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Peak(s):  Matterhorn Peak  -  13,590 feet
Wetterhorn Peak  -  14,021 feet
Date Posted:  08/20/2008
Date Climbed:   08/12/2008
Author:  dubsho3000
 Wetterhorn > Mattherhorn combo   

Mike (jackmormon) and I (dubsho3000) climbed Wetterhorn via the standard route as described on this site. We parked about .6 miles short of the trailhead and waited out the horrific flies in our tents. There was some non-low-clearance-2WD driving but it was fairly gentle for the area. We camped and started hiking around 6:30 - 7:00 in the morning. We finished in early afternoon - it was a long hike.

From Wetterhorn's summit we decided to attempt Matterhorn - the rock looked similar to that of Wetterhorn's, which we had thoroughly enjoyed and we thought we could find some more nice class three scrambling.

Picture one shows my route in red and Mike's route in blue (Mike's route was our original plan).

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We headed down the Wetterhorn standard trail to a large boulder field which led to the grass slope in picture one. From there we boulder hopped our way across. We stayed high so we could find our way which turned out to be fairly easy. Picture two shows some of the standard Wetterhorn trail then the route up Matterhorn. (Mike's route turns to yellow, magically.)

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Once we got to the grassy slope the difficulty increased. It's pretty steep and the ground cover wasn't fun to climb. I stayed to the left to try to avoid killing the tundra, but eventually just started up the easiest terrain (which was the tundra). The rocks at the top of the picture were loose and probably the most physically demanding part of the route as it was very steep. Mike went right and I went left and we agreed that it sucked all around. From there we pushed higher to gain the ridge. Picture three shows the grassy slope and the rock above.

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Picture four shows my route (in red again) and Mike's eventual route (in yellow). Basically we just tried to get as high as possible and find our route from there, which worked pretty well. We did some class three scrambling until the false summit about 100' below the actual summit. We stayed to the left of one rock pile before the climb to the false summit. We decided to go straight up the ridge and lose our original route because it looked to be easier at the time. I also thought it looked like more fun - which it was. (In the photo Mike's route disappears behind some rock outcroppings and reappears on the trail in the far right of the picture. From there he headed up an established trail to the summit.)

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Picture five shows the route again with a bit more detail.

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Picture six looks back on the ridge and at the false summit. Mike turned back at the false summit (and found our original route) because it was fairly windy and we were a bit exposed. I ended up doing some class four moves to let myself down the false summit, but I think this could have been avoided.

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The end of Mike's route is shown in picture seven. This route avoids the false summit difficulty and exposure.

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In the end the route was fun but the rock was not quite as stable as that of Wetterhorn's. On the way down we found a trail near the top (which Mike used to summit). This trail went down most of the rocky part of the mountain but it eventually just disappeared into the tundra. So we bashed the tundra again as gently as possible until we got to a convergence of streams and trails. Here we joined the Wetterhorn standard route back to the trailhead.



Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
1 2 3 4 5 6 7


Comments or Questions
jesse
User
thanks
8/23/2008 10:15am
thanks for the beta, i always like haveing more info!



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