Wetterhorn Peak Trip Report 07/28/2016

Report Type	Full
Peak(s)	Wetterhorn Peak - 14,021 feet
Date Posted	07/28/2016
Date Climbed	07/26/2016
Author	Chaal1625
Additional Members	tnewbrough

Wetterhorn Standard Route
This trip report may be useless but I am using it for myself! This will be my virtual scrapbook for my 14er ascents. This was my first trip out to CO to hike 14ers as a 19 year old with 3 of my buddies. God Bless and Happy Trails! Wetterhorn Peak, a beautiful mountain with a fun climb. This was our 3rd summit in 3 days after doing Sneffels SW Ridge and Huron Peak the two days prior. I would rate this as a little more difficult than the Sneffels SW Ridge climb but all in all it seemed like a fun class 3 route that wasn't too long nor did it have incredibly hard route finding. By knowing a few checkpoints and rock formations it was easy to figure out where the line was. There are also a good number of cairns as well. This is coming from a novice mountaineer who did this as their 3rd summit. It is a route filled with solid rock and the summit push is essentially a really steep staircase with ledges. I thought the downclimb would be worse but it was better than I had expected. We camped off of Henson Creek Road (Alpine Scenic Byway) just a few miles down the road from the Matterhorn Creek TH. There are quite a few camping sites along Henson Creek Rd. that have rock fire pits and are right along the river. There also seemed to be a couple of campsites on the way up to Matterhorn Creek TH as well as 100 yards or so after the TH on the right side of the trail as you go up. We woke up at 6AM and got to the TH and started hiking by 715 after tearing down camp as well. We had come from Ouray the day prior after summiting Sneffels. We drove N from Ouray and then towards Gunnison and down to Lake City. The Alpine Scenic Byway (Henson Creek) is a 30 mile long road that connects Ouray and Lake City but we were scared off by the Google Maps estimation of 2:15 minutes driving but on the Lake City side of the road it was fine. Nothing but a gravel road with occasional bumps and rivets but nothing a 2WD couldn't do. Do your research unlike us and see bad the road is from Ouray... Would have saved 90 minutes but oh well. Rookie mistake. On the way down we ran into a group of people near the yellow sand just before you start climbing up the rock who said they had heard someone near the ridge calling for help. With the help of these people we were able to yell back and forth with the distressed hiker who said that he was lost and needed SAR. I took out my zoom lens and tried to see him on the ridge between Wetterhorn and Matterhorn but was not able to albeit he sounded rather close to the base of Wetterhorn. I think he was near the top of the connecting ridge on the North side of it which blocked him from my view. Unfortunately, none of us had any cell phone service at the yellow sand so my buddies and I decided the best thing to do would be to hike down and try and get service along the way. Before the rock field we were able to get service and also yell to the distressed hiker more... He said he was lost and "blind"? I put blind in quotations because my buddies and I all thought we heard him say that... Maybe he got AMS and was dizzy and just said he was blind out of distress. Who knows. Anywho, we contacted 911 who sent SAR out. By the time we got to the Matterhorn Creek TH we saw the red SAR chopper fly towards Wetterhorn and maybe 10 minutes later fly back out over us... I assume this means it was a successful rescue. If anyone has any knowledge of these events I would be extremely curious to hear! Overall, this was a great hike through a beautiful alpine area with tons of marmots and great views of 2 awesome 14ers. Stay safe out there everyone!

Wetterhorn Standard Route

This trip report may be useless but I am using it for myself! This will be my virtual scrapbook for my 14er ascents. This was my first trip out to CO to hike 14ers as a 19 year old with 3 of my buddies. God Bless and Happy Trails!

Wetterhorn Peak, a beautiful mountain with a fun climb. This was our 3rd summit in 3 days after doing Sneffels SW Ridge and Huron Peak the two days prior. I would rate this as a little more difficult than the Sneffels SW Ridge climb but all in all it seemed like a fun class 3 route that wasn't too long nor did it have incredibly hard route finding. By knowing a few checkpoints and rock formations it was easy to figure out where the line was. There are also a good number of cairns as well. This is coming from a novice mountaineer who did this as their 3rd summit. It is a route filled with solid rock and the summit push is essentially a really steep staircase with ledges. I thought the downclimb would be worse but it was better than I had expected.

We camped off of Henson Creek Road (Alpine Scenic Byway) just a few miles down the road from the Matterhorn Creek TH. There are quite a few camping sites along Henson Creek Rd. that have rock fire pits and are right along the river. There also seemed to be a couple of campsites on the way up to Matterhorn Creek TH as well as 100 yards or so after the TH on the right side of the trail as you go up. We woke up at 6AM and got to the TH and started hiking by 715 after tearing down camp as well. We had come from Ouray the day prior after summiting Sneffels. We drove N from Ouray and then towards Gunnison and down to Lake City. The Alpine Scenic Byway (Henson Creek) is a 30 mile long road that connects Ouray and Lake City but we were scared off by the Google Maps estimation of 2:15 minutes driving but on the Lake City side of the road it was fine. Nothing but a gravel road with occasional bumps and rivets but nothing a 2WD couldn't do. Do your research unlike us and see bad the road is from Ouray... Would have saved 90 minutes but oh well. Rookie mistake.

On the way down we ran into a group of people near the yellow sand just before you start climbing up the rock who said they had heard someone near the ridge calling for help. With the help of these people we were able to yell back and forth with the distressed hiker who said that he was lost and needed SAR. I took out my zoom lens and tried to see him on the ridge between Wetterhorn and Matterhorn but was not able to albeit he sounded rather close to the base of Wetterhorn. I think he was near the top of the connecting ridge on the North side of it which blocked him from my view. Unfortunately, none of us had any cell phone service at the yellow sand so my buddies and I decided the best thing to do would be to hike down and try and get service along the way. Before the rock field we were able to get service and also yell to the distressed hiker more... He said he was lost and "blind"? I put blind in quotations because my buddies and I all thought we heard him say that... Maybe he got AMS and was dizzy and just said he was blind out of distress. Who knows. Anywho, we contacted 911 who sent SAR out. By the time we got to the Matterhorn Creek TH we saw the red SAR chopper fly towards Wetterhorn and maybe 10 minutes later fly back out over us... I assume this means it was a successful rescue. If anyone has any knowledge of these events I would be extremely curious to hear!

Overall, this was a great hike through a beautiful alpine area with tons of marmots and great views of 2 awesome 14ers. Stay safe out there everyone!

Comments or Questions

teryan07	trailhead 7/30/2016 5:47pm Hey I read that the road to the main trailhead is blocked off by a landslide, adding 7 miles each way. Is this still the case? Thanks in advance.
Chaal1625	trailhead RE 7/31/2016 11:29pm As of July 25th the road to the trailhead was completely open from Lake City to the Matterhorn Creek TH

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