From the Chapin Pass trailhead (
2) at 11,000 feet, head uphill just a few hundred yards to a right turn marked with a sign for "Chapin, Chiquita & Ypsilon Summits" (
3). Follow the clear trail over a small drainage and gradually uphill (
4), (
5).
At 0.75 miles, reach a trail split with a sign pointing right to "All Summits" (
6). Go right. Reach another trail split shortly thereafter without a sign (
7). Go right again.
At around 1.25 miles from the trailhead, the route skirting Mt. Chapin (12,454') and ascending Mt. Chiquita (13069') comes into view (
8). On the approach to the Chapin-Chiquita saddle at 12,000 feet, cross a trail intersection and keep going straight (
9). Continue up on clear trail until it dissolves into class 2 rock (
10) at around 2.5 miles and 13,000 feet. Cross the rocks to the true summit (
11).
From Chiquita's summit, survey Ypsilon (
1) and the route across the saddle (
12). Head west off the Chiquita summit to access the saddle, which drops just 200 feet (
13). Ascend across tundra on the other side of the saddle (
14), more or less passing just inside of Ypsilon's east face. Follow cairns once it turns to Class 2 rock (
15), climb toward the first false summit at around 13,300 (
16), find more cairns and distinct vertical flakes of rock (
17), and approach another false summit (
18) just after the southern branch of the Ypsilon "Y" couloir for which the mountain was named. Pass this and find the true summit (13,514') at 4 miles from the trailhead, just beyond the northern branch of the "Y" (
19).
The crossing to Fairchild is more difficult, but it's clearly visible (
20) from Ypsilon's summit. Head west off Ypsilon's summit to access the easiest descent into the Ypsilon-Fairchild saddle. At around 13,050 feet, turn north and begin descending down steep and loose class 2 rocks (
21). Stay east of the larger rocks to keep it as Class 2.
Descend 700 vertical feet to 12,350 on the saddle before beginning a northeasterly ascent up Fairchild's southern slope (
22). Class 2 steep and loose (
23) gradually gives way to a series of short Class 3 scrambles (
24) for about 900 vertical feet total from the bottom of the saddle to the top of this first slope. Ascend 200 more vertical feet in a less steep series of Class 2 false summits (
25) and reach the true summit of Fairchild at 13,502 feet (
26), 5.7 miles from the trailhead.
Return the same way down Fairchild, dropping 1200 feet to the saddle and then climbing 700 feet back up to the ridge on Ypsilon's western slope (
27). From here, save about a half mile and 700 vertical feet by sidehilling at 13,000 feet across Ypsilon's western slope (
28) to the Ypsilon-Chiquita saddle. Cross the saddle and continue sidehilling across Chiquita's western slope until meeting back with the clear ascent trail.