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It had been a month since my last trip to the mountains and when Colin suggested Lake City I quickly agreed. 4 of us headed down from Denver and found good camping right near the trailhead. The alarms went off at 4:30 am and we were faced with a cold morning by July standards. After an hour the of hiking the sun poked up above the horizon we warmed up, shed layers, and looked forward to the day ahead of us.
This is why we wake up early!
Sunrise over the Matterhorn One small snowfield to cross and then up to the saddle Its not long before we are in the first gully Scrambling up the first gully. Nothing too crazy here. Top of the gully at the notch
From here there are a couple of options. You can drop into the notch, You can go climbers right around the tall rocks. But we explored two other possibilities as well.
First we we went in between the two rocks. The hand and foot holds are a bit of a stretch but getting stuck is a bigger concern than falling. Our packs had to go first so that we could squeeze in.
Colin in between the tall rocks
Wait! don't move until i can climb above you and get a picture from another angle! Reaching for that Handhold! Peek-A-Boo!
We came back down and climbed up this rock wall as well. Another fun option! Climbers right at the top of the first gully. A little headwall with good hand and foot holds.
OK enough exploring now back to the mountain! We generally stayed on or slightly left of the ridge for some Class 3 on large blocks.
Looking back on the notch
More scrambling as we get closer to the summit and the prow.
The Prow is an easy scramble to the top and well worth the trip!
Colin on the Prow from just below the summit.
And finally onto the summit!
Looking at the final Gully (shaded). From the Prow
(photo credit on next 4 pictures to the solo climber who made it up the mountain faster than us and then took our picture).
Good Class 3 climbing on solid rock! Getting steep! Colin making final steps to the summit.
Summit Panorama. Everything feels Big and Beautiful in the San Juans!
Time to get going, The mountain isn't going to down climb itself. I have to admit the climb down the summit gully was more exposed than i was expecting and it took my longer than it probably should have. Thank you to the group of people that waited for me to clear while i was going down. On the way down we saw a boy and his father. I believe the boy was 8 and was working on his 19th 14er! He took on Wetterhorn like a champ!
A little bit of scrambling brought us back to the trail and now nothing left to do except walk out and take pictures of wildflowers!
DAY 2 Uncompahgre 7/24/2016
Not much to add here to a pretty straight forward but really fun route! The road wasn't nearly as bad as expected. A stock Jeep and Tacoma had no problem making it to the Trailhead. We camped at a great spot 0.2 miles below the trailhead and walked the road around 5 am the next morning. A few pictures:
Colin VS. Creek Crossing
Recreating scenes from Jurassic Park! Alpenglow on Unc Precipice Peak from the top of Uncompahgre
Thanks For Reading Enjoy Your Summer!
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
I plan to do Wetterhorn this weekend and have some concerns regarding the scrambling and exposure toward the summit. Your pictures probably do not do it justice. Nice Work!
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