"V 10" has a reputation that precedes it. Various high praise includes "exceedingly loose rock (think Elk Range, only worse)," "extreme care was needed. Did I mention that the rock was loose?," "I chose my way up and regretted it after the first ten feet," "some of the sketchier class 3 scrambling I have done in the San Juans," "one slip and I would be launched off 200-400 foot cliffs," and "[a] shocking garbagefest." Sounds amazing, doesn't it? "V 10" is a teetering pile of barely held together dinner plates, the type of ancient dinosaur shit mound turned into a mountain that's miraculously glued together with bubblegum and prayers. Its nearby parent, granitic Grizzly Peak, is a far sight better and is more reminiscent of the Weminuche than the San Miguel which it anchors. The duo is a bit odd together but most people attempt to combine the two, usually via terrible and sketchy sounding scrambling between them.

I'd already done Grizzly once with Whiley and we'd turned around trying to reach "V 10" due to the grueling willow bashing up Cascade Creek. This gave me an opportunity to return later and try "V 10" on snow to cover up the miserable dinner plate approach. Along for the ride were Amy "blazintoes," Michael "Boggy B," and Vera. No fancy pseudonym there. That's literally their name. Vera and I had never climbed with either Amy or Michael at this point, so we were stoked to get after it with some of our heroes. Michael suggested we also add on Grizzly via its north couloir since Amy and Vera both needed it. Deal. Sold. More snow climbing? Count me in.

We knew that the approaches Michael and I had taken before - from Bolam Pass and Cascade Creek, respectively - would be very long with snow, so approaching from the Bandora Mine trail that departs from the 4WD section of the South Mineral Creek Road beyond the South Mineral campground would be best. We were able to park about a mile and a half from the start of the trail. Walking the snowy road the rest of the way to trail would be easy. We met up at 3am and were on the move about 15 minutes later. The trail would take us to Hope Pass, separating "V 9" and Point 13,302 (this peak is often mistakenly called "V 8"), and from there we'd depart the trail and pass through a ragged gash Michael noted on "V 9"'s west ridge.

We dropped a little bit on the other side of the pass and began contouring towards the low point in the ridge, which took us about 20 minutes to reach and 10 to climb.

At the top of the ridge cleft we were granted spectacular views of Grizzly and "V 10". We had our work cut out for us as there would be a significant drop in elevation to reach Grizzly a long distance away, another big drop to reach "V 10", and then a final big drop and climb to get back.

Snow coverage on both peaks was excellent. I'd been a little concerned that "V 10" would be melted and we'd be forced to climb the steep trash on its north face but a couple of continuous snow tongues meant we'd be able to stay on snow for the steepest climbing to the ridge.

We dropped down into the shaded basin and made our way towards an angling snow ramp below the large, pointed tower between our two peaks. This ramp would be the key to accessing the north sides of both peaks.

The ramp proved to be expeditious to the bowl below Grizzly, offering an ascending traverse on Moderate Snow. Before we knew it we were under Grizzly's impressive north face.

When we were directly under the face we had to make a decision on which of the many couloirs to climb. The most obvious route was to just climb the main couloir, but Michael and I were interested in checking out the central couloir below the summit, which looked like it doglegged climber's right behind some towers to join the main couloir. If it terminated in a rock wall we'd just climb back down and go up the other way.

We could tell from a distance that the couloir didn't start off particularly steep.

What we couldn't tell was how steep the dogleg was. It took us until we were practically at the bottom of it before we could tell what it was like - even less steep than what we'd climbed up to reach it!

We sauntered across the dogleg and into the main couloir, which was a straight shot to the summit from where we were.

We climbed the remaining three or four hundred feet on perfect snow, topping out with nary a cloud nor a lick of wind.

Since we were already over five hours into our day, with the more difficult peak to go, we didn't wait on the summit long. Amy, Michael and I began down while Vera transitioned to skis. We all stayed in the main couloir this time since it was a lot more direct and saved a bit of time. Vera caught us partway down the couloir and skied far ahead across the ramp. They'd meet us below "V 10".

