The Pomeroy group of 13ers are an unusual bunch in that there's numerous roads to access the peaks, but all of the roads are long (with one exception) and very rough (no exceptions). The roads are:

• Chaffee County Road 240 (from the east) from Maysville to North Fork Reservoir
• Chaffee County Road 295 (from the northwest) from St. Elmo to Hancock Lake
• Chaffee County Road 230 (from the southwest) from Monarch to Boss Lake

Whiley and I thought we'd have the easiest time getting all four of these peaks from North Fork Reservoir. We ended up only getting Point 13,070 and Pomeroy Mountain from that side - Sewanee Peak looked like a harder-than-expected technical scramble from Pomeroy - so we drove over to Monarch and only a short distance up CR 230 before getting stopped by downed trees across the road. Not to be deterred, we drove all the way around to St. Elmo and up to Hancock Lake Trailhead, where we were able to finally get good access to Point 13,147 and Sewanee Peak. All in all a good tour of the area, but one we would rather not repeat because it was so time consuming. Thanks to Whiley for doing all of the driving on all of the nasty 4WD roads.

After camping at the Angel of Shavano Trailhead we left my car and took her truck up to North Fork Reservoir. We started just after 7am expecting a "small stats" day - not much mileage or elevation gain - since these peaks were all in close proximity and we started above 11,400 feet. There is a road that goes near Point 13,070, our first objective for the day (we hoped to go counter clockwise and do most of the scrambling up instead of down), but we simply cut through the forest in a straight line from the parking area before meeting up with the road higher up.

As we hiked Pomeroy and Point 13,070 became visible through the trees.

Once the road began curving northwest then west we left it and began hiking towards 13,070. We knew there was a trail that led up to 13,070's east ridge below the summit pitch but there was still a lot of snow there, plus the red rock, as is typical, looked like ball bearing scree. We chose to add a little bit of distance and go up a shallower, grassy slope instead.

Gaining the ridge was an easy affair, though the slope wasn't quite as grassy as it looked from afar. Still, we thought it was a much better way to gain the ridge.

We gained the ridge, which had a little bit of snow on it. Most of the snow was icy and slippery but could either be skirted on rock or was flat enough to just be walked across. The rock was of the expected death choss variety but there was no scrambling and exposure was minimal. Still, the snow turned this from a super duper easy hike to merely a super easy hike. The horror!

It didn't take us very long after gaining the ridge before we were on the summit. Peak one of four for the day, and the next, Pomeroy, looked very interesting.

We began dropping towards the Pomeroy-13,070 saddle and came across the first scrambling of the day on rotten rock that was now orange instead of red.

There was one short down climb into a notch and then a Class 3 bypass around a small, rotten tower before we reached the saddle.

From the saddle the ridge stretched out ahead of us.

A number of slabby towers stood in our way. I scrambled up the first one, which was surprisingly solid compared to everything else we'd been on so far. Exposure was high here, and the first few moves were a stiff Class 3, perhaps Class 4.

When I reached the top of the tower Whiley called me back to the saddle. She hadn't slept at all, being super wired after a close encounter with a mountain lion the day before, and wasn't feeling up to an involved scramble today. She urged me to go on but I wasn't about to leave her behind. We're a team, after all. I returned to the saddle, which conveniently enough was a dirt gully back down to the basin. It was steep and soft (and terribly environmentally unfriendly) but quickly returned us to a place where we could traverse to Pomeroy's south slopes so we wouldn't have to leave the peak behind.

In the basin we made a descending arc underneath the ridge we abandoned, mostly on snow.

Once out from under all of the towers and cliffs that mark Pomeroy's east face we had an easy ascent on snow, talus, and tundra to Pomeroy's summit.

If one were to do Pomeroy by itself this would undoubtedly be the easiest way; all other routes are steep and/or scrambly. Whiley and I didn't like the look of the ridge heading up Sewanee so we decided to go back down and try from the Boss Lake side since we knew there was a route on moderate ground there. First we'd have to find our way back to the truck, and despite numerous roads in the basin this was harder than it should have been. We made it back to an old, closed road and instead of taking it back to the main road we thought we'd just take a direct shot back. This proved to be a marshy, willowy mess, and while Whiley fared better than I did I was wading through ankle deep standing water with willows above my head, which wasn't too fun. If you read this looking for beta, stay well away from the marshy flats, it's ugly in there.

When we made it back to Whiley's truck we attempted to dry things out a bit and then went to pick up my car. We drove up to Monarch then tried to go up CR 230 to Boss Lake but were shutdown by a downed tree that was suspended less than 6' above the ground, low enough that we couldn't drive under it. Great. Now what?

