Wetterhorn

[ray06]

This is in response to gonzalj's question of the relative difficulty of Mt.Sneffels and Wetterhorn Peak. I think it's a matter of your stamina vs your comfort level with scrambling and some degree of exposure. In my opinion, the class 3 mountains I have climbed (Long's, Kit Carson, Wetterhorn, the Sawtooth) have been a lot more fun because I didn't experience a lot of loose rock and I do enjoy the scrambling. Some of the class 2 pluses and 2's such as Challenger, Sneffels and Columbia have been more like work because of their steepness in combination with tons of loose scree. As far as Sneffels and Wetterhorn (and also Uncompahgre, for that matter) do them all and judge for yourself. All three have nice summits.

[vicarious]

Gonzalj, I climbed both in July on consecutive days. Wetterhorn has a few more nervous moments as it is more exposed. But Sneffels is actually harder because it has a long section of unpleasant scree. Both are great.

[tommyboy360]

I was just out there this past Saturday-Monday. It did snow overnight and into the early morning but it always melted off by late morning.

However, it looked liked it snowed a lot more in the past couple of days out in the San Juans. Check out this photo of the current skiing conditions at Silverton. They posted this update on facebook yesterday and reported skiable snow accumulation above 12000 ft. More snow is in the forecast this week. I doubt the gullies will fully melt out with this much snow (see photo below). I would take microspikes and water proof gloves for the last several hundred feet.

jsilverton 10-6-10.jpg (78.43 KiB) Viewed 653 times

Wetterhorn is a great mountain. IMO, it’s an ideal 14er hike with an easy 4WD trailhead, short approach and fun scrambling up to a fabulous looking summit with spectacular views. Helmet is not mandatory but a good idea. Better to have it than not. The rock fall danger exists in only the last several hundred feet. I had the mountain to myself the entire time but I'm still glad I wore my helmet.

Winter is coming... and DOWN is the new UP!

[Ned-man]

by gonzalj » Wed Oct 06, 2010 10:36 pm

Ok, I haven't hiked either peak, but am just flat out curious since I want to tackle both in the next year - which one is harder (wetterhorn or sneffels)?




They are both easier than you probably think!

[randalmartin]

I would definitely have microspikes. Even that may not be enough. Class 3 sections with partial snow coverage sound far more scary than with full snow coverage. This time of the year snow coverage is shallow enough to not provide any grip with spikes but is enough to make conditions very slick without them. I wouldn't want to be on that final wall to the summit of Wetterhorn in mixed conditions.

[natbug72]

I can't believe there's already enough snow to ski the San Juans about 12000! Mixed conditions are exactly what I am afraid of and don't want to get into. I will bring micro spikes though in case we do end up going. In any case we are headed to Crested Butte tomorrow and playing it by ear on the hike. I'm really hoping we can do this but if not there's always next year. From the TR's I've seen it looks beautiful in summer

[KenE]

FYI, raining tonight in Telluride so there might well be more snow in the morning over there.

Ken