One of many
trip reports under the
SilGro home page for Alan Silverstein and Cathie
Grow.
Email me at
ajs@frii.com.
Last update: November 10, 2024
(Previous trip report: 1988_0707-09_WetterhornMatterhorn.htm)
McHenrys Peak was a large and interesting, but rather anonymous and hidden, peak buried deep in Rocky Mountain NP, just northwest of Longs Peak. Despite being "only" a low Thirteener it was comparable to Longs in climbing difficulty. The round trip distance (14 miles) was a bit shorter, the elevation gain was a little less, but the technical difficulty was much greater. After a round-trip with HPite Jim Sheppard that took 13 hours 23 minutes, half of it in the rain, I felt like I'd been up Longs!
We started at Glacier Gorge Junction, 9240', at 0557 on a Sunday morning after spending the night inside the Park in a cabin accessible to Jim's family (but that's another story). The sunrise was colorful due to the scattered high stratus clouds -- a sure sign of moisture.
From GGJ we took an unmarked (ranger/fire) trail that bypassed Alberta Falls and many wiggles in the main route. It ended just before the junction where people turned to Mills Lake.
We reached the lake at 0650 (rather fast!) and soon continued on south around it to Black Lake. Beyond Mills the trail was unimproved and hard to follow in places. It stayed always left of the lake and the stream beyond it, crossing several bogs on log bridges. We reached Black Lake, 10600', at 0800, 1360' up and about five miles in from the trailhead, in just over two hours! [I was young once, I guess.]
I'd only visited Black Lake once before, almost 11 years ago. I forgot how small and awesome it was. It was deep in a bowl, surrounded on all sides by sheer glacier-carved cliffs and several waterfalls down slick smooth granite rock. The Arrowhead loomed above to the right (north), and the complex east face of McHenrys beyond to the northwest. Unfortunately there were zillions of mosquitos at the lake and well above it too.
We chose to bushwhack steeply up to the right towards the Arrowhead following traces of a trail through trees, then left across grassy slopes. There was only one reasonable way to get above the cliffs in this direction! It was easy to spot from below (with binoculars anyway) and wasn't as bad as it looked, though it was exposed and required scrambling at points.
We squirted across some ledges with cliffs above and below us to reach the low end of a huge shelf leading up and west to Stone Man Pass. The pass was the higher of two gaps in the continental divide between Chiefs Head Peak (south) and McHenrys (north), to the right (north) of the Stone Man itself.
There was a lot of snow still in the couloir up to the pass. We climbed rock to the left before rejoining a trail higher in the steep, narrow gully. We reached the pass at 1052, 12480' (4:55 and 3240' to this point). We found it to be a fairly wide area to sit and enjoy the view.
There were a number of large peaks further southwest and west, so North Park wasn't visible. To the south the west face wall of Longs Peak was most impressive. The long ridge stretched from Half Mountain past Storm Peak to the Keyhole and the summit.
Blue Lake lay below the ridge, but Black, Green, and Frozen lakes were out of sight. We had a great view of the route from the Keyhole, across the Ledges, and up the Trough, although in shadow, and dark under hazy growing clouds anyway. Farther right the Keyboard of the Winds was a most spectacular pinnacled ridge extending up to Pagoda Mountain. Mount Meeker appeared beyond it.
The rest of the way up McHenrys Peak revealed itself as an evil, broken, complex mess. We crossed and traversed northwest from the pass without gaining much elevation to nearly reach the snowfield on the west side. Here we decided to cut straight up, and soon found many cairns and a wide ledge. It was not as hard as it looked since we were comfortable scrambling on steep but fairly large and firm rock. In fact it was a lot of fun. But we should have gone high and followed just below the ridge, as we did on the return.
The route crossed over a ridgelet and onto the west face for the final ascent of ~300'. Here it was amazingly broken and complicated. We did a bit of careful climbing up and right on quite steep rock. It suddenly leveled into a long, broad summit ridge with a boulder as the highest spot of McHenrys Peak -- actually kind of disappointing. Thanks to the first thunder of the day, from a storm perhaps two miles east, we only stayed on top five minutes(!), 1213-1218 (a total of 4100' gained in 6:16).
We found it to be much easier downclimbing the ridge to the right of the face we'd ascended. At about 13000' we sat small on a wide ledge in the west face gully and took shelter from pelting hail and rain. For over an hour we ate lunch, chatted, and tried to stay warm and dry as bad weather moved in all around.
Periodic lightning continued unabated for several more hours. Some of the bolts were as close as ~0.4 miles. We were surrounded by higher rock, but not tremendously secure.
The trip back to Stone Man Pass at 1430 was uneventful between cloudbursts. We downclimbed carefully until reaching a couple of short glissades on hard snow that justified the ice axes we carried! Then we mosied east and southeast across the wide, wonderful sloping granite shelf above Black Lake, mostly on flat rock, frequently crossed by streams.
The Yosemite-like terrain ended at a drop into Frozen Lake, 10560'. It was worth going this way to visit this spectacular, deep, clear lake nestled below the north face of Chiefs Head Peak and the flank of the unbelievable Spearhead.
At one point we heard a sound like a very long roll of thunder, and witnessed a massive rockslide into Blue Lake. It was the biggest I'd ever seen. It raised a cloud of white dust a hundred feet high that lasted several minutes.
We left Frozen Lake at 1600 to continue across and down towards an overlook point of Black Lake, then circled east and north to pick up the Green Lake trail west down a broad, square cut to Black again at ~1700. It remained overcast, rainy, and evening-dark, with occasional distant booming.
Jim and I slogged back to Mills Lake at 1830 and the trailhead at 1920, losing the trail once.
With the many small rises along the way, I figured we gained about 4300' during our long outing. I was very sore, tired, and soggy. Yet despite the weather, my only regret was not having more time on top of McHenrys. Good thing we started early as we did!
(Next trip report: 1988_0805-07_HolyCross.htm)