Little Horn Peak (13,143) & Fluted Peak (13,554) by Brian Schultz Saturday August 31, 2013
Roundtrip mileage: ~12 miles from Horn Creek trailhead
Elevation gain: ~5,000'
Start to finish: 9 hours
I parked in the same lot that I've used twice before (per Garratt and Martin's directions) and didn't realize until returning from today's climb that there's an official trailhead and parking area just up the road. It's only a slight time saver but worth driving up to.
I began at 7:40 AM under very overcast skies. The weather forecast called for 60% chance of storms/showers after 12:00 noon but I planned on being off the summits by then or shortly after. I made quick time to the Rainbow Trail and followed it a short distance to the Horn Creek Trail, where the register showed two names already signed in to climb Mt Adams. I soon caught up to a local fellow named Woody who's climbed many Sangre peaks but was only hiking to Horn Lakes today. After a brief chat I continued on to a level area past a stream crossing and left the comfort of the trail for a bushwhack to Little Horn Peak. The time was 9:30.
It started out fine but my route turned into an extremely steep bushwhack. I headed straight up the slopes to the left of Little Horn's summit, which were so steep I had to grab the branches of shrubs and willows for something to hang onto. The weather turned sunny while I was clawing my way up and when the steepness relented, the terrain became much easier to the ridge. I finally reached Little Horn's summit at 11:30. The views of Horn Peak, which I climbed two months ago, Fluted Peak, and Mt Adams, and the Crestones were quite nice.
Although the weather was still sunny, clouds were building when I departed Little Horn ten minutes later. The descent to the Little Horn/Fluted saddle was easy enough but I stayed below Fluted's rough ridge for much of the way to avoid the ridge's difficulties. When I finally got on top of the ridge, it was steep climbing over two false summits before reaching the actual summit at 1:00. The views were exceptional (photo 1, photo 2, photo 3) from the top of Fluted.
The weather was holding nicely so I stayed for twenty minutes. Hoping for a shortcut down the slopes, I reversed my ascent route until I was certain I was past the cliffs that extended below Fluted's summit but soon discovered I was caught in the cliffs. It required several class 3 and 4 moves to get through the cliffs but the routefinding was fun, like being in a maze, and I eventually got down and back to the trail.
As I made my descent along the trail, I met two young fathers and their four very young sons backpacking, and also a fellow named Brad from 14ers.com who was backpacking and still hoping to climb Mt Adams before it got dark. He mentioned how annoyed he was with all the people climbing the fourteeners, to the point that he quit doing them and was focusing solely on the thirteeners. I picked up my pace after the short visit and later saw it raining in the valley below. I got back to the parking lot at 4:40 without getting rained on and headed into town for a shower and a meal.
These peaks were fun and the trail was much easier on the feet than the rocky Swift Creek Trail I hiked yesterday.