Peaks: 5 (1/2); Vestal Peak, West Trinity, Trinity Peak, East Trinity, Arrow Peak, and 'The Kurzhorn'
Days: 4 (8/19 - 8/22)
Trailhead: Molas Lakes
Mileage: 26.25 (Though everyone's gpx has a different amount)
Vert: 11,908'
Note: The GPX file attached to this report is one that I cobbled together before my trip and that I found helpful. This is not a recording of my exact path, but it matches closely with my route

On my journey to climb all of the Cents, the Vestal Basin peaks have stood out in my mind for a long time. They are so iconic looking, so remote, and have so much scrambling that I had built up this trip in my mind. I was able to find a good weather window this last week so I decided to pull the trigger and venture deep in to the Weminuche. After a lot of bugs, scrapes, rain, animals, and about 10,000 pictures, I was able to nab Cent # 98,99 and 100! Only Longs Peak to come in a few weeks. I hadn't seen a trip report that linked Vestal and the Trinities, so I thought I could add something to future climbers wanting to go this route.

Day 1: Molas Lakes TH up to Vestal Basin
9 miles, 3,050' vertical

After the 7 hour drive to the Molas lakes trailhead I got a few hours of sleep, then got moving by headlamp at around 5:45. The sun was just starting to rise as I meandered down the open, easy trail. I could just see the tips of my destination peaks catching the morning light as my legs got warmed up. Finally the trail starts to lose elevation, but pretty soon you hit a long, slightly uphill section that will be a godsend on the climb out in a few days. Finally you will come to the switchback section where you finally get a view of the Animas River and see how much vertical you have to drop

The switchbacks down to the river are on the Colorado Trail so they are very well maintained. I was able to make good time and it took me 1:25 to get from the car to the River. You'll cross over a nice bridge to get to the other side of the Animas and turn right to follow the train tracks for a hundred yards or so. On the left side of the tracks you'll see a Colorado Trail post and the trail starting a rising traverse up the left slope. The trail up Elk Creek is very mellow with a few steeper sections, but in general it is a really easy to just crank through the miles up to the Beaver Pond. There are several good campsites on the trail and I dropped GPS pins in some of them to possibly use on the way out.

The trail mellows around 10,000' as you approach the Beaver Ponds. The views here of Arrow and Vestal rising above the tranquil ponds is pretty amazing. There are also several good campsites here. There is a large boulder at the end of the pond which is where you turn off the trail. Turn right just after the boulder and walk right along the shore of the pond until the trail reappears after the pond. The trail up to Vestal Basin gets much steeper and after the manicured Colorado Trail it is much rougher. There is some deadfall on the trail and it meanders through some dense forest, but compared to some other Weminuche approaches I've done it the last few years it wasn't really that bad.

Around 11,200' the trail mellows out a little and you start to see why this is such a famous basin. You walk through the trees until they finally open up until you see...

This is a truly stunning basin, and I got great views of all 5 peaks that were on my list. I got up to the basin at 11:30 on a Saturday and there was only one other tent, but by the end of the day there were 6 other groups in the basin. I got by far the best camp spot which is on on a rocky outcropping on the left side of the trail. It had stunning views of Vestal and I spent hours in camp just looking up at its imposing face.

Day 2: Vestal Peak to Trinity Traverse
5.92 miles, 4,222' vert

The weather on day 2 looked amazing all day so I was confident doing a long link-up. This is a very bad route to get caught in a storm so only do this if you are VERY confident about the forecast. I left trail at 5:05 by headlamp. The trail split up to the Arrow/Vestal basin is pretty clear.

The trail going to the upper basin we very clearly defined, but it was steep. You gain around 600' vertical very quickly and it was very easy to do via headlamp. At 12k' the trail really mellows and turns into a rock moraine where you can pick any path you want. The ground is definitely more rocky, but its consolidated and really easy hiking

As you hike between the imposing Vestal and Arrow peaks you will see the saddle rise up steeply from the basin. There is probably only 300' of vertical on this last section to the saddle, but it is a horribly loose scree that really sapped my energy. Even Gerry Roach talked about it with dread so you know that is must be unpleasant. After trudging up the loose slopes I made it to the saddle 90 minutes after leaving the tent. Once on the saddle you turn left and do a rising traverse along a small bench on the south side of Vestal until you go around a ridge. Its easy C2 hiking and there are a few cairns including one on the far ridge that is easy to spot

After I got to the ridge I kept traversing for maybe 20 or 30 yards until I got into the obvious gully which will take you to the summit. Supposedly you can take other routes up but they are much steeper and more technical, so finding the right gully will be extremely helpful

The gully itself is pretty tame and I found that sticking to the left side of the climb had much better rock. There is the possibility of rockfall here so be careful about your step and watch out for people above you. I found most of the climb to be Class 2 with some Class 3 mixed in there occasionally. I aimed a little left at the top to reach the summit ridge and the the summit is a short hop away. I couldn't see down Wham Ridge from the summit, but the views are still something amazing

The way down the gully is pretty self explanatory and I retraced my steps until right around when I entered the gully. If you are continuing on the the Trinity traverse you will cross over to the east side of the gully around 13,200' and drop down below of a few small gendarmes. There is a notch in the ridge with a cairn which indicates where to cross over, but it should be very obvious just by looking through any gaps in the ridge

After I crossed the ridge I saw the "The Kurzhorn" which is a glorified bump on a ridge, but you can tick it off on the site. I'm only the 20th member to tick it, but that might because most people didn't even think it would count. From the Kurzhorn the ridge over to West Trinity is an easy if uninspiring C2 hike. It took me an hour and a half to get from the summit of Vestal to the start of the West Trinity climb.

