Wetterhorn Peak

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 5/27/2022, By: coopergould
Info: Near summer conditions on Wetterhorn today. Common sense snow work arounds and you'll be good. Unreal climb and a killer glissade to be had - go get it 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 5/1/2022, By: kcovingt1
Info: Very beautiful day in the basin. Didn't quite make the summit (bailed near the rock rib). Steep soft snow and lack of crampons had us turn around. Snow became soft quickly (~9 am in the basin). Around 12 we were post holing even with snowshoes in a few instances. Nearly continuous snow from the TH, where the 4WD road is not yet passable where there is still large drifts and we post holed in the afternoon to waist/chest deep snow. A truck and Forrester made it to the bottom of the 4WD road and we made it a mile past Central City in a Malibu. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 4/17/2022, By: Will_E
Info: Summitted Wetterhorn Saturday, I was expecting (and sort of looking forward to) a 20 mile day, but to my surprise, the road was open and dry all the way to Capitol City. I found a nice campsite just north of Capitol City, so started there. From the Capitol City turnoff to the start of the 4wd road, it a mix of dry and hard packed snow. After the start of the 4wd road the snow was fairly continuous, I used snowshoes from there to partway up the ridge. Didn't need anything from there to summit. Nice day, wind was bad on the ridge, but mellow at summit. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 2/13/2022, By: Wildernessjane
Info: Summited Wetterhorn today via Southeast Ridge/Matterhorn Creek. Road was snow covered with the exception of two dry patches from 1.25 to 1.75 miles in from the winter closure. There were old tracks up to the final turnoff approximately 1.2 miles after the lower summer trailhead. Final crux section of the route was completely dry. To this point, we wore crampons due to intermittent sections of crap snow and ice. We got some surprisingly good turns on the ski out, but expectations were low. As expected, conditions were highly variable above treeline. 

Route: East Face
Posted On: 11/6/2021, By: jtfoss1
Info: Reached the 4wd trailhead with a 4runner - it required a little creativity and perseverance due to the snow. Didn't encounter anyone else on the route. Snowshoes were necessary for large portions of the trail above treeline. The face appeared to have had a small avalanche, so we veered to the right side and ended up taking the east face instead of the standard route (probably a big mistake). We were less than 20 meters of elevation from the summit block when we noped out. The snow was questionable but also not deep enough to make the rocks easily passable. Rotten rock, slabby, slippery, etc. An ice tool was helpful but not enough to make us feel like we were 100% in control of the outcome of every move. Would not recommend this in the current conditions unless if you're super hardcore. It was fun, but super sketchy. My gps also recorded about a mile more than the track posted on the route description. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 10/21/2021, By: topekaavenue
Info: In a party of 3 (including self) we had a successful summit of Wetterhorn on 10/21 via Southeast Ridge. Road is mostly dry all the way to the trailhead. After passing the 0.7 miles left marker, you'll get a couple patches of ice. We carried snowshoes for a bit then eventually ditched them cause we realized they weren't necessary. We had microspikes but didn't use them. We had our ice axes but didn't use them (some spots along the trail when on the ridge could have maybe used it but not necessary), We did wear our mountaineering boots. The hike in is good, snow but not much postholing. Going through the rock field was interesting, had trouble finding the route (not many cairns placed) but managed and got to where we needed. The ridge is spotty with snow and dry spots. We did more of a "choose your own adventure" going along the ridge and also skipping the V section. Picture 19 though is all in snow. The slab approaching the crux is dry (as of now) with no snow or ice. The final/crux section is also dry, there was one spot of snow but was powder snow. The summit has snow. Will add pictures later, wanted to get something on here in case anyone had this peak on their mind. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 10/8/2021, By: durkan
Info: Conditions report may not last but: Some snow below saddle, but traction not needed. Entirety of route is dry otherwise. Continued to Uncompahgre after and it, too, was dry and traction was unnecessary. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 10/6/2021, By: finick01
Info: Route is completely dry and snow-free except for the switchbacks right before the saddle. Didn't need to bring traction. 

Route: Wetterhorn-Uncompahgre Combo
Posted On: 9/15/2021, By: johntmv
Info: Linked up Wetterhorn and Uncompahgre yesterday. Took the Southeast ridge up Wetterhorn and connected to Uncompahgre's South ridge via Ridge Stock Driveway Trail. Both peaks are dry as a bone. From the 4WD trailhead, the total trip took me 7.5 hours, counting time on summits and a few small breaks (2 hours from TH to Wetterhorn summit, 2.75 hours to Uncompahgre summit, and 2.25 hours back down to the TH). It's a long but manageable day since a lot of the ground you cover between peaks is relatively flat. You definitely want a good forecast because for 90%+ of this route you'll find yourself above tree-line. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 8/15/2021, By: constipated_pete
Info: Awesome route with pretty solid rock, summit pitch gets crowded and could be a shooting gallery if someone starts knocking down small rocks. The gulley in photo 13 isn't the easiest to find, we went up too far right at first. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 8/12/2021, By: Msbaker
Info: I made it to the end of the "2WD" road in my Mazda CX-5 with about eight inch clearance (so we were within .7 miles of the upper trailhead). I put 2WD in quotations because I felt like a good amount of the road was actually 4WD and required some cautious driving and choosing lines. Plenty of great campsites along the way. The only cars we saw which made it all the way up were Tacomas, 4 Runners, etc. Hike was straightforward and easy. Solid rock the entire way. Smoky as all hell on Saturday. About 9 miles total round trip. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 7/29/2021, By: Wentzl
Info: This is one of my favorite hikes into one of the most beautiful places in the state. Wildflowers in Wetterhorn Basin are just a tad past their peak, but still spectacular. Get back there if you can! 8 hr r/t from the Coxcomb trailhead. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 7/22/2021, By: kalestew
Info: Summer conditions all the way through! Got my stock Expedition up the road just fine. The summit log has been torn up and used to clean up blood. I took the bloody torn logs down, but there's still some jammed into the bottom of the tube. If anyone wants to bring up a chopstick to fish out the bloody paper & some new logs, this one needs some TLC 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 7/10/2021, By: chow
Info: No snow fields to cross anymore. Trial is nice and dry all the way to summit. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 7/5/2021, By: kimbuk2
Info: Parked at the lower 4x4 trailhead (10,300~), probably could have driven to the upper trailhead. Lower TH is Subaru-able, but would recommend clearance and 4WD for the upper TH. Summer conditions basically all the way up. Hiked the road to the upper TH (.60), typical rocky road but completely dry. Once at the trail, it's bomber! There were 2-3 manageable stream crossings with some rock hopping. Near 13,000~, there are two snow fields. One is mostly avoidable, but the latter you have to cross. It's a tiny bit steep, so mind your footing on your way down. Snow was icy at 7am~ and slushy at 9:30am~. Trail was super easy to follow with no real route finding until 13,400~ (scrambling starts/navigating the gullies), study the route. At the ridge, took the left route option (see photo 13 of route), the right looked a little class 5ish (maybe because I'm 5'1). Weather was clear, hot & sunny, was back at the tree line by 10:30am and a storm was rolling in quickly around that same time. Brought 2.5L of water and drank 1.5L. Gear (women's): Trail runners (La Sportiva Mutants), RAB lightweight tee, Fjallraven Abisko sun hoodie, Fjallraven Abisko trekking tights, Patagonia R1 layer, light gloves, trekking poles, helmet.