Re-crossing the ramp went quickly and we curved west around cliffs towards "V 10". We followed some rolling terrain en route to the upper basin. The snow covered up what was surely nasty San Miguel scree and talus.

The two snow tongues on the face were basically identical in pitch and length, so we climbed up the western tongue to save ourselves a bit of steep traversing at the top.

My stoke over the snow covering the terrible rock was redoubled as we climbed up. "V 10" lived up to its reputation. What a pile of crap!

The face is about 500 feet tall and would surely be a slip'n'slide nightmare when dry. We climbed straight up to the ridge and were still a little east of our gap, so Michael kicked steps horizontally across the face, then up to the gap.

The short traverse across the face was the steepest snow of the day and didn't require a second axe but was much more comfortable with the second. From the notch in the ridge we got sobering views of the south side of "V 10". Teetering indeed!

We left our packs at the notch so we weren't encumbered by the extra weight, took off our crampons, and began scrambling up the ridge. The scrambling was sustained Class 2+ with plenty of Class 3 thrown in, plus snow-covered poor rock that required testing of all the holds, and heady exposure. Even though the rock was junky and largely stacked haphazardly on top of itself I was pleasantly surprised by how bad it wasn't. I was expecting corn flake rock that disintegrated at the touch. This was bad but not that bad. For the most part the safest scrambling was right along the ridge crest. Moving a few feet on either side would have put us on slopes that were unlikely to support much more weight without dislodging the rock we'd be standing on.

Two main difficulties arose as we scrambled towards the summit. The first was a steep rib that blocked further progress along the south side of the ridge below the crest. We'd scrambled over one rib then taken a ledge to this point and scrambled steeply back to the ridge to bypass this rib.

From here we encountered easier scrambling towards the summit block.

The second main difficulty was the summit block itself, which was 20 or 25 feet of steep Class 3. There was really only one option up the block on ridge direct. The rest was vertical choss.

Once atop the scramble we had a short walk to the true summit. Difficulty here relented significantly - the only real walking portion since the gap between north and south faces - to Class 2 with a tiny bit of Class 2+.

It was about 10:30am when we reached "V 10" so we again didn't delay getting down. The involved scramble and snow softening were on our minds.

The scramble back down to the rib was pretty cool. I hadn't realized how narrow the ledges we'd climbed up actually were until I was looking down on them.

Down climbing this junk required extra care, especially footwork, to make sure the rocks wouldn't skitter out from under us. Cartoon banana peels are funny, real life banana peels that send you hurtling to your death not so much.

Once down the slope it was an easy walk back to the ridge break, where Michael, Amy and I down climbed the top couple hundred feet facing in. Vera, in typical badass Vera fashion, skied 500 feet of 30 to 50 degree snow in about nine seconds.

From the flats below the face we began the long trek back to "V 9"'s west ridge. No, we hadn't forgotten about the drop and even bigger gain we had to make before getting there.

The rest of the hike back to our cars from "V 9"'s ridge was easy, and gratefully almost all downhill. We were all bushed after this duo, but man was I glad to have done "V 10" on snow. "V 10" was my second to last San Miguel ranked thirteener and it's hard to imagine how miserable it would have been in dry conditions. I can't recommend it enough with snow, should that skill be in your wheelhouse. Grizzly was a great addition to the day - thanks for suggesting it, Michael - and we were all able to hunt in amazing and capable company with each other, which is always a pleasure.

Statistics

Climbers: Ben Feinstein (myself), Amy G-S., Michael D., Vera U.
Trailhead: Ophir Pass Road

Total distance: 15.11 miles
Total elevation gain: 6,750 feet
Total time: 11:50:30
Peaks: Two ranked thirteeners

• Grizzly Peak, 13,753'
• "V 10", 13,480'

Splits: