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The Weminuche Traverse

May 11, 2014 San Juans, Trip Reports

We set out on an ambitious mission— to traverse the Weminuche Wilderness and attempt to climb and ski five Centennial summits along the way.

At 500,000 acres, the Weminuche Wilderness area in the San Juan mountains is Colorado’s largest and many of the peaks require exhaustive approaches (the Maroon Bells / Snowmass Wilderness is 181,000 acres just to compare). Compounding the access challenges is the fact that many of these mountains only offer complex, if not technical climbing routes. In summer these peaks present formidable challenges to climbers. Add snow, and the goal of skiing off summits and it all quickly becomes daunting in scale and variables.

These packs didn’t exactly fit the “light and fast” category we normally aim for.
Jupiter Peak
We caught a gorgeous day up on Jupiter. Dav and Sean seen here, with the 14ers Windom and Sunlight to the left
Chris Davenport, Jupiter Peak
It was an easy ski off the summit.

Christy, Dav, Ian Fohrman, Sean Shean, and I started on this traverse knowing it would be a huge effort to both ski these rugged and remote mountains while at the same time progressing along the traverse route. The weather, snow conditions, and all the small details would have to go exactly according to plan if we hoped to have even a small chance of getting it all done.

So as is often the case, the mountains had the final say on how it would all proceed, and early on we were forced to adapt to adverse wind and weather. We adjusted our goals accordingly and five days after starting, we had traversed the heart of the Needle and Grenadier ranges of the Weminuche, and skied two Centennials along the way— Jupiter Mountain and Vestal Peak.

The five Centennial summits that reside in the heart of this vast wilderness define this ski project. Their remoteness combined with the technical challenges presented by a few of them are clearly the crux of the Centennial Skiers project.

noname creek
Skiing down the other side of the pass, into Noname Creek. Ruby Creek is over the pass to the left and we camped above the frozen lake seen below.
Noname Creek
Camp Two, Noname Creek.
Monitor peak
The following morning we headed up and over into Ruby Creek. Dav, seen here, below Monitor Peak’s huge East Face.

Check out the conditions on the saddle between Pigeon and Turret. Weather was approaching and the winds that preceded it were too much to safely climb Pigeon and Turret. A pair of skis on a backpack would act like a sail and it was an obvious call not to go any higher.

ruby creek ski
After accepting the conditions and aware of approaching weather, we headed down from the Pigeon/Turret saddle and back over the pass to our camp. We had to move towards Jagged today.
ian fohrman
Moving camp, with cameras, lenses, and shoes dangling, Ian makes skiing with the overloaded pack look easy.
jagged peak camp
At our Camp Three, below Jagged Pass, the forecasted storm arrived and left 4-05 inches of snow on the ground. The next morning we had hoped for an attempt on Jagged.
Jagged Pass, ian fohrman
We moved up to Jagged Pass in the morning, but in-and-out weather and new snow made the route (seen behind Ian here) unsafe.
vestal peak
We made a huge move from near Jagged Pass to Vestal Creek. We needed to get in a good position to both attempt Vestal Peak and catch the train the next day at Elk Park.
Following the traverse from south to north we caught some good snow on the descents from the passes. Dav, seen here, descends to Vestal Creek in front of the Wham Ridge.
Christy mahon, vestal peak
The following morning, Day Five, was gorgeous, and we had an incredible time climbing and skiing Vestal Peak.
vestal peak ski
The only skiable route was on the mountain’s south side, which was pretty spicy in itself.
chris davenport
Dav in the narrow South Couloir.
And with a big hustle, we made it out to the train with 20 minutes to spare! What a trip.

We’re all still in awe. The experience was memorable and fun, and at times incredibly challenging. It left us all impressed and inspired. We’re excited to return for the remaining three summits— Pigeon, Turret, and Jagged— though that may not happen until next year. That’s OK with us. Any opportunity to return to this awesome area of Colorado is welcome.

Trip reports for Jupiter and Vestal will be up soon.

Tags: jaggedjupiter peakpigeon peaksan juansturret peakvestal peakweminuche
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Ski the Centennial 13ers trip reports

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  • #1 Grizzly Peak – 13,988 ft.
  • #2 Stewart Peak -13,983 ft.
  • #3 Columbia Point – 13,980 ft.
  • #4 Pigeon Peak – 13,972 ft.
  • #5 Mount Ouray – 13,971 ft.
  • #6 Ice Mountain – 13,951 ft.
  • #7 Fletcher Mountain – 13,951 ft.
  • #8 Pacific Peak – 13,950 ft.
  • #9 Cathedral Peak – 13,943 ft.
  • #10 French Mountain – 13,940 ft.
  • #11 Mount Hope – 13,933 ft.
  • #12 Thunder Pyramid – 13,932 ft.
  • #13 Mount Adams – 13,931 ft.
  • #14 Gladstone Peak – 13,913 ft.
  • #15 Mount Meeker – 13,911 ft.
  • #16 Casco Peak – 13,908 ft.
  • #17 Red Mountain – 13,908 ft.
  • #18 Emerald Mountain – 13,904 ft.
  • #19 Horseshoe Mtn. – 13,898 ft.
  • #20 “Phoenix Peak” – 13,895 ft.
  • #21 Vermillion Peak – 13,894 ft.
  • #22 Cronin Peak – 13,870 ft.
  • #23 Mount Buckskin – 13,865 ft.
  • #24 Vestal Peak – 13,864 ft.
  • #25 Jones Mountain – 13,860 ft.
  • #26 North Apostle – 13,860 ft.
  • #27 Clinton Peak – 13,857 ft.
  • #28 Dyer Mountain – 13,855 ft.
  • #29 Crystal Peak – 13,852 ft.
  • #30 Mount Edwards – 13,850 ft.
  • #31 California Peak – 13,849 ft.
  • #32 Mount Oklahoma – 13,845 ft.
  • #33 Half Peak – 13,841 ft.
  • #34 Atlantic Peak – 13,841 ft.
  • #35 Hagerman Peak – 13,841 ft.
  • #36 Turret Peak – 13,835 ft.
  • #37 PT 13,832
  • #38 Holy Cross Ridge – 13,831 ft.
  • #39 Jupiter Mountain- 13,830 ft.
  • #40 “Huerfano Peak” – 13,828 ft.
  • #41 Jagged Mountain – 13,824 ft.
  • #42 “Lackawanna” – 13,823 ft.
  • #43 Mount SiIverheels – 13,822 ft.
  • #44 Rio Grande Pyramid – 13,821 ft.
  • #45 Teakettle Mountain – 13,819 ft.
  • #46 PT 13,811 – 13,811 ft.
  • #47 Dallas Peak – 13,809 ft.

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