Animas Mountain Route?

[Matt Lemke]

So in my planning for a 12 day summit inclusive trek through the Weminuche, I am having trouble determining if you can cross from the Vestal Basin heading east into the Trinity Creek basin??
I'd like to avoid dropping into the Tenmile basin and Balsam Lake since Peaks 7,8 and 9 are not on our plans.

Could someone also tell me if crossing Elk Creek will be much of a problem in late June?

Thanks for any help.
Matt

[d_baker]

I am having trouble determining if you can cross from the Vestal Basin heading east into the Trinity Creek basin??

Doable.
When a group of us did Vestal & Arrow in Aug '05, we started at Beartown and used the Vallecito Tr going S, and then went up (west) through the Stormy Gulch/Trinity Cr drainage.
Night 1, we camped below Silex & Storm King. Next day, we moved camp and went over Trinity Pass, and dropped into Vestal Basin where we camped for a few nights.
We hiked out the Vestal Cr trail, back to Elk Park tr, and then proceeded E back to Beartown.
Fun loop. Only downside was we only got to climb Vestal & Arrow.

[planet54]

Many years ago,1981 as I recall ,we started at Molas Pass ,went up Elk Creek and camped at the 12,018 lake near Peaks One and Three. The next day we hiked over to Vestal Basin via the 13,000 +/- ft pass on a sketchy trail then back over to Trinity Lake for another camp. By now I would think that the route is more defined. It was good fishing in that 12,018 lake by the way.

[Matt Lemke]

Thanks guys for the help...
I am also wondering about how difficult Animas Mountain is??

Has anyone done this one (I'm sure people have as it's a high 13er)

What is its YDS class and easiest route?
Thanks

[d_baker]

I am also wondering about how difficult Animas Mountain is??

Has anyone done this one (I'm sure people have as it's a high 13er)

I have not done that group of 13ers out of Ruby, so I don't have firsthand knowledge of it.
But have you looked at tr's posted here and on sp?
There's 4 reports that come up here on 14ers, so I would imagine at least one of them would shed light on the difficulty.

[rijaca]

Thanks guys for the help...
I am also wondering about how difficult Animas Mountain is??

Has anyone done this one (I'm sure people have as it's a high 13er)

What is its YDS class and easiest route?
Thanks

Animas is class 3/4 on fun, exposed San Juan ball bearings. Garratt and Martin describe a route in their guidebook to the high 13ers.

Peak 13, Animas, and Monitor (l. to r.)....

Monitor.small.7-5-04.jpg (40.3 KiB) Viewed 1734 times

[d_baker]

Peak 13, Animas, and Monitor (l. to r.)....

But it might be more like Animas, Peak 13, & Monitor, left to right.

[rijaca]

Peak 13, Animas, and Monitor (l. to r.)....

But it might be more like Animas, Peak 13, & Monitor, left to right.

Find out for sure this summer?

Edit.... oops, Darin is right. Still need to verify.

[d_baker]

Peak 13, Animas, and Monitor (l. to r.)....

But it might be more like Animas, Peak 13, & Monitor, left to right.

Find out for sure this summer?

I would like to think so....

[d_baker]

Ricky, how did you miss The Guardian if you got Silex and Storm King? I would like to do those this summer too. "Would like to" is the key part to that comment.

[rijaca]

Ricky, how did you miss The Guardian if you got Silex and Storm King? I would like to do those this summer too. "Would like to" is the key part to that comment.

I was having a bad day. And it took me two trips to get those two....

[Chicago Transplant]

We did Monitor, Peak 13 and Animas together as a group. The route we took went up through the steep grass/rocky slopes from our high camp in upper Ruby Basin then across the base of the cliffs below Animas to a very obvious ramp below Peak 13. From there we had to traverse towards Monitor then descend sketchy steep ball bearings and then ascended the north ridge of Monitor, which I have a route for on Summitpost:

http://www.summitpost.org/north-ridge/638725

We backtracked to just on the Peak 13 side of Monitor/13 saddle and then ascended a class 3/4 gully to a ledge that went around to the back side of Peak 13. From that side it was fairly easy to zig zag up class 3 terrain to the summit. Descend towards Animas... at first it didn't look like it would go but we found class 3 terrain to descend off Peak 13 and then traverse a fairly straightforward slope along the ridge to Animas. Animas then rears up in steep terrain on good rock, Our route was probably a fifth class move or 2, but it looked like there was some easier terrain possibly around to the left. The descent off Animas was definitely a bit tricky. We tried to go basically straight down towards some gullies we had seen from Pigeon/Turret that seemed to get through. This is easier said than done as it was complicated from above to piece the right gullies together. We backtracked a little and had a few exposed traverses, so plan on it taking more time than expected to find the right route as its not obvious from above. Eventually we found a steep loose 2+ gully that spit back out onto easier terrain and we then descended back down the grassy/rocky slopes to high camp. If Animas was you primary goal, you certainly could use our descent route as an ascent route, but Monitor also being a highest 200, I think the best route is to combine them. Possibly the best descent is to reverse Animas back over Peak 13 and down the key ascent ramp, if you have the time do that. We were worried about the train, but probably it would have been quicker to retrace.

Lordhelmut's TR from our trip. Note he went down Animas a different gully than Kevin and I did.
http://14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.ph ... ki=Include