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Date: July 23, 2005
Elevation: 14,015'
Rank: 49th
Route: Southeast Ridge, Grade II, Class 3, 6.8 miles, 3280ft vert.
GPS: N 38° 3.633' W 107° 30.667'
Team: Matt Esser (Toid), Rick Esser (Dad)
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Wetterhorn Pk Trip Report:
Pre-climb: Since Uncompahgre went so well a few days ago, my dad wanted to try the more exciting Wetterhorn. I too was excited to climb it, however my only concern would be the weather. Hurricaine Emily was finally sending the much needed rain up into Colorado to break the record heat wave and our window of opportunity would be very short if we wanted to summit.
Climb: Our alarms went off at 4:30am and my dad and I were on the road from Lake City to Wetterhorn by 5:10am. It was unfortunately cloudy still, but at least it was clearing by the time we starting hiking. Finding the turnoff in Capitol City was really easy as we had scouted it out the day before when we did the Alpine Loop. (Which I highly recommend by the way) What's not so easy to find is the 4x4 turnoff for Matterhorn Creek. Look for it on your right and at first it looks not very traveled compared to the other roads at that critical intersection. There's a nice big sign though, so one shouldn't miss it if they are paying attention. The only hard maneuver is at the very end where two giant rocks are waiting to eat your axel's for breakfast, but are easily avoided by a new "road" that branches off to the left and up the final push to the trailhead parking.
We arrived at 6am and were surprised at how full the parking lot was! It was packed! We then had to find a place to park, got ready and quickly signed in to the trail register and took off around the forest service gate and up the old jeep trail. Pretty quickly we arrived at the most amusing sign I have ever encountered on a 14er. At this trail junction where the sign is, you have on your left a trail that feels way more natural if heading towards Wetterhorn and on your right is another trail that doesn't seem to be heading the right direction as it switchbacks up this mound to the east and seems a little out of the way for Wetterhorn. The former is labled Matterhorn Creek and the latter being the Stock Trail. What's so funny about it is that somebody had put a little tape on the sign and wrote: "To Wetterhorn -----> (really!)" I love it. My dad and I took the advice of the "Sharpie writing" and soon found ourselves out of the trees with satisfying views of Matterhorn and ultimately Wetterhorn.
The trail split again and this time is was a no brainer for which one to take and we headed across a wildflower filled basin, across Matterhorn Creek to a boulder field of sorts that would be the way to work your way up to the ridge of Wetterhorn. It's actually a good introduction to very easy routefinding and for people who haven't climbed the harder peaks, it's a good exercise to try and spot the cairns while on safe terrain.
Just before the saddle we crossed a snow spot for about 20 feet that still remains, but well tracked through. Once on the ridge one finally gets perspective to the bumps that are above.
At first, there is this huge yellowish hump one must climb up with very little features to use for traction. Luckily I had my trekking poles to use four wheel drive with. From here to the summit it amazed me how many people ditched their poles for all the little marmots to feast on. No wonder a civilization of marmots exists on Wetterhorn below the summit. After the yellow hill, the scrambling begins and I must admit that it was a lot of fun!
Routefinding wasn't a problem until just below the Ship's Prow where one must make their way around, up, or over this one section of rock. To the left and right there are cairns which doesn't help things. We chose to go right which turned out to be just as exposed as the final 200ft to the summit. In hindsight, go left at this point...while it *looks* harder, it's actually easier and less exposed. This would be our path of descent.
Once at the Ship's Prow, we made our way up to and through the Keyhole, down the ramp and arrived at the base of the staircase that leads to the summit. My dad and I were trying to make the top fairly quickly as the weather was building all around us and so we started climbing up the solid rock. At only one place (about 20ft from the top) did we have to think about which way to go. We traversed left along this ledge and then climbed up a final gully to the summit. This summit is much smaller than Uncompahgre's!
We took a lot of pictures, grabbed a bite to eat, couldn't find the summit register and just as we were getting ready to head down we saw a plane fly by us. The plane actually flew BENEATH us! We waved from the summit and could easily see the two passengers. It was rather different being ABOVE a plane in flight!
As we prepared to go down my dad went over to where we climbed up to the summit and tried to step down and quickly hesitated. He then looked at me and asked, "Are you sure we came up this way?" I could tell what he was thinking. It looked way steeper going down than it did coming up. And that's true! We hadn't taken the time to look down when climbing up. Now that we are descending and can see the exposure, it kind of took my dad by surprise I think. I took over the lead and showed my dad how to use butt cheeks to get down off a mountain. It worked fabulously and we made quick work back down to the Ship's Prow. Once there we then could relax, take the correct way down the next section and then hustle back down the rest of the rocks. As we were downclimbing, I witnessed two lightning strikes to Broken Hill's ridge. The thunder was loud and creepy enough to give me goosebumps. I kicked it into turbo descent mode and rocks in my shoe or not, I took the biggest steps I could and flew down the mountain at near record pace (for me anyway). Just as I reached the saddle I saw another lightning strike Uncompahgre's ridge! It's getting close! By now I was practically just trying to guide my free-fall descent with my trekking poles and every so often checked back on my dad to make sure he was making it down ok. By the time we made it back to the boulder field we started encountering people who were still trying to climb UP! Are you kidding me!? Don't people understand that lightning can kill? Or better yet, don't people know what makes all that thunder they had to be hearing? I *just* don't get it.
After we made it back into the trees we could finally start to relax and ease up on the pace. However, just as we were approaching the funny sign it started to sprinkle, and then almost the exact moment we hit the trailhead it started to downright rain. We quickly signed out of the register and made our way back down to Engineer Pass. It was an easy drive back to the cabin on Lake San Cristobal and we were showered and drinking Corona's by 1:45pm. We left at the perfect time. Had we had a later start, we wouldn't have summitted due to weather conditions.
Wetterhorn is my new favorite fourteener. Before it had been Crestone Needle. But to me Wetterhorn seemed to have a little of everything. In fact, it was kind of like a mini Longs Peak! At first you have a trail in the trees, then it open up and you skirt around mountains and work your way around to a boulder field, then you go up through a keyhole, then you scramble up a homestrech! However it's only 7 miles long instead of 15! Not to mention it's not nearly as crowded!
For people looking for an easier class 3 14er, Wetterhorn has to be it. I enjoyed every minute of it.
Pictures: (Click on picture for caption)
Profile:
Time:
| Drive |
Ascent |
On Summit |
Descent |
Drive |
Total |
| 1 h |
3.5 h |
30 min |
2.5 h |
9.5 h |
6.5 h |
;)
;)