We drove to Poncha Springs so Whiley could make a couple of calls and we could figure out our next move. Having done Monumental Peak to "Hancock Peak" last year I knew there was a trail that approached Chalk Creek Pass from the north and would give us access to 13,147 and Sewanee from the west, but didn't know how close we could drive to the pass. The answer is pretty darn close, a couple of miles away at the worst. We drove to St. Elmo, left my car, then took CR 295 south, stopping between the Alpine Tunnel Trailhead and the Hancock Lake Trailhead, since the road had literally become a river at that point. For most of the drive up from St. Elmo it had stormed and we waited at our parking spot for about ten minutes before making a break for it after the storm passed.

We continued hiking up the valley towards the pass, which was obvious from a distance.

The trail past the road closure at the trailhead was a mess of mud and running water and required willow bashing and rock hopping to stay dry. To our left Sewanee loomed above Hancock Lake, but we knew there was an easier way up.

A large snow patch near Upper Hancock Lake led, finally, to dry ground, and we switchbacked up to the pass on the Continental Divide Trail,

From the pass there was a large but reasonable looking talus slope up to the 13,147/Sewanee saddle, and even a series of convenient grass ledge up the first part.

This slope wasn't all that bad as far as stability or steepness went, and we were treated to increasingly rugged and mouthwatering views of Point 13,147 as we climbed.

From the saddle Point 13,147 would prove to be the highlight of the day.

At first we thought the tower visible from the pass was the summit, and we began making our way up to it. The scrambling took is on the east side (North Fork Reservoir) of the ridge and went at Class 2+, perhaps Easy Class 3 in a few spots, on generally solid rock.

As we got higher we realized the tower was not actually the summit. For that we'd have to go a little further along the ridge. The scrambling lasted until the ridge curved southeast, then became purely Class 2 talus.

Along the way we passed several wretched looking gullies down to Island Lake, one of which must have been the gully SnowAlien climbed in her report for these peaks.

After a short stretch of talus hopping along the ridge we ran into a small dip and then the final summit pitch. The dark skies really helped make this peak look and feel a lot wilder, and thus more fun, than blues skies would have.

We clamored up the talus and I signed the register before we beat a hasty retreat. There was still one peak left and we wanted to tag it before our friend Dark Roiling Stormcloud blew its top.

Reversing our route back to the saddle was super speedy, and we were almost to Sewanee already!

From the saddle Sewanee was more of more of the same. Whiley stayed on the crest of the ridge and I attempted to traverse the flank and found rather loose rock. This seems like a common occurrence - Whiley on the solid ridge crest, me bumbling about foolishly below - so be more like Whiley. She knows what's up. Getting up Sewanee required some more Class 2+ but nothing as hard as what we found on 13,147.

All in all the traverse between peaks had barely taken 35 minutes. We returned to the saddle then traversed back down the talus field to the grassy ledges and eventually the pass.

Descending from the pass back to the trail meant the same soggy nonsense we'd come up before, but faster and with less concern for getting wet, which somehow translated to getting less wet. Go figure.

We returned to Whiley's truck without issue sometime after 7pm, then drove into Buena Vista and ate at Jade Garden, one of the few places in the town that's open late(r). Whiley and I split after dinner, with me making my way over to Cottonwood Pass for an ill-fated attempt on Turner Peak (it turns out freezing rain at 5:30am isn't very conducive to climbing) and her meeting fellow 14ers.com member and 13er maniac Garrett. Point 13,147 was both our favorites, but perhaps the scramble up Pomeroy would have beaten this out. We'll just have to return and find out sometime! This was a bit of a ridiculous day but what the heck, these are the things we'll do for climbing.

Point 13,070/Pomeroy Mountain Statistics

Trailhead: North Fork Reservoir
Total distance: 6.49 miles
Total elevation gain: 2,730 feet
Total time: 4:10:24
Peaks: Two ranked thirteeners

• Point 13,070
• Pomeroy Mountain, 13,151'

Splits:

Point 13,147/Sewanee Peak Statistics

Trailhead: Hancock Lake
Total distance: 6.15 miles
Total elevation gain: 2,079 feet
Total time: 3:44:39
Peaks: One ranked thirteener, one unranked thirteener

• Point 13,147
• Sewanee Peak, 13,132'

Splits:

Full Day Statistics

Climbers: Ben Feinstein (myself), Whiley H.
Total distance: 12.64 miles
Total elevation gain: 4,809 feet
Total time: 7:55:03
Peaks: Three ranked thirteeners, one unranked thirteener

• Point 13,070
• Pomeroy Mountain, 13,151'
• Point 13,147
• Sewanee Peak, 13,132'