The sun was in the perfectly wrong spot to take pictures of the W Trinity climb, but its relatively straight forward. I hiked about 350' vertical feet up solid scree/talus slopes sticking to the ridge or just to the right of it. Eventually a headwall will appear on the ridge and I found some gullies or ribs on the south (right) of the ridge to climb. It looks like there are several options that are all around Class 4, but I stuck to the left-most rib and it was a good climb. After passing that difficulty I regained the ridge and have a fun climb with some exposure to the summit of West Trinity. There are occasionally some cairns on this climb, but I could almost never spot the next one. Its a fairly obvious route if you follow the general direction of the GPS

From W Trinity I headed down the gully from the summit to drop down to the right (south) side of the saddle. Here I traversed horizontally on obvious ledges/benches with the help of some cairns

I passed over a few ribs on this traverse, but soon the benches seem to end. I looked uphill and saw that there were several cairns leading up the broken, blocky terrain taking me in the direction of the summit

After following the cairns up I came to the bottom of the 4th Class chimney which I think is the crux of the climb, but is very secure. There were 4 or 5 cairns at the base of the chimney but not any above it. The holds are all really positive and the rock is bomber, so its just a matter of climbing up the ladder. For what its worth I thought that this was easier than the chimney on North Maroon.

At the top of the chimney there is a big ledge. It looks tempting to go to the right, but that leads to a cliffed out section. Instead, you can either go straight forward from the chimney on some more C4 moves, or a little left to work back up closer to the ridge. I ended up going all the way up to the ridge, but this turned out to be a little gendarme and I had to downclimb a little after moving closer to the summit. I think that there is probably a route that stays under the ridge proper but moves right (east) towards the summit. There were a few Class 4 moves after the chimney, but nothing sustained

After basking in the views, I found the descent gully which is basically heading straight for East Trinity. This gully looked daunting from the top and is definitely the loosest climbing on the Trinities, but it was easier than I was expecting and you can scout the route up East Trinity as you descend

After I descended to the saddle, I crossed the gully a little downhill of the saddle itself. Once on the other side I was able to cruise up the sustained, but easy Class 3 gully

The bottom half of E Trinty was easy climbing, but you could see where things steepened up higher. There was another party in front of me who stuck on more the left side of the gully (other trip reports have done this as well), but I though that going right at the top of the gully seemed a little easier. Either way, the climbing gets steeper and gets into some occasional Class 4 moves, but there wasn't anything harder than other sections of the climb. Once I got to the summit ridge I had to do a slightly airy traverse to get over to the summit itself (this could have been avoided if you go the more left option on the climb)

The technical part is over, a slightly tedious descent and trek back to the tent remained. The hike down the backside of East Trinity isn't super technical, but its loose enough to be a real pain. It was slow-going at a part of the day I just wanted to be done. I descended on the east face but mostly followed the ridge down down to the saddle.

After dropping 400ish feet I aimed for the ridge and crossed it to get a great view of Trinity Lake and the saddle that I would descend from back into Vestal Basin. This final descent to the saddle was slightly more technical but nothing crazy. Looking at other trip report some people (like myself) went down to the saddle, then turned left and descended into the basin, but others turned left and descended before reaching the saddle proper. Either way its some loose scree that will take you down to the Upper Vestal Lake

After descending I stayed to the right side of the lake. After a lot of talus hopping the ground turns more lush and you are able to walk on the grass down the valley

I was expecting more of a trail on this section but never found one. I followed the GPS route I had saved (attached to this report) and it worked pretty well. There are some willow sections I had to bash through, but in the grand scheme of things it wasn't too bad, just longer than I had anticipated

After dropping into a few basins, I finally found a trail that took me back to camp. The hike after dropping form the final saddle wasn't hard, but it took longer than I expected. The weather was still excellent so I took my sweet time getting back to the tent on this enjoyable terrain

Here are the splits for my day. I am an efficient scrambler in OK shape, but not like some of you trail-running sadists on here

Tent to Arrow Vestal Saddle - 1:30
Saddle to Vestal Summit - 1:02
Vestal Summit to W Trinity Saddle- 1:25
Saddle to West Trinity - 0:55
W Trinity to Trinity - 1:40
Trinity to East Trinity - 1:15
East Trinity to Camp - 2:40 (though I was going at a leisurely pace)

All-in-all I took a little over 10 hours to do the full traverse. I knew I had a weather window so I wasn't pushing as hard as I could, but this is a big day no matter how you slice it. Once you get into the Trinity Traverse proper it is very hard to bail and this is NOT the terrain you want to be caught in a storm in. I would only attempt this if you have an excellent forecast. However, its one hell of a day and a really great way to bag 4 peaks.

