One of many
trip reports under the
SilGro home page for Alan Silverstein and Cathie
Grow.
Email me at
ajs@frii.com.
Last update: March 21, 2024
(Previous trip report: 1986_0713-28_SanJuans.htm)
(A
Fourteener
trip report.)
Sunday, July 13: To start my 2-week mega-trip to the San Juan Range, I drove down from Fort Collins the day before climbing Mount Sneffels. It would have been a 7-8 hour drive but for needing to find a dentist to re-cement a lost onlay! (Stay away from jelly beans once you go bionic.) Fortunately that finally worked out OK in Gunnison for only $15 and an hour's delay. It did cost me spending the night on top of Sneffels though. I'd hoped to get there in time to do that.
I pulled out of Ouray at 2045, getting dark. The road to Camp Bird was clearly marked a mile south of town. It was fast and auto-passable through some spectacular shelfs and overhangs up to the Yankee Boy Basin turnoff which was also well-marked. The townsite of Sneffels was 6.4 miles from Ouray. Beyond this the road got real crummy, especially hard to drive at night. I found a left fork that finally ended 2.3 miles further up and camped out under moonlight, stars, and light clouds at about 11500', below Stony Mountain.
Monday, July 14: Yankee Boy Basin was a phenomenally beautiful place, despite all the roads and mining activity. Wildflowers abounded and the valley was surrounded by steep mountains and gorges. The orange mine tailings actually added to the grandeur.
I was awake and on the trail at 0630. A different fork of the road continued up for maybe 1/2 mile before hitting a foot trail. This took me up to a lovely little lake at 12200', near an old cabin, at the bottom of an upper basin. The lake was half frozen over. From here the peak was clearly visible, and the overall route obvious, but there was no definite trail around to it. Other than one party of campers who'd climbed the day before, I had the area to myself.
There were cairns up and around to the northwest into a deep gully which went northeast. I cut up and over the southwest ridge into the gully much higher, and avoided a lot of scree by staying close to the right wall. I reached the multicolor south saddle, 13500', at 0830. From here I chose to go up the steep main cut just east of the summit, which was snow (ice) filled starting halfway up. Fortunately there were old steps frozen into it, so it was no problem with an ice axe.
The very top of the couloir dropped off sharply on the other side -- what a view! I had to descend about 20' and find a side crack that took me to the last hundred feet up the south side to the summit of Mount Sneffels. It was a small knob of a peak with a center cairn that I reached at 0910 (2:40 to climb 2650'), under light clouds with cool breezes.
What a view! Yankee Boy Basin was awesome. I couldn't see Telluride even though it was only a couple of miles away because the mountains got in the way. There were peaks everywhere but north; that way was clear to Montrose. (Sneffels was the prominent peak you could see south from Montrose.) The Mount Wilson / El Diente Peak massif was clearly visible to the west, and Wetterhorn Peak and Uncompahgre Peak to the east.
I dropped down at 1040 and was back to the Jeep by 1210 (only 1:30 elapsed), with plenty of nature-appreciation and photo stops. The weather built up fast after noon, so it was just as well I didn't linger.
This peak was a relatively short climb if you had 4WD, and an easy one too if steep rock didn't bother you. Next I went on to San Luis Peak for my first overnight on a Fourteener!
(Next trip report: 1986_0715-16_SanLuisPeak.htm)