Jagged Mountain

Route: Standard
Posted On: 7/26/2015, By: eskermo
Info: No summit :( The short section at the bottom just above the boilerplate slabs looked completely wet. It appeared that there were three strands of rope tied together and hanging down from this section (one strand blue, one white, one red). As I approached the base to get a better look it started pouring, so this is the best I‘ve got. The remainder of the rock appeared pretty dry, although I could not tell if the gully crossover was still holding snow. Vallecito Creek Trail is awesome, but it‘s long and has so many ups and downs. These ups really suck on the way out. The first Vallecito Creek crossing still has the fixed line going across it, and the water was no deeper than mid-thigh, mostly knee deep (I‘m 6‘ 1"). The turnoff for Sunlight Creek at 11.3 miles is well marked with a half dozen cairns and a big ole stick in a cairn. The second Vallecito Creek crossing has no fixed line but it is much lower - no more than mid shin deep. Sunlight Creek crossing was mid shin deep. Advice: Very shortly after crossing Sunlight Creek, look to your left and locate a vague path where it appears the trail goes straight. The trail going straight dissipates into nothing a couple hundred feet down. If you can locate the start of this faint trail, follow it through the forest, and manage to stay on it through the willows (small cairns in the stupidly-thick willows), you can save yourself a LOT of trouble bushwhacking. The Sunlight Creek "trail" is absolutely ridiculous. If you can stay on the path, you can get from the Sunlight Creek crossing at 9,600‘ to about 10,800‘ without too much trouble (that‘s relatively speaking for the most difficult approach I‘ve ever taken). I wasn‘t able to find much of any kind of trail between 10,800‘ and the headwall at 11,500‘ and just stayed as close to Sunlight Creek as possible. There are short sections of excellent trail segments interspersed here and there, but they almost always fade out into 10 different paths or become obscured by willows and thick vegetation. Make sure to not turn right and head up north too soon. I got all messed up on the hike up and ended up on some really sketchy, steep, loose terrain mixed with some third class scrambling with a full pack as the sun was going down. I ended up in the next basin over, just east of the one north of Jagged. This wasn‘t awful as I managed to traverse out of the basin in the morning and not lose any elevation. While I was waiting on a window for Jagged to dry out and the sun to come out, dhgold was able to summit Leviathan and down to the small lake just below Jagged Pass to scope out the Noname Basin 13ers. He could probably provide more information on the condition of Animas, Monitor, Heisspitz, etc. 

Route: North Face
Posted On: 7/26/2015, By: doggler
Info: All good! 2nd crux snowfield does not exist. No axe, traction, etc necessary at all. Hit many other peaks in the area, will post soon. 

Route: North Face Standard
Posted On: 7/7/2014, By: evolve
Info: Couple of snow patches approaching the first crux that are either trivial or avoidable. Sketchy but passable snow and ice in the gully just before the second crux. South side is snow free.