Winter Uncompahgre

A winter Uncompahgre Peak has been at the top of my list for a few years now. For various reasons it kept getting postponed, so this year I made it a priority to do it on or around the winter solstice. I started tracking the weather for Uncompahgre at the beginning of December and was hoping for a good weather window. Luckily, a perfect forecast presented itself for a climb on the solstice and all I needed now was a partner. The partner I had planned on going with had to bail because of work.

Fortunately, Anthony (username astranko) stepped up and was happy to join me with just a days notice. I only had to twist his arm a little by offering to drive. We had never climbed together, but he had an impressive resume so I was confident we'd make a great team.

Day of Climb: Thursday, December 22nd 2023

Peak: Uncompahgre Peak

Trailhead: Nellie Creek Road 2wd trailhead

Mileage and Elevation Gain: Approximately 15.3 miles and 5,500 feet of gain

The drive from Fort Collins was longer than expected because of I-25 traffic, and we made it to the Nellie Creek Road 2wd trailhead around midnight. Henson Creek Road was plowed to there as usual. There is no plowing up Nellie Creek Road though making Uncompahgre a bit more difficult in winter. We would need to hike the 4 mile 4wd road, but luckily a trench had already been established the week prior(by username awestra - a big thanks!) and it still looked mostly intact.

After not much sleep, we started our climb just after 5 in the morning with a temperature of -4. We booted quickly up Nellie Creek Road to the 4wd trailhead arriving shortly after first light. We were very thankful for the trench.

At the 4wd trailhead we put on our snowshoes and continued following the nice trench to treeline. As we broke out of the trees the views of Uncompahgre were magnificent. We then crossed Nellie Creek and ascended a steep, thinly covered snow slope to reach the large basin below Uncompahgre. Later in the winter you'd probably want to avoid this slope.

Once in the basin we traveled west towards the gentle south ridge of Uncompahgre. For the most part, we were following the standard trail here while reestablishing the remnants of the aforementioned trench. The wind had done a number on it though, but it still provided a crusty layer for us to work with.

We cruised across the basin without much trouble. Anthony dropped his snowshoes at the base of the south ridge. I kept mine on until after climbing to the ridge where we found an exposed standard trail and I stashed my snowshoes there. The ridge was pretty wind scoured and we were able to boot it quite easily. The chances of needing our snowshoes again was nearly zero.

At around 13,400 feet we reached the base of Uncompahgres southeast face. There was one short snow crossing here to access the face that felt a little sketch, but luckily, it was only a handful of steps at fairly low angle. We then went straight up the left side of the face rather than the standard route switchbacks. This was a steep ascent but mostly windblown with rocks showing.

Once at the ridge crest, we took a moment to rest and then continued over to the west facing crux of the route. We encountered very little snow from here to the summit and spikes were not even necessary.

At the crux, Anthony took a class 3 option up the west face which looked fun but unnecessary. I went further left of him to access the class 2 standard crux area. There are 2 ways to go here(one on either side of the tower), I chose the right side of the tower which had snow at the entrance but was mostly dry after that. This fun, staircase like section reminded me of the Wetterhorn crux although not nearly as steep. On descent later, we missed this section and went down on the other side of the tower which I found much more loose and unpleasant.

After the crux, we were now confident we'd be able to summit. I had my doubts for much of the climb. Anthony had been struggling since treeline having not fully recovered from a respiratory illness. I'm pretty sure he contemplated turning long ago, but he kept pushing. He dug deep(for which I was grateful) to get this summit and was a great partner.

Thankfully, it was easy going the rest of the way to the summit plateau with little snow to concern ourselves with and almost no wind. Amazingly, the only real wind we had encountered all day was on the south ridge and that was probably barely 10 mph. We were both elated to reach the summit.

The summit views were amazingly beautiful in all directions! We could not have asked for better conditions and weather to get our Uncompahgre snowflakes. I had climbed Uncompahgre back in the fall of 2019 along with Wetterhorn and Matterhorn and was not impressed(which I know is not a common opinion). Sure, it was a great climb that day, but I didn’t see why it was so highly regarded over other 14ers(the extremely dry fall that year may have contributed to this feeling). I have to take that back now though. Uncompahgre was a super enjoyable, picturesque winter climb.