I wanted to make sure this report has a lot of photos and (maybe) less talking. Everyone gets their moment.

This climb was a long time coming. A group of us first discussed Teakettle back in early June, but myself and another person ended up calling it off due to questionable snow conditions (me bailing on snow climbs was apparently the theme of the spring). Unfortunately, our sherpa (osprey, also known as Tom) had an accident a couple of weeks later, and our plans for warm beverages appeared shelved for the year.

But as it turns out, Tom is partially made of vibranium and was back to hiking just a couple of short months later. Who knew?

The fall gathering was then announced to be in Lake City, and my wonderful wife was going to be out of town for the weekend. I knew that meant I was going to be driving to the San Juans no matter what; the question became for what peak? Half Peak would be fun, and I love the gatherings....but hey, there might be a window to order drinks! (I'll stop at some point, I promise).

So I put out the feelers. Even though these peaks are better done as snow climbs (as you'll soon see), everyone was in. We had a crew of five: myself, Brian prime (BKS), Brian squared (CheapCigarMan), Kirsten (koeffling), and our sherpa, Tom. The only question mark was the weather, and while gusts were supposed to be annoying enough to keep your attention, the full day of forecasted sunshine made us optimistic.

Kirsten, Brian prime, and I crammed in the trusty Crosstrek after work on Friday, drove 6 hours straight, and made it to Governer's Basin turnoff at 12:45 AM. We all promptly passed out, got our recommended 8 hours of sleep (math isn't my strong suit), and woke up to the blaring of my alarm at 3:30 AM. It seems early for a 4 1/2 mile hike....but we needed every minute we could get.

We started up the hill and immediately lost the trail in the dark. We talus hopped, walked up a stream bed, clawed our way up steep grass, and slip and slid our way up loose scree. It took forever. I don't have anything good to say about the slopes leading to Coffeepot's shoulder so I'll just say this: prior trip reports undersell how miserable it is. It's also step enough that if a backpack starts to roll, it'll pick up speed, roll 500 vertical feet, and take a header off a cliff. Ask us how we know...

Routefinding isn't bad if you know what you're doing (which we half did). Basically, go up, and stay to the right of any cliffs/outcroppings.

If you aren't hiking stupidly early in the morning, you can actually see Coffeepot (and Teakettle) from the parking lot at 11.3k. It looks so close!

Once on Coffeepot's shoulder (after a minor routefinding error.....stay right of everything....) we were greeted with an intimidating view of Teakettle. It's a freaking fortress of a peak. Luckily, there's a weakness: the black gully. Which is not really black, more of a poop brown. We floated other names for it. Several were partial to "the shit stain". I had to veto "the poop chute".

The gully goes quick, and we found ourselves on the upper plateau of Teakettle. From here, it's a quick traverse under the upper cliffs to the sandy gully, up the sandy gully, then a clear climber's trail to the summit block.

Finally, we made it to the summit block. It is somehow cooler in person than it is in pictures. It truly seems fake. Everyone got their handle shots, and we geared up to climb.

Now came the fun part. I was concerned earlier in the week about forecasted gusts to 50 MPH (which I guess is probably a bad thing when soloing), but that forecast dropped to gusts of 25-30. I soloed the block, brought up the rope, and set an anchor for the rest of the group to toprope.

I didn't think the climbing was that difficult. I felt there were maybe 3 or 4 moves of low fifth class. The first third of the climb is a class 3 scramble, then some slab climbing with a couple of cracks in it, then the upper chimney. The group consensus was the crux was the first move getting off the class 3 section. It consists of two vertical cracks, which lead to a high foot and easier climbing.

It takes a long time to get five people up and down an alpine pitch. Of course, we weren't in a hurry either, as the sun was shining and the atmosphere around this peak is otherworldly. We eventually had to meander, so we reversed course back to Coffeepot's shoulder.

After descending the gullies and traversing back to the top of the initial slope, Coffeepot lies only a hundred or so feet above. A quick jaunt up and around to the east of the 'Pot puts you at the base of a short, loose scramble to the final pitch. I soloed up and set an anchor again.

The class 5 section is short, maybe 20 feet. It's a chimney, but after the initial moves, the easiest route is up the south wall of the chimney. There is a picture perfect finger pocket on the south wall that made my day. I've never seen a better finger pocket, even made of plastic. The hardest move is the exit to the summit. You have to simultaneously duck under an overhanging block while getting your left foot high to pull the move. Fun climbing, easy class 5. I thought it was similar difficulty to Teakettle, the rest of the group found Teakettle harder.

Originally we were hoping to go for Potosi too, but the wind was started to pick up and we'd been out for a looooong time. Not moving, per se, but you know....out. We chose to start the descent back to the cars, which looked close enough to reach with a 9-iron.

The descent honestly wasn't as bad as I feared. The mountain is so loose it basically moves you down for you. But at least the views are great! Oh, and about the escaping backpack? Ask me at the next gathering.

To you GPSers out there: ignore the detour on the descent. That was in the name of backpack finding.