Wetterhorn Peak Trip Report 07/05/2006

Report Type	Full
Peak(s)	Wetterhorn Peak - 14,021 feet
Date Posted	07/05/2006
Date Climbed	07/02/2006
Author	fleetmack

Wetterhorn Peak via Matterhorn Creak Trailhead
Aaron, Jacob, Miriah, and I arrived in Gunnison around 7:00p.m. on Saturday night after rafting Brown's Canyon with Noah's Ark rafting company that afternoon. We checked into the Quality Inn. We had dinner and a few Budweisers at Mario's Pizza, great place -- great place. Went back to the hotel (great hotel, by the way) and crashed around 10pm. Around 3:30a.m., we woke up and were packed & checked out of the hotel by 4a.m. You take HWY 50 about 10 miles west of Gunnison where you catch HWY 149. Take this winding road for about 50 miles (watch out for deer, we saw about 15 of them) until you get to Lake City. In lake city, take a right on Second St. for 2 blocks until you get to the North Henson Road trail. This is all accessible by any car to this point. Take this road for about 8.8 miles (all gravel with a few rocks sporatically), then take a right at a Y intersection. From here, high clearance and 4wd is all but necessary ... take this road up to 11.4 miles where the trailhead and small parking area exists ... After some leftover Mario's pizza and packing up shop, we were on the trail by 6:15am. The hike starts out pretty standard at 10,800 feet. You hike for a good 3/4 of a mile, then the trail splits ... hang a right (even though it appears you should go left) ... it switches back towards Wetterhorn in about 5 mintues, then you cut through some trees again. Out of the trees, you can finally view Wetterhorn peak to your left (we were unsure which peak it was until this point). You go through a neat boulder field ... ...then hike across a short snow field or two up to the brownish saddle. From here the climb gets fun and into some class 2 and 3 maneuvers. We noticed in the distance that clouds may be coming in so we decided to hurry it up. After boulder hopping for awhile, you get to some areas where you need to free climb and make sure your steps are in tact and the rocks are sturdy (which they were for the mostpart). We made the mistake of curving around to the right of the prow instead of taking a "shortcut" that went straight to it (that everyone else we saw that day took), that's where the cairns led us. This brought us to an area I hated ... scree with no good handles while climbing up. I can honestly say I got scared at this point for a good 15 feet or so as I had no confidence in my steps or handles. After that whole debacle, we made it to the Prow and climbed up and over. From this point, you have about 100' of elevation gain left, all Class 3 free climbing. It's relatively simple, just make sure you've got your grip. It can be very intimidating and scary if you look down ... so I just didn't look down and I was 100% fine and confident. We reached the summit around 9:50 for a total climb of just over 3 1/2 hours. The clouds were rolling in hardcore at this point so we only stayed on the summit about 5 minutes ... just enough time for Gatorade and pictures. We flew down the mountain ... after some brief bouts with hail and some light rain, we made it down the mountain in about 1 3/4 hours ... back to the car at 11:45, back to Gunnison around 2:00, back to Denver around 6:00. All in all, this is easily in the top 2 best 14ers I've climbed. The sense of accomplishment of Long's was better than this, but the views and the challenge of the hard parts were every bit as challenging. If it were closer, I'd climb this mountain every year. Link to all the pictures (90 total): http://www.fleetmack.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=1202 Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Wetterhorn Peak via Matterhorn Creak Trailhead

Aaron, Jacob, Miriah, and I arrived in Gunnison around 7:00p.m. on Saturday night after rafting Brown's Canyon with Noah's Ark rafting company that afternoon. We checked into the Quality Inn. We had dinner and a few Budweisers at Mario's Pizza, great place -- great place. Went back to the hotel (great hotel, by the way) and crashed around 10pm. Around 3:30a.m., we woke up and were packed & checked out of the hotel by 4a.m. You take HWY 50 about 10 miles west of Gunnison where you catch HWY 149. Take this winding road for about 50 miles (watch out for deer, we saw about 15 of them) until you get to Lake City. In lake city, take a right on Second St. for 2 blocks until you get to the North Henson Road trail. This is all accessible by any car to this point. Take this road for about 8.8 miles (all gravel with a few rocks sporatically), then take a right at a Y intersection. From here, high clearance and 4wd is all but necessary ... take this road up to 11.4 miles where the trailhead and small parking area exists ...

After some leftover Mario's pizza and packing up shop, we were on the trail by 6:15am. The hike starts out pretty standard at 10,800 feet. You hike for a good 3/4 of a mile, then the trail splits ... hang a right (even though it appears you should go left) ... it switches back towards Wetterhorn in about 5 mintues, then you cut through some trees again. Out of the trees, you can finally view Wetterhorn peak to your left (we were unsure which peak it was until this point).

You go through a neat boulder field ...

...then hike across a short snow field or two up to the brownish saddle.

From here the climb gets fun and into some class 2 and 3 maneuvers. We noticed in the distance that clouds may be coming in so we decided to hurry it up.

After boulder hopping for awhile, you get to some areas where you need to free climb and make sure your steps are in tact and the rocks are sturdy (which they were for the mostpart). We made the mistake of curving around to the right of the prow instead of taking a "shortcut" that went straight to it (that everyone else we saw that day took), that's where the cairns led us. This brought us to an area I hated ... scree with no good handles while climbing up. I can honestly say I got scared at this point for a good 15 feet or so as I had no confidence in my steps or handles. After that whole debacle, we made it to the Prow and climbed up and over. From this point, you have about 100' of elevation gain left, all Class 3 free climbing.

It's relatively simple, just make sure you've got your grip. It can be very intimidating and scary if you look down ... so I just didn't look down and I was 100% fine and confident.

We reached the summit around 9:50 for a total climb of just over 3 1/2 hours. The clouds were rolling in hardcore at this point so we only stayed on the summit about 5 minutes ... just enough time for Gatorade and pictures. We flew down the mountain ... after some brief bouts with hail and some light rain, we made it down the mountain in about 1 3/4 hours ... back to the car at 11:45, back to Gunnison around 2:00, back to Denver around 6:00.

All in all, this is easily in the top 2 best 14ers I've climbed. The sense of accomplishment of Long's was better than this, but the views and the challenge of the hard parts were every bit as challenging. If it were closer, I'd climb this mountain every year.

Link to all the pictures (90 total):
http://www.fleetmack.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=1202

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

James Scott

Where...
3/10/2009 4:04pm

in Capitol Hill do you live? I‘m at 6th and York. Are you planning on a busy summer? We should try to hook up at some point, either for a climb, or just for beers and mountain talk.
James

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