Arrow, Vestal and the Trinities?

Colorado peak questions, condition requests and other info.
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emiller
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Re: Arrow, Vestal and the Trinities?

Post by emiller »

I revised my plan and came up with this
Day 1: Drive IL to Idaho Springs
Day 2: Drive Denver to Ridgeway state park and camp
Day 3: Mt Sneffels SW ridge
Day 4: Backpack in to Vestal basin
Day 5: Arrow Peak
Day 6: Trinity Traverse
Day 7: Pack out start driving towards Denver
Day 8: Finish Driving to IL

I will actually be taking 9 days off work straight so a weather day could be dropped in when needed. This will also give me 2 nights sleep in CO before attempting a summit, instead of 1 night and arriving at Molas Pass with very little time to acclimate and start a strenuous backpack. I intentionally left Vestal off the plan because Wham ridge is above my skill level.
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oldschoolczar
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Re: Arrow, Vestal and the Trinities?

Post by oldschoolczar »

Have you considered flying?

I really don't think it'd be much more than the money you'll spend on gas (even after getting a rental car for a few days)

A 20+ hour drive each way seems crazy for four days in the mountains :shock:
“what matters most is
how well you
walk through the
fire” -Charles Bukowski
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Steve Climber
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Re: Arrow, Vestal and the Trinities?

Post by Steve Climber »

emiller wrote:I intentionally left Vestal off the plan because Wham ridge is above my skill level.
If you are comfortable climbing class 4, you can always do Vestal via Dues Collector and the south side. Dues Collector was EASILY my least favorite downclimb, but I was having some major shoe issues. Globreal and I pushed Arrow summit in 1:45 from camp (right below Vestal/Arrow down in the valley), so with a reasonable pace and good weather break, the combo would definitely be doable. We got rained off the combo on our trip, so we skipped the Trinities and focused on Arrow the day after Vestal. We scheduled 1 day in from Molas, 2 days in valley climbing, and a day back out...I never felt like I was over exerted, but was pushing it on the way back out (took us 1:40 to get down to Animas bridge on way in and 1:35 to go back up...go figure...must have been those beers we stashed by TH willing us to hike faster)

edit: also, if you are comfortable with some exposed class 4, stay to the left on the ramp up Arrow. The class 3 side is a bit loose. The Green/Gray rock to climbers left is super solid and was incredibly fun to scramble.
Last edited by Steve Climber on Fri Oct 25, 2013 3:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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LadyClimber
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Re: Arrow, Vestal and the Trinities?

Post by LadyClimber »

You asked about camping... This summer my husband and I did Wham Ridge. We camped in the lower basin just a little ways above a waterfall. It's on the right hand side as you hike up, cross the creek on some limbs and there is a really nice open spot and some big rocks for cooking on. Some people were up in the morrains at the base, but it looks like a miserable place to camp especially in a storm, and ther was really only one or two descent places to camp way up there. Camping right at the base of wham would cause too much of an impact to the high traffic area. There are a lot of great sites in the lower basin, some more hidden than others. We went in the middle of monsoon season. It rained in the afternoon/evening, but by the morning Wham ridge was dry, but the southside descent was not.
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