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Peak(s): |
Mt. Ouray - 13,979 feet
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Date Posted: |
07/17/2012 |
Modified: |
07/18/2012 |
Date Climbed: |
07/16/2012 |
Author: |
boudreaux |
Mt Ouray: Deep into the Chambers where Demons Lurk |
Grays Creek TH
I started at 6 am after a pleasant drive over from Monarch Mountain Lodge, the Marshall Pass Rd was well maintained and smooth and gave me no trouble. Just a few feet in and the first log to step over presents itself, but the fallen trees were not that bad. But I still managed to get over to the south side of the creek after about 20 minutes in and climbed about 40 feet up the other side and then contoured back over to the north side for a 20 minute detour, it wasn't that bad. As I got about an hour in, I noticed I was leaving the creek and heading a little NW, I ended up backtracking a couple minutes back to see if I made a wrong turn, but I was going in the right direction and started back up the trail, maybe a couple minutes later I start to see the start of the gorge going to the left and the creek was dry at this point and the trail went straight up the middle of the gulch.
The hike finally got interesting as I approached the start of the Devil's Armchair/bristlecone pine forest or I should say enchanted forest. Simply beautiful in here and the biggest bristlecone pine forest I have ever seen. After a few minutes of looking at the trees, I finally get my first glimpse of the basin below Ouray. Oh, it was very nice, I decided right there that the East ridge or NE ridge was going to have to wait and the headwall of the basin was calling. I followed the cairns for the east ridge route for awhile before heading directly up the middle of the basin. The bristlecones got smaller and smaller as I made my way deeper into the basin.
I could see the Tears of Ouray seeping down into the basin from up above. A large vein of white rock was in the center of the bowl and had my attention. I took a break to get a snack and study the vein. The vein had a coulior on each side and the right side coulior looked good, but a large chockstone was blocking the top and water was flowing down the gulley. The left side looked better and I decided to give it a shot. As I got a little closer I saw water was also flowing down this one too, it wasn't a raging torrent, but flowing gently. Getting to the start of the gulley was a little tough in the loose scree and talus, but once I got in there, it was smooth sailing on good class 3/4 rock. The water flow never bothered me and there wasn't any green slime on the rocks to give me any trouble. It was very deeply inset, much more than I originally thought, so it was very shady and cool in there. The best way to describe this climb is comparing it to the last part of Wetterhorn with water flowing down it. The steps were sharp and I never slipped once. I did have to exit one time to get around an overhanging waterfall, but other than that it was ear to ear smiling. Once above the Devil's Tailbone or Turd where the coulior ended, I just ascended left in the small depression on the slope toward the summit. That's what I called the white vein, The Devil's Tailbone, it looks like a turd as well, depending on your point of view. It jutted out of the headwall about 30 or 40 feet and was very obvious.
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