and packed out. 

Route: Pitkin Creek Trail
Posted On: 8/18/2016, By: piper14er
Info: I read about heading to Peak Q from Pitkin Creek Trailhead, rather than the more standard Slate Creek approach and gave it a go. It starts at 8400 feet or so and with the gain from Pitkin Lake Basin over the West-East Partner ridge, down into the next basin and back out it adds another 1000 feet or so for about a total of 6100 feet. The distance on my gps said 16 miles or so, thus not a short trip. I had thought it was going to be more like 13-14 miles before I started. The boulder hopping on each side of the notch was tedious with boulders as large as a bus and holes that you might not get out of if you happened to fall in. The notch is steeper than the picture looks, with loose dirt/scree and crumbling rock. It takes some care in going both up and down. Stay left going down for somewhat better rock and handholds. The ascent to the Q-P ridge is okay, some loose scree. Once up the ridge you get to the West Summit rock where you will want to get close to the top if doing the work around or climb up the West Summit to the knife edge that connects to the East Summit. There are some pictures from a Lord Helmut report showing the knife edge. It does not go level but drops down before going back up. The work around is not apparent until you actually get around to the left of the West Summit. Once there you will see it as it drops down a loose and steep slope that takes you to a gully below the East Summit. It is as stated in a report on the West Ridge Route at Summitpost.org that once on the other side of this stretch it is "less treacherous". I would agree that it is a sketchy drop past the gully. Another tough Gore peak that is for sure. Here are a few pictures: