Bent Peak (13,393), Carson Peak (13,675), UN 13580, UN 13581 by Brian Schultz Tuesday September 28, 2010
Roundtrip mileage: 10 miles from Wager Gulch road at 12,300'
Elevation gain: 4,150'
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz
We drove the Lake San Cristobal road again out of Lake City, this time to the Wager Gulch 4x4 road. This steep and narrow but very good road begins in a small residential area and continues past the Carson townsite to a large, flat saddle at 12,300 feet just east of Bent Peak. We parked at the saddle and began hiking at 7:40 AM up another old road toward Bent Peak, appreciative of the high elevation start because the ups and downs of the four peaks today would still entail over 4,000 feet of gain.
It didn't take long to reach Bent's summit. The road gave way to easy grass and talus and we cruised to the top at 8:25. After a ten minute break we headed down the slopes toward Carson Peak, the first of three bicentennial peaks on our itinerary. The climb to Carson was also on grass and talus and for the most part, very easy. We arrived on Carson's summit at 9:35 and stayed twenty minutes before departing on what we thought would be a smooth and fast descent of Carson's west ridge.
This was not the case as we eventually bailed off the rough ridge, deciding the steep slopes of loose talus, grass, and dirt would be more to our liking. Finding passage through the cliffs to reach the Colorado Trail below wasn't as straightforward as we hoped but once we reached the bottom it was an easy trail hike to the 12,900' pass. We stopped for a short break and pondered climbing up two more ranked thirteeners nearby but instead sat and enjoyed the beautiful warm weather. From the pass, we followed grassy slopes (south) to the right of the 13,552' ridge point and found a trail leading to the saddle below 13580. From there it was on mostly grass with a short finish on talus to reach the summit. We arrived at 12:00 under clear skies and spent half an hour enjoying the views of Pole Creek Mtn and NW Pole, two bicentennial peaks still on our list to climb someday, as well as the many other San Juan peaks in the area.
The obstacles on the connecting ridge to UN 13581 had us concerned because Garratt and Martin say the ridge can't be followed directly to 13581. First though, we had to return to the saddle below 13580, where we dropped 100 feet on the right to begin a lower contour rather than staying high. It avoided the much rougher terrain immediately below the cliffs and spires before regaining the ridge and was well worth the slight elevation loss. We followed the ridge to the 13,568' ridge point and stopped to observe the route ahead. Pete Krzanowsky reported having to backtrack from the notch on the ridge and descend 200 feet to a gully before regaining the ridge so we knew not to go all the way to the notch. We continued ahead and began our descent about 150 yards west of the notch.
We angled down to the obvious gully, paused to observe the notch, and began our climb back up to the ridge. The gully traveled better than it initially looked, and after topping out we hiked easy terrain to the summit block. The best part of the day awaited us as we headed to the right and looked for a route up. We climbed up the right side, continued on the back side (cairned), and found a class 3 route leading to the top. Tim asked if I wanted to go first and I did. The 25 feet of climbing was steep but the holds were excellent and I whooped when the last pull put me on top of the summit. The abrupt finish was thrilling, and for me, the highlight of the day. The time was 2:35, Tim quickly joined me, and we enjoyed our final summit for 40 minutes before departing at 3:15 on the northeast ridge.
After descending the northeast ridge for a while we angled left (north) down 13581's slopes until cliffs stopped us. Turning left again, we followed a drainage which led us through trees and to the willows in the valley floor, and from the valley floor we found good alleys and met up with the La Garita stock trail. We followed it in the general direction of the truck and watched in amazement as five moose trampled through the tall willows ahead of us. I tried to get a picture but they were gone before I could get my camera out. Shortly after the moose sighting we left the trail and bushwhacked up the slopes.
Near the top of the slopes we intersected the Colorado Trail and followed the commingled trail/road back to the truck. We arrived at 5:50, completing a loop that kept us above 12,000 feet for most of the day, but without worries as stable weather conditions once again trumped any storm dangers. In addition to the moose encounter we also saw many deer and some elk, making for an all-around fine day for animal sightings as well.
4x4 trailhead (12,300') to Bent Peak- 45 minutes
Bent Peak to Carson Peak- 1 hour
Carson Peak to UN13580- 2 hours 5 minutes
UN13580 to UN13581- 2 hours
UN13581 to trailhead- 2 hours 35 minutes
Start to finish- 10 hours 10 minutes