"Quarter Peak" (13,674) by Brian Schultz Monday September 27, 2010
Roundtrip mileage: 3.4 miles from Square Gulch trailhead
Elevation gain: 3,100'
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz
Tim and I met up in Lake City at 9:40 AM this morning for the first of three consecutive days of climbing together. We'd be starting late for today's climb but had no worries as the forecast called for stable weather and no chance of thunderstorms. The drive was especially scenic with the aspen fall colors peaking along the Lake San Cristobal road to the Square Gulch trailhead. The Square Gulch trailhead (10,600') is 2.25 miles beyond the Cataract Gulch trailhead on a gentle 4x4 road, and located on the left side side of the road immediately after crossing Boulder Creek. There's ample parking near an old bullet-ridden truck.
We began at 11:00 and crossed the low running Cottonwood Creek, staying on the right (west) side of Square Gulch for a hundred yards or so before crossing the stream to the east. This route is steep with 3,100 feet of elevation gain in only 1.7 miles and offers little respite until reaching the grassy meadow at 11,900'. We found a hit-and-miss trail marked with an occasional cairn as we bushwhacked through thick willows and grunted up the steep drainage. The elevation gain came quickly as the road below got smaller and smaller. We noticed on our descent later that a more defined trail stays higher and further away from the stream but our route got the job done.
We reached the top of the gulch in about an hour and shortly afterward the grassy meadow at 11,900'. We continued ahead a bit before turning left up grassy slopes to Quarter Peak and as we gained elevation, Half Peak's stunning north face came into view. Its north face still retained snow from the past week's snowstorm but today, five days later, there was barely a trace of snow on our route and the temperature was warm enough to climb in short sleeves.
The summit block is guarded with cliffs and appears to be a difficult climb from below. We headed up on talus to the small saddle on Quarter's north ridge and surprisingly, it turned out to be just a short distance of easy scrambling from there to the top. We arrived at 2:15 under mostly clear skies and very warm temperatures, no jacket needed on this late September day. The views were terrific in every direction and we identified many peaks we've climbed over the years before departing at 3:00.
Boot-skiing the scree on the upper slopes made for a fast descent. We reached the 11,900' meadow at 3:50, found the more defined trail higher in the gulch, and made good time back to the truck, arriving at 4:50. It doesn't get much better than this in the San Juans- summer-like temperatures in late September and being able to start late!
Trailhead to summit- 3 hours and 15 minutes
Summit to trailhead- 1 hour 50 minutes
Start to finish- 5 hours 50 minutes