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The plan... Bag two peaks. I decided on Uncompahgre and Wetterhorn. I figured I would camp at the Matterhorn Trailhead, hike Uncompahgre first, then Wetterhorn the next day.
I left Denver around 4 PM. That meant a late arrival. In fact, it was about 10 PM when I got to the trailhead. The 4wd road up was tricky at night. My Tacoma made it, though.
The next morning I finally awoke after pressing snooze on my phone 3 too many times. I began my hike at 4:50 AM. I trudged through the darkness for a little while. There is a trail junction and it was not clear which direction was the proper trail. If you are planning on doing these mountains and you see this sign, turn right to stay on trail 233 into the correct basin.
It got light quickly, and soon I was in the basin. Wetterhorn looked so close.
The plan was Uncompahgre first. I found the trail junction and began walking away from Wetterhorn. "I will come back for you tomorrow," I told it. When Uncompahgre came into view I took the classic self-picture.
As I was walking through the long saddle/basin, two elk were communicating to each other. I believe they were telling me I could put my headlamp away. That it was light out and I did not need it anymore. Perhaps they were laughing at me. In fact, come to think of it, it did sound a bit like laughter.
I continued the long walk to get to Uncompahgre's saddle. It was discouraging because on this route you have to walk completely past Uncompahgre before ascending the saddle and turning towards Uncompahgre. I just kept looking up at it, waiting till I would actually turn and head towards it. In addition, Wetterhorn got further and further out of sight.
This picture shows the trail taken. You can see the long traverse.
I finally gained the saddle and was able to walk towards Uncompahgre. I decided to walk towards the edge and take a picture. Actually, since I was solo, I had to set the timer on my camera. The camera must have been sitting at an angle. It looks like I am going to run off the mountain. No worries. I stayed put and continued up the mountain.
Everything else was great. The final section of the climb seemed to me like it was class 3. I found myself scrambling using all fours. Of course, I don't want to admit that or I will appear wimpy and inexperienced. Instead I will make up excuses and say, "it was easy. Sure, it was steep, but not that scary. I was just tired. Climbing solo made it seem more scary. Going down didn't seem that bad." It really wasn't that bad. Perhaps it is "difficult Class 2."
I finally summitted around 9 AM and stood on the highest point. Yes, I had to set the camera timer.
I had 10 seconds to position myself. Then I took my headstand shot. This took some practice and a few tries with the timer, but I finally got a picture that I liked.
Some summit shots.
Mohawk Mountain.
At 9:30 AM I began the long walk back. Why does it always seem longer on the way down? I kept thinking, I still have to go all the way over there?
On the way back I began contemplating going up Wetterhorn also. Would the weather hold out? This was one option that I had originally considered, so I knew it wasn't the high altitude clouding my perception. As I walked back to the trail junction, it was just a consideration. I figured I would watch the clouds and decide when I got to the junction. I should have known that meant I would continue up towards Wetterhorn.
On my way towards Wetterhorn I kept saying to myself, I could turn around at any point and come back tomorrow. The clouds were forming, but nothing threatening. However, it was around noon and the rule of thumb to be off the summit by noon was in effect. I contemplated my options. Only once did it precipitate. Snow! That is right. For a brief moment while in the basin snow fell. I met a group descending just before I gained the saddle. They agreed that the clouds were nonthreatening. Not knowing what to do, I just continued ascending the mountain. Because I was so concerned about whether to turn around or not, I did not take any pictures. I just raced up. However, I finally pulled out my camera for the fun portion.
I finally reached the summit at 1:30 PM. I yelled out a victory shout!
Still worried about the weather, I took a quick headstand shot. It wasn't great (camera timer), but I accepted it.
The way down was exciting as I was blasted with a microburst of snow. The wind picked up on the steep portion of the descent. Luckily it was blowing me into the mountain. Then, the snow I saw several miles away just a moment ago was blasting me in the face. I could see that it would be short lived. I kept descending anyways and in about 3 minutes it was gone and the wind stopped! Bizarre!
The rest of the way down I hiked.
I even burst out into a run for the last 2 miles. This picture is staged, though. Ten seconds was too long of a camera timer. I kept running past the camera before it took the picture. This took a few tries, but I wanted to document the running portion.
I was back at the car a little after 3 PM. A successful day! I decided not to stay the night again, packed the truck and headed down the 4wd road. It was a lot easier during the day to navigate. My truck did not scrape bottom once on the way down (in full daylight). I arrived home shortly after 10 PM. I was beat!
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
Nice job in getting them both in! Yeah, it's great to hike solo sometimes, but it IS nice to have a partner for sharing photos of each other. You probably would've gotten back a few hours sooner if you haven't spent so much time with the camera timer!
I'm hoping to do this over July 4th. Not concerned about the distance so much as how confident my gf will be on the Class 3 portions.
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