Planning for Pigeon/Turret/Jagged

[sherby]

Hey, we are now at 50/58 & 85/106 (traditional + LIDAR, down to Dallas / Obstruction), one trip we are planning for next year is a Pigeon/Turret/Jagged backpack (the Wemimuche one will wait for 2028).

We do not plan to get train tickets, last year we did the Chicago basin peaks (the 14ers + Jupiter) from purgatory and we don't really mind doing the extra walk.

I know many have said that the noname approach sucks, I've seen people coming in the other side (Vallecito), one thing to note is that we have a extra tall Subaru OBW, not a 4x4 truck. This would be in August.

Any inputs from people who have done something similar?

[askwjs]

We just did this from the train. We hiked up to Ruby Basin for P/T, over the Pass to No Name and down No Name after Jagged. Ruby was FAR worse than No Name, in my opinion. But the Animas was low enough that we forded the river and walked the last 2 miles to Needleton on the tracks so that helped. Saved a ton of time and effort. Would absolutely recommend doing it this way even with the wallowing up Ruby. The worst of it was getting to Ruby Lake, after that we were able to follow cairns and faint trail all the way to the upper basin. The pass to No Name was pretty tame, just make sure you stick to the skiers right when descending and stay out of the trees. There is a gully that goes all the way to the basin but if you enter the trees, it's pretty tough routefinding even though you can see the lower basin the whole way while bushwhacking.

[hellmanm]

I'm one of the stauncher Noname defenders, I think. It's really just one sketchy section of deadfall that's nightmarish (and watertank hill, I suppose). Go high enough to the left and the deadfall isn't so bad. Ruby, on the other hand... idk. I came down N Pigeon (which is brutal) a month ago and encountered folks who said it took like 4 hours of horrible bushwhacking coming DOWN just to reach the Columbine tree where the Ruby/N Pigeon approaches diverge. Pick your poison, but Noname basin isn't something to fear given the rest of your itinerary.

[sherby]

BTW, neither Roach or climb13ers document the Noname-Ruby pass to connect the between P/T and Jagged, so I'm specially interested about this section.

[Geckser]

Did this route years ago but with the addition of the Vestal Basin 13ers. We took the saddle from Vestal Basin into Tenmile and traversed over to upper Noname from there. This was pleasant and generally grassy. From Jagged to Ruby was a bit bushwacky for the brief stretch below treeline but quite tame and enjoyable for the rest. Sort of a use trail down from the steeps into the lower basin and a pretty obvious path up from there. No trails but easy walking.

We descended North Pigeon Creek and it was not terrible and once we hit the use trail with Ruby it was quite easy. Because it was late in the day we walked back along the tracks to Molas, where we started.

I really loved this loop, especially if you may want to add any of the great Vestal Basin 13ers in.

[sherby]

I really loved this loop, especially if you may want to add any of the great Vestal Basin 13ers in.

We are planning to wait one more year for Arrow/Trinity/Vestal to get ready for the Wham ridge route

[Anima]

I've been up Noname four times now, most recently about two weeks ago. Someone has illegally cleared trees from the Animas to about 10,000 ft along the Noname trail with a chainsaw. They did a fantastic job. I think I stepped over two or three trees along that whole section (which is by far the steepest) which must have been recent blow downs. In previous years this section has been significantly worse. We shaved 90 minutes off of the approach, even with heavier packs this last time. That being said, the section from Needleton to Noname (i.e. along the Animas) is as bad as ever, along with the all of the sections above 10,000ft.

I went up Ruby last year. It steep, just about as bad of a trail, and no one has undertaken major clearing efforts along it. That being said, it is significantly shorter. I honestly don't think one is better than the other. Years ago I did Jagged, Pigeon, Turret, and Jupiter from Purgatory. I went up Noname, camped at 10,800ft, did Jagged the next day and moved my camp to a mushroom shaped lake around 12,000ft below Twin Thumbs pass. I got up early the next day, crossed over a pass into Ruby Basin, did Pigeon and Turret by their standard routes, returned to camp, and then packed over Twin Thumbs pass into Chicago Basin. Did Jupiter the next day and made it all the way back to my car at Purgatory that night. This is a good way to do things, although the Pigeon/Turret day is pretty big and requires good weather, but you get the benefit of walking out the Chicago Basin Trail.

