Storm King Peak (13,752), Peak Seven (13,682), Peak Six (13,705), Mt Silex (13,628), & The Guardian (13,617)  by Brian Schultz      July 24-27, 2012

Roundtrip mileage: 33.5 miles from Beartown trailhead

Total elevation gain: 12,900'

Participants: Mark Silas, Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

Tuesday July 24, 2012: High camp at 11,570'

Tim, Mark, and I met in Ridgway yesterday for dinner and an overnight. We were all excited about this trip because if it was successful, Tim would finish up his bicentennial peaks on either Peak Six or The Guardian, and Mark and I would be that much closer to our own finishes. The forecast called for favorable weather on Wednesday and Thursday and we adjusted our schedule accordingly, but the skies on the drive to Ridgway weren't very reassuring.

This morning we drove to Silverton and over Stony Pass to Beartown. When we arrived at the trailhead, the closest parking spots were filled so we parked about 75 yards up the road. We started on the trail at 9:15 AM under overcast skies and reached Hunchback Pass forty five minutes later.

The descent to Vallecito Creek went quickly and we came across numerous backpackers, mostly scouts and their leaders on their way out. Tim and I'd planned all along to use the Leviathan Creek approach to access these peaks because of its great trail, good campsites, and close proximity to all five peaks, but just before the trip Mark brought up the idea of using Stormy Gulch. It's mileage was shorter but we ultimately decided Peak 6 would probably be too far away to make Stormy Gulch an efficient approach.

As we neared the Leviathan Creek drainage, we ignored several dirt trails on the right that appeared to lead to Vallecito Creek. We continued along the main trail, even though it felt like we were drawing away from Leviathan Creek, until reaching an obvious trail junction. This is the correct trail to take and it angles back to the Vallecito Creek crossing. We took off our boots, put on our sandals, and forded the creek. The water was cold but the crossing was easy and we reached the other side at 1:45. While taking a food break we heard voices and when we headed over to Leviathan Creek, those voices turned out to be two young guides on their way to meet their clients at a campsite up at Leviathan Lake.

We followed them to the fast rushing Leviathan Creek. One of them successfully walked the tightrope on a log but the other guy slipped and fell in the creek. With our heavy packs, Tim and I decided to just straddle the log and inch across on our butts while Mark went further upstream to find a place to cross. He ended up coming back and crawling over the log also.

We began on a good trail on the other side but got a little worried when it didn't turn up the drainage. Thinking we might have missed the correct trail, we backtracked to the creek but the trail we were on was actually the right one. It eventually turned west and ascended the drainage to our destination, a large grassy meadow at 11,570'. We arrived at 4:15 and set up our base camp for the next three nights. It was nice to have lots of daylight to study the routes, filter water, and eat dinner without having to rush but despite the very comfortable setting, I didn't sleep well our first night up there.

Beartown to campsite: 7 hours, 2,300' elevation gain, 10.5 miles

Wednesday July 25, 2012: Storm King Peak, Peak Seven, Peak Six

From the meadow, we set a bearing toward the obvious waterfall north of our camp area and began at 6:00 AM. We skirted the waterfall to its right on steep grassy slopes and forty five minutes later arrived at a high lake at 12,460'. We rounded the lake on the right side and marveled at a large