San Juan Newbie - Fuller Peak question

[MtHurd]

Bears are typically not a problem in Colorodo. I have read about marmots, rabbits, or even goats being a problem in Chicago Basin, but in the 30 years I've been climbing in Colorado I've never had an incident. I keep the food in the tent. If you are not comfortable doing that, buy a kevlar bag, put the food in it and place it a ways away from your tent under some rocks. It's fairly heavy, but not nearly as heavy as a bear cannister.

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[lordradish]

Ok, one last question, as I'm trying to be super careful here.

It's hard to tell the grade from the pics I've seen... when we go up the ridge, which path do we want to follow, the pink or the blue? See below. Thanks again....


Also, if we get up to Vermillion in good time and the weather's good, we might try Golden Horn... what would you recommend for a descent?

[MtHurd]

If you have a good amount of experience, take the left route (pink). You will need to know how to self arrest just in case since this is October and it will be rather hard. Straight up to the saddle is very steep and most of the year will have a cornice. Maybe not this time of year but it is still steep and not necessary since the left route isn't much further out of the way. If you are just going up Fuller, you can avoid the snow all together by ascending the loose rocks just to the left of the snow. The rocks are very unstable and it will suck (it's not just scree but platelike rocks that like to move), but it won't require any ice axe and crampon experience.

Also snow levels are as is in the picture, it may be possible for a scree route to the right if the cornice at the top is minimal. You may be able to get away with no crampons and axe if you can find a scamble around it but it would be risky. I would take them. It's extra weight but it would suck to get all the way up there and not be able to make the climb because you left them behind.

If you are good with crampons and an axe, take the snow all the way to the top, it will be much better than dealing with the scree. You can always bail if it gets too steep for your comfort.

Here is a huge pic of the saddle from above. You can clearly see the cornice. It also looks like you could do a 3rd class scramble on the right to avoid the cornice.

[lordradish]

Ok, this is the first adventure of this sort for my traveling companion, so we need to go with the path of least resistance, so no cornice navigation or 3rd class scrambles. To go to the "loose rocks to the left of the snow", will that take us out further to the left of the red path on top?

Ultimately, a lot of this is going to depend on the amount of snow. If we get there and it's not comfortable, there's plenty of other great things to see. I'm not going to do anything stupid.

[MtHurd]

Yes, to the left of the red path. That one pic you posted was from July and there wasn't that much snow, so it is possible that the left path or even one on the right could be snow free if there hasn't been any new snow in October. My guess is having climbed in mid-Octover in the San Juans that there will be a thin coating of snow on the north facing slopes. In this case that would mean a thin coating of snow on the left where there is no snow in that picture and no snow to the right. I guess that makes it more complicated but that's how things go in October.

I hope your travelling companion won't be turned off by the loose rock. I think the beauty of Ice Lakes Basin makes the annoying loose rock worth it. I was cussing a few times during my climb.

[lordradish]

I just got off the phone with the ranger out there. He told me there's not really much snow on the peaks right now.

I guess I'll have to just wait and see how it is when we get out there. Thanks again for all your help, and if something else comes up that you think would be helpful, lemme know.

Thanks.

[MtHurd]

I hope it stays that way. I'll be in Indian Peaks and I don't want to have to pack my crampons and ice axe on the plane.

If it does snow dump before you go, you can always climb Grand Turk and Sultan. Shouldn't be a problem even with snow and is close to Silverton.

[TravelingMatt]

As I mentioned previously, there is at least one use trail up to the saddle. It switchbacks several times, but its centerline follows the blue route in your photo. That should be your Option A.

To get from the the F/V saddle to Golden Horn, you can contour from the saddle to a broad ledge under Vermillion at around 13,400 feet. This ledge is pretty easy to see from the summit of Fuller, and takes you most of the way to the V/GH saddle. From this saddle, the ascent to GH is mostly solid Class 2 and was completely dry when I did it on September 30th.

The easiest way to get down from GH is to retrace the route back to the F/V saddle. It is possible to go from the V/GH saddle straight down to the upper gully but I had to make a couple Class 4 moves to do so. It might be only Class 3 with patient routefinding but would still be loose and quite exposed.

[lordradish]

So it's feasible to do Vermillion, hop over to GH, then come back under Vermillion?

[TravelingMatt]

Sure. I would still do Fuller though, as it gives you a good advance view of the route under Vermilion. I'll bet for most people it's faster to take the ledge than to attempt the V/GH traverse.

Vermilion is the only peak of the three with an active summit register, if that matters. GH has a register tube but the endcap is broken.

BTW, I keep making this mistake myself, but it's Vermilion with only one L. Vermilion, Vermilion, Vermilion. Gerry Roach is no help here either, as he mispells it throughout his 13ers book.

[lordradish]

We're definitely going to do Fuller, and see how we feel after that, as we're coming from Vermont, where the mountains ain't exactly huge. How scary is that ledge? It's on the west side, right?

[TravelingMatt]

It's on the east side, facing the upper basin you would have come up from.

The ledge is 50' wide in places. Maybe "ledge " isn't the right word. It's not like you're holding on to stuff while crossing it or anything. The trick is getting to the ledge from the col, which requires a couple hundred horizontal feet of sidehilling over loose but not dangerous scree.