Potosi Peak (13,786) by Brian Schultz Tuesday August 23, 2012
Roundtrip mileage: ~4 miles from Yankee Boy Basin road (ours was 4.5 miles due to traversing too far and having to backtrack)
Elevation gain: 2,500'
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz
Another fine day was in the forecast as we began at 7:00 AM from the Yankee Boy Basin road. We parked at 11,300', the same point on the 4x4 road that we used when we climbed Teakettle Mountain back in 2005. We started up the same grassy basin as then and took a slow pace up the steep slopes. As we worked our way up we aimed for a small rib on the right side of the slopes, hoping this would lead to an easier ascent to the "Coffeepot" above. Interestingly, it led to a tower southeast of the Coffeepot, where we stopped and could see the Coffeepot/Potosi saddle across the way. Tim asked if I wanted to try a shortcut to the saddle and I hesitated at first, but agreed. After a few steps down, we started across the talus and it soon became obvious it would work. It saved some time, mileage, and elevation gain to the Coffeepot, perhaps minimal, but it was easy and hassle-free. We reached the saddle at 9:35.
We followed the cairned route from the saddle as it traversed around Potosi's lower cliffs and stopped at a large flat spot for a breakfast break before the route (so we thought) headed left around the corner. But we should've turned up sharply to the left before turning the corner to the flat spot. There were no more cairns as we continued on the lower route and we debated whether we were on the right track but we pushed on anyway until coming to a dead-end. So we backtracked and once we reached the flat spot of the corner again, we turned and climbed up 200 feet north/northeast for the proper traverse.
Losing 45 minutes to get back on route might've cost us the summit in iffy weather but skies were still sunny as we continued 0.2 miles to the described wide 40' gully. We turned up left in the gully, traversed (right) to a sandy gully, then climbed up an easy class 3 chimney on its left. At the top of the chimney we climbed to the right up ledges and slabs, then left to the highest point of the summit, which we triumphantly claimed at 12:10. The summit is as large as the Roaches describe and we enjoyed it for 30 minutes under building clouds. We noted several familiar names in the register as we signed in.
We departed at 12:40. Our descent went relatively fast and a few rumbles of thunder were heard in the far distance but nothing materialized. We reached the Coffeepot/Potosi saddle at 1:55, took the shortcut back to the tower again, and from there rode as much scree as we could down the slopes before hitting the steep grass. Our pace slowed again on the steep grass and we took an extended break on the slopes before arriving at the truck at 3:20.
Trailhead to summit- 5 hours 10 minutes
Summit to trailhead- 2 hours 40 minutes
Start to finish- 8 hours 20 minutes