Day 3: Arrow and moving camp
Arrow - 2.3 miles, 2,400' vert
Moving Camp - 4ish miles, -2,000' vert

Since I knocked out the other 4 peaks the day before, I just had Arrow to knock out on Day 3. Since it was a short day I slept in a little and started on the trail in the actual daylight. I humped up the same first hill to the upper basin. The trail disappears right as you crest the basin, but its very obvious where you're going and a climbers trail starts to appear as you get closer. You're aiming for the two grassy patches about 50 yards left of where the big, main ramp starts

The very start of the giant ramp the route takes is relatively steep, so Roach suggests climbing the grassy, broken benches to the left of the ramp's start. The climber's trail will take you right to the base of these and a few cairns showed where to go. Its pretty obvious and I just picked the path that seemed easiest. Once I got to the main ramp I followed it up on the climber's left side of things staying out of the corner near the vertical cliffs. The views of Vestal are pretty amazing and I saw a couple people climbing up Wham Ridge

The ramp is quite easy and you can choose to stay on the actual rock itself, or stick to the left side where there is grass and scree with occasional social trails. I followed this up for several hundred yards and it was a really pleasant hike. As you get about half way up the main ramp you will see a 2nd ramp appear on the climber's right side. Gaining this ramp this ramp will be key to keeping things at Class 3. As soon as I was able to I headed for this new ramp, but on the way down I realized it would have been easier to stay on the main ramp a little longer, and only cut over on the loose scree when the 2nd ramp starts to get harder to access.

This 2nd ramp is a little steeper and it started to get into Class 3 climbing. I again stuck to the left side of the ramp and it soon started to tilt a little and it became more of a rock rib. I stuck to this rib (more or less) until there was a headwall on the rib that blocked easy access.

Once I got to this headwall difficulty I cut back and forth across the rock rib following the easiest path. This is more sustained Class 3 climbing but there is always a cairn to mark the way and good rock. I think there are dozens of different ways you could get up this section and a lot of them seem to be about the same difficulty. If things get too hard, keep looking.

The rock rib will fade out as you get closer to the ridge. I kept hiking straight to the ridge and it was really fun Class 4 climbing with some exposure, but if you turn left sooner you can keep things easier with Class 3 climbing

From here it was just a little bit of fun Class 3 scrambling to get to the summit. Arrow was a really, really fun climb and it is worth a trip just for it. The descent went very quickly. On the rock slabs I just learned to trust my rubber and point my toes downhill to cruise down that vert. The rock was clean and really grippy, so if you trust your step you can move fast.

I got back to camp around 11 and didn't feel like sitting around for 9 hours at camp. Even though my legs were destroyed I thought it would be better to move camp down to the Colorado Trail and get a little closer to the trailhead. Backpacking down the vestal basin approach was a tedious pain, but once I got down to the CT it felt like I was walking on air in comparison. I had pinned a couple camp spots on my way up so I chose something about halfway down to the Animas River and promptly passed out

Day 4: Back to Molas Lakes TH
5ish miles, 1,700' vert

I knew I had the hike back up to the TH from the river, and I was frankly dreading the climb on my frayed legs. To make things even better, it start to rain at 5am so I had to tiredly pack up camp while trying to stay as dry as possible. Loaded up with my raincoat and backpack covering I headed down the trail and the gentle downhill to the Animas was a great way to wake the legs up. Once at the river I put on my pump-up playlist, tightened my pack at set out to climb the seemingly endless switchbacks. The trail is really well maintained and never gets very steep, but I'll tell you that the hike up the 1,500' to the end of the switchbacks was a fight. Once things opened up and I was actually pointed towards the trailhead it was just a matter of trudging along. The rain had been intermittent, but seeing the clouds pour through the valleys was actually quite pretty. As I got closer to the trailhead I heard the sound of cars for the first time in 4 days and it was almost jarring compared to the relative silence of the basin.

Finally I made it up the last gentle slopes to the Molas Lakes TH, changed out of my nasty clothes, chugged a coffee, and set of for a tiny little 7 hour drive back home. This was a trip I had been dreaming about for years, and it really lived up to my expectations. The Weminuche is my happy place, and being so far into the backcountry always is a treat. When you combine that with a lot of high quality scrambling and the unreal views, it truly is a special place. Now I just need to come back and do Wham Ridge itself!

And with that, I am now at 100/101 for the Cents (102/103 if you include Dallas and Teakettle form the historic list) and now its on Longs Peak as both my Cent and 14er finisher. I'm beyond stoked, but now just need to let my body heal up a bit before I beat it up some more on Longs. So close!

Hope this report helps people going back to do these peaks. As a reminder the GPX attached here is a file I cobbled together from several other peoples trips and isn't actually my route. However, it was very helpful in a few places and I stayed pretty close to it.