Unnamed Pt's 13,832 and 13,811
06/02/2014
14 miles
5,510 vert.
4:19
From William's Creek TH
I knew that being on a
family vacation for a few days in Lake City would be a mixed blessing. On
one hand, it is a beautiful area with lots to see and do, but is simultaneously
tortuous not being able to just go nuts and tackle every peak in sight. I packed a bit of extra gear for this trip (Microspikes, a
good flashlight and my Ultimate Direction
AK vest), just in case I was able to fit in a short outing and as luck would have
it, I found a narrow window of opportunity on Monday morning. I debated what to do,
as I really wanted Sunshine/Redcloud for my very slim 14er x 2 list and scoped
out the Winter route from the Mill Creek campground. This looked great, steep and free of snow,
but I suspected it might be a bit tedious and perhaps time consuming navigating
the initial steep section through the minor cliff bands in the dark, as
efficiency would be key.
I have also been looking forward to climbing
Centennial Un-named Pts. 13,832 and 13,811 for some time and after doing a
little research, found that there is a good trail to treeline from the Williams
Creek TH and figured these would fit well with my limited time. If I got started early enough and went fast
enough, I may be able to tack on Redcloud also.
Awoke at 3:40am, was
out the door at 4am and drove slowly to the Williams Creek Trailhead,
eating my breakfast and dodging deer standing in the road. Got started at 4:37am and
felt good, but I am a bit of a slowpoke in the dark and I struggled a bit to
maintain what seemed like a reasonable pace, casually jogging the flatter
sections and power hiking the shorter steeper pitches.
The first smaller creek
crossing was flowing good, but there were a few logs to skip across which made
it easy. I knew there would soon be a second creek crossing and had
noticed a note in the trail register stating “DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CROSS THE
SECOND CREEK”, which I passed off as an exaggeration, but knew it might be an
indicator that I would be getting wet and or cost me precious minutes.
I reached the 2
nd creek
11 minutes in and it was flowing quite high with no bridge or logs to hop
across, so I bushwhacked upstream and downstream, but found no way across
without getting wet. I tried dragging a few logs, but moving and
positioning one large enough to span the creek seemed like more work than it
was worth. After 5+ minutes of this, I finally just decided that to get
across, I would have to dip a foot. Fortunately, I made a last minute
decision to wear my La Sportiva Crossover GTX (Gore Tex with built in gaiters),
which turned out to be a great decision for the day. Despite the deep
plunge (I nearly made it), my foot was perfectly dry on the other side.
Creek crossing on my return trip.
The trail beyond was
excellent and made for easy cruising. I finally packed away my light a
little after 5:10am, as the trail steepened, my pace slowed a bit and
the faint morning light became just enough to see. It seemed to take
forever to reach treeline, but I was happy to not really encounter any snow,
aside from some avoidable patches, or solid snow that I could walk
across.
This trail is awesome, buffed out single/double track with amazing scenery (pictures taken on the descent)
Once I hit the open, solid, snow covered slopes
above treeline, I put on the Microspikes and following Roach's description, aimed for point 13,632, which lies in between the two summits.
Having not been above treeline since my December climb of Evans with Homie, I
just plugged along, never really pushing, but never letting up either aside
from the occasional photo op. I was surprised to not be sucking too much
wind, feeling reasonably good considering (though my time/pace indicates that I
have a good bit of acclimating to go). I
think I was just enjoying myself so much, that I didn’t even think of much else, other than the views and how happy I was to be above treeline, in the San Juans, in
June. It does not get better than this.
13,832 and 13,632 at center of photo. My ascent line starts at very center right of photo to 13,632
Perfect snow for efficient ascending
Redcloud and 13,832
13,832
Uncompahgre
Wetterhorn distant center
Still some good snow up high, but it is game on in the San Juans
I arrived on 13,832 after 2:29 and spent just a few
minutes taking some photos and sucking down a gel, before heading East toward
13,811, which is 1.4 miles away. I felt great and momentarily considered
pushing on to Redcloud, but I knew that going there, with the return vertical
would have me a bit late returning to the family.
Though helpful, but not
entirely necessary, I kept the Microspikes on much of the time for the snow
above treeline, yet on occasion felt compelled to remove them, which cost a bit
of time. I am not entirely sure whether or not the snow helped or
hindered my progress, as I was generally pretty careful on it, not wanting to
take a slip, or plunge in too deep (it is pretty quiet out there on these non
14er peaks, early season on a Monday morning).
I think overall it may have cost me some time, but it did make for
enjoyable walking for the most part.
Looking back at 13,632 and 13,832 from 13,811
The summit of 13,811 arrived
35 minutes later (3:04 elapsed), I took a few minutes here for photos, soaking
in the views and another gel, then got boogying down the upper snow
slopes. It was not too steep, but it was
frozen and I would have been a bit more confident with an axe, so I took it
pretty slow and easy until I reached the grassy ridge and less steep snow. From there, it was off with the spikes and
was all fun cruising on the way back down, where I finished up just before 9am
(4:19 total). Though a moderate effort, I figured this would take me closer to 3 hours, 3:30 tops, but the tough creek crossing, snow, stopping for photos and lack of acclimatization made things a little slower than I thought. Plus, how could I hurry too much and not enjoy it a bit?
Cruising down this gave me the biggest grin and I may have let out a few loud joyous cheers.
It seems like so long since
I have been down to the San Juans, perhaps 5 or 6 years when Homie, Sierra and I went on a couple day peak bender. It
was refreshing to see so many peaks I have not climbed or even know the names
of. Being in Lake City also got me fired
up to run the SJS next year, something that has always been on my list, having
even registered once but had to bail on due to injury.
Post hike/run, we had a great
day taking the girls on a hike and ghost town tour, which they absolutely
loved. They are eager to get up the big
peaks too, so there will be much more of this to come.
