San Luis via Stewart Creek standard route
Ascent: 2h 45m
Descent: 1h 55m
START OF LAME PERSONAL STORY, SKIP IF YOU JUST WANT MOUNTAIN INFO
This past February my buddy Chad and I did Sunshine/Redcloud and had a hell of a trip, an absolute blast. About 2 days later I felt what I thought was a sprained muscle in my left leg. By that weekend, it was obvious something was seriously wrong with my leg. I had this happen once before 10 years ago and I'll never forget the pain. I recognized I had a blood clot in my leg and drove to the ER and informed them of this information. I was met by the ER nurse & doctor with a puzzled look. "Surely you don't have a blood clot." They hooked up the ultrasound, and not one, but two blood clots were in my left leg. 10 years ago it was my right leg. I was a mix of emotions, and none of them good. Since this was my second time around the block, I knew I was going to be on blood thinners for the rest of my life.
I met with several different hematologists over the following weeks and that fear was confirmed. I tested positive for Factor V disorder. What can you do, right? Well I could mope around and feel sorry for myself and throw away my hobbies, that actually sounded like a good option when I was in the ER and they broke the news (that I already knew) to me. I was feeling pretty down about everything right then. My recovery time was supposed to be 6-8 weeks to clear the blood clots. Too long, I wanted to get back to working out. Within 3 weeks I was running again. By week 6, I was feeling great. But what about mountaineering and snowboarding? Doing those on blood thinners isn't exactly a great idea.
My doctors switched my from the standard warfarin they prescribe to a new drug called Xarelto. It allows me to easily manage the thickness of my blood. If I go climbing, I can just not take my pill in the morning and my blood is back to its normal thick self. Yes, I risk a clot in that time frame which would be quite rare, but I have to weigh my quality of life as well. There are side effects with it, its rare that I can even brush my teeth without bleeding to give you some idea. I decided to sell all my snowboarding gear and give up that hobby all together and just keep the mountaineering one. I can't just not take my potentially life-saving medication every time I go snowboarding, too much risk for developing a clot and the next time I may not be so lucky as to have it form in my legs. I have to keep a special first aid kit in my pack with all sorts of quick clotting materials and make sure my climbing partners know where it is and what's inside. Yeah this shouldn't be needed if the medicine works as intended, but I'm not about to chance anything. I also make sure everyone I climb with knows about my medical condition beforehand so they can make the call to go with me or not, and so far I'm batting 1.000 
Since this ordeal I climbed Conundrum Couloir with Chad, and I'll be damned if that wasn't the best summit I've ever had in my life. Then I did Maroon a few weeks later with Mike and his wife, and still everything with my legs is feeling great.
I used to have dreams of doing big mountains internationally. Being realistic, that may be out of reach. Withholding the medication from my body for days or weeks on end just isn't worth the risk to me. Sucks, but I'm just grateful to have regained all the strength in my leg and be back hitting peaks.
END OF LAME PERSONAL STORY
Back to San Luis...what a great, underrated mountain. I've had a lot of great trips to the 14ers, and this one definitely ranks up there. A beautiful trail, from the trailhead all the way to the summit. You'd have to try pretty hard to get lost on this thing, which is quite amazing considering how remote this mountain is. Speaking of remote...it requires about 30 miles of dirt road driving, one way, if that gives you an idea. I didn't appreciate the drive in, it was an overcast evening and I was too busy making sure I didn't take the wrong road. On the way out I realized how scenic the drive actually is.
My "campsite"
I saw a grand total of 8 other people on the trail. Which for a summer Saturday for a class 1 is quite amazing. I hope it stays that way and this gem of a mountain is preserved. Here are some pictures of the early part of the route. These were taken on my way out, as it was dark on my ascent.
I had started my hike at 4:30 and as I was cruising past the many beaver ponds I thought to myself, "What if there is a bear up ahead. That would suck I guess." All of a sudden "THWACK!", I about jumped out of my shorts. Turned out it was just a beaver slapping his tail on the water.
Sunrise did not disappoint either:
The meandering, mellow trail out of treeline up to the saddle was great too. I hardly noticed I was gaining elevation. As soon as you hit the top of the ridge after the willows, you can see the summit from there. There are no false summits to report on this mountain! Here are some shots of the area after tree line and before the summit:
San Luis is behind this guy:
Nearing the top of the saddle:
Top of the saddle, summit in sight:
From the top of the saddle there is some talus to deal with. However on the 0-10 scale of Columbia/Maroon/Challenger scale of talus suck, this rates about a .2.
Some summit shots:
CHEESE:
Unc/Wet looking nice:
Pano:
The descent was as easy as I imagined it was going to be, with the exceptional trail to cruise down. I snapped a couple more wildflower shots, they were bursting all over the area
I got back to my car and was not looking forward to the hour of dirt road ahead of me, but as referenced earlier I ended up having a great time driving out. My head was on a swivel the whole time. I had to stop and eat lunch (Reese's & Redbull) on the ride out to take my sweet time and take in the solitude and the views.
I can see why not many people come here, even with it being a class 1. It's hard to get to, but it's so worth it. I'd much rather drive a few more hours than be in a Bierstadt conga line. If taking someone up a first 14er, this would give them MUCH more of a real mountain feel as well. Wait nevermind, take them to Bierstadt. Keep this thing the way it is.
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