The Guardian

Route: Southwest Face
Posted On: 10/12/2024, By: supranihilest
Info: We followed Otina's route from Stormy Gulch to the Guardian/Silex saddle (see https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=21400). This approach is awesome and easier on the ascent. Be careful descending it, the cliffs aren't as visible and can be confusing. Surely very few have ever been in this pristine basin. From the saddle the route over to the Guardian looks improbable - nothing but super steep rock ledges giving way to super steep dirt ledges abbreviated with cliffs. The key to the easiest way across the massive face is finding the right route. We scrambled down (Class 3) too far, probably 50 or so feet, since the upper part of the route looked much more difficult. This turned out to be the opposite of reality. We picked our way across the face on dangerous, down sloping dirt ledges and steep talus gullies trying to keep the route at Class 2+. We were successful at doing this but every foot placement was done with focus, the hands were often tiny crimps or entirely absent balancing acts, and everything moved. Quite unpleasant. What we should have done is stayed higher even though it looked harder. Take the time to find the well-cairned route, which begins maybe 25-30 feet below the saddle and traverses without gaining or losing more than a couple of feet. If you can't see cairns you're probably below the route. This traverse is on a relatively wide, solid ledge which is mostly Class 2. We found it on our way back and it was much faster and safer. The face opens as you get closer to the mess of summit cliffs. We were looking for a Class 2 gully and walked past it thinking it would be more obvious. This was actually OK since the more obvious gully we went up, which was Class 3, borderline Class 4, contained some solid scrambling and wasn't 100% a mess of loose talus... just like 95%. It curved back to climber's left to the summit, where the gully we missed is now dead obvious. We descended this gully and it was dangerously loose. We down climbed it in pitches and I set off a huge rockslide near the bottom, so take your time and be careful climbing down this gully. It would not have been nice to climb up. We found the right traverse on the way back, which again is well worth the time it will take to find it. 

Route: HB pass to silex/guardian saddle
Posted On: 9/15/2024, By: Skimo95
Info: Switching plans around several times for these peaks I had to settle on a late day trip due to weather. I started at Hunchback Pass around 11am, and made good time to the campground below Storm King. I found great game trails on the NE>SE flank of silex. Dropped pack on the saddle and tagged both summits. I found staying to the side of the ridge on silex for a bit to be ideal before gaining the ridge direct. Ascending guardian, theres a high and low traverse of the middle towers. It can get tricky but both work, just use your route finding skills and itll go swiftly. After the game trails, there will be a series of ledges. This can be kept at class 3- or easier id imagine. I hugged the talus to gain the ledges initially, but on descent I found a nice grass patch back to them. The first two stream crossings on HB are heavily contaminated, imagine using a die grinder on rust for 30min. The water on trinity/vallecito was fine though. 

Route: East Bowl
Posted On: 8/25/2023, By: CarpeDM
Info: I'm not sure if we found the best way into Stormy Gulch from the Vallecito trail. Our creek crossing did not agree with the descriptions that I had read elsewhere, but there was a small cairn leading to a downed tree crossing immediately below the waterfall. Getting to and away from the downed tree was cumbersome with a backpack, and we never found a campsite on the far side of the creek -- as I had read elsewhere -- but this was obviously a good place to cross that we weren't the first to use. Then, between some stretches of annoying bushwhacking, we eventually found, then lost, then found again a trail that was sometimes pretty good and which ended with a wonderful campsite in a clearing just below 11,000 feet. When we went for the East Bowl route on Guardian and Silex, we found pretty good trail pretty much as soon as we crossed Trinity Creek directly south of the campsite. We again lost and found this trail a couple of times, but it was a good strong trail for the most part, and when it's not, it's still easy off-trail hiking. The trail finally peters out once you make the turn into the East Bowl. Then, just piece together some ledges -- mostly class 2 grass and talus -- up to the saddle. You can throw in a few class 3 moves if you want. For the Guardian, we had heard it was well cairned, and it in fact was -- at least the ledges over to the final pitch. We got confused at that point because we stopped seeing cairns. It's not too difficult to the summit; it was just perplexing and made us attempt some stuff that was harder than necessary. Also, we returned on a lower ledge than the cairned route, and that return was easier. I was unimpressed with this mountain, but -- thinking about the options -- the East Bowl does seem to be hands down the best way to approach it. Check bergsteigen's TR for more on the route. 

Route: From Silex
Posted On: 7/18/2023, By: blazintoes
Info: Crossed Vallecito creek first from Rock Lake trail then Vallecito trail on a downed tree and hiked up to 10,000 set up camp and eventually found the Leviathan Trail. We continued up the drainage west of the waterfall at 11,000 and found an established trail that skirted around Peak 9s sub summit. There is a little bit of snow in the basin. We climbed the scree southeast face to the west ridge of Silex then traversed on the fantastic ridge to the Guardian. Excellent scrambling and well cairned. We enjoyed sunshine on Guardians summit and descended its south ridge to west face back down into the basin and found another game trail that skirted Guardians southeast contour at 12,800 back down to the main trail and back to camp. Fun day with a fun partner on remote Weiminuche peaks. Got attacked by flies. Bring bug spray. 

Route: Leviathan Basin
Posted On: 8/6/2022, By: pbradley14er
Info: Approached from campsite in upper Tenmile drainage. Went around to Peak Seven/Peak Eight saddle, then around south side of Peak Nine to basin below Mt. Silex and the Guardian. Summer conditions, no snow. My partner and I found this route to be very nice and other than some extra distance and elevation gain, I suspect it was preferable to crossing under the north side of Peak Nine. Once we got on the ledge from Mt. Silex to the Guardian, the route is pretty obvious with intermittent use trail and cairns. We found the descent of the class 2 gulley to be arduous and we had to be careful not to knock rocks loose on each other. Hiking back to camp through the grass south of Peak Nine was enjoyable. 

Route: From Mt Silex
Posted On: 9/28/2020, By: WildWanderer
Info: Summer conditions 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 9/21/2020, By: Grover
Info: The Guardian is snow free. Same beta applies here as I listed for Mt. Silex. The ledge system you use to reach The Guardian from Silex is not an exact science, but I was never in a spot that I was trapped or blocked off. The tip for going up to the summit is use the ledge system to go to the south facing spine, and when you reach that, you go up, i.e. don't cross over to the SE face. Summit register is merely a plastic container with a piece of paper containing words of wisdom; no paper or writing instrument. Photo 1: Looking at The Guardian from Silex. Photo 2: The view of Silex and The Guardian from Leviathan Peak.