If I were you, I'd probably go up Noname, do Jagged, spend an entire day moving camp into Ruby Basin, and then do Pigeon and Turret and descend Ruby Creek. You'll go through some of the best terrain in the state! If you don't like bush wacking, find a good, recent GPX track for both Ruby Creek and Noname Creek. I'm not a GPX guy, so I just wander around and hope, but it wasn't until the third time I went up Noname that I really knew were the trail was (the first two times, I had the pleasure of finding out where the trail wasn't.) That being said, both Noname and Ruby are "good" trails lower down, but become very, very hard to follow about 10k.

[Anima]

I'm one of the stauncher Noname defenders, I think. It's really just one sketchy section of deadfall that's nightmarish (and watertank hill, I suppose). Go high enough to the left and the deadfall isn't so bad. Ruby, on the other hand... idk. I came down N Pigeon (which is brutal) a month ago and encountered folks who said it took like 4 hours of horrible bushwhacking coming DOWN just to reach the Columbine tree where the Ruby/N Pigeon approaches diverge. Pick your poison, but Noname basin isn't something to fear given the rest of your itinerary.

With the current drought, you don't even have to go over watertank hill!

If the water is low (like it is now), you can walk around it along the river. There is one little 8-10ft section of "class 3", otherwise you're just walking on polished river rocks. Did this two weeks ago on our way out of Noname and it worked out great. (For reference, when we did this the Animas was running at 2.5ft Gauge Height (whatever that means) in Durango.)

[sherby]

I've been up Noname four times now, most recently about two weeks ago. Someone has illegally cleared trees from the Animas to about 10,000 ft along the Noname trail with a chainsaw. They did a fantastic job. I think I stepped over two or three trees along that whole section (which is by far the steepest) which must have been recent blow downs. In previous years this section has been significantly worse. We shaved 90 minutes off of the approach, even with heavier packs this last time. That being said, the section from Needleton to Noname (i.e. along the Animas) is as bad as ever, along with the all of the sections above 10,000ft.

If I were you, I'd probably go up Noname, do Jagged, spend an entire day moving camp into Ruby Basin, and then do Pigeon and Turret and descend Ruby Creek. You'll go through some of the best terrain in the state! If you don't like bush wacking, find a good, recent GPX track for both Ruby Creek and Noname Creek. I'm not a GPX guy, so I just wander around and hope, but it wasn't until the third time I went up Noname that I really knew were the trail was (the first two times, I had the pleasure of finding out where the trail wasn't.) That being said, both Noname and Ruby are "good" trails lower down, but become very, very hard to follow about 10k.

We spent countless hours bushwacking all over the northeast in thick little spruce trees, so typical CO bushwack doesn't bother us that much Thank you for the hindsight.

[askwjs]

Maybe the trail down No Name was a little more well traveled for us coming down on Monday but we had no problems finding trail the whole way down to the Animas then just found a shallow place to cross to walk the tracks. I wouldn't want to backpack down Ruby. It was a mess and way steeper in sections. Would definitely save No Name for the downhill.

As for the pass, it was pretty much pick your poison coming up from Ruby until we eventually hit a faint trail that took us all the way to the saddle. A little scree up top but was pretty smooth sailing going up. Going down to No Name started pretty easy on grassy terrain until we found ourselves too deep in the trees and in some pretty "fun" bushwhacking in the trees. We scouted a route that would have went way better when we were coming down from Jagged. Lesson learned but made it into the basin nonetheless.

The only part of any of these trails that we loathed was Ruby to the lake. Otherwise, we found the pass and the No Name descent straightforward.

[eskermo]

My 2 cents: if you actually want to enjoy the best peaks in CO, break them up into different trips.

Take the train to Needleton and climb Pigeon and Turret via N Pigeon Creek.

Hike in from Vallecito and use Sunlight Creek to climb Jagged.

Neither N Pigeon Creek nor Sunlight are THAT bad.

IMO if your goal is not Bicents or lower 13ers, there is no need to ever suffer through Ruby or Noname.

Also, as someone who swore off the train for my first 9 Weminuche backpacks, taking the train the first time to do P & T made for an outstandingly fun and low bulls**t experience. If you can, take the train.

[sherby]

My 2 cents: if you actually want to enjoy the best peaks in CO, break them up into different trips.

Take the train to Needleton and climb Pigeon and Turret via N Pigeon Creek.

Hike in from Vallecito and use Sunlight Creek to climb Jagged.

Neither N Pigeon Creek nor Sunlight are THAT bad.

IMO if your goal is not Bicents or lower 13ers, there is no need to ever suffer through Ruby or Noname.

I think we'll consider the Vallecito option, specially that for Jagged we'll bring more gear (i.e. rope) than for P & T.

I would like to do all 13ers per region, but at one 15 days trip per summer it's not reasonable, I had to accept to leave stragglers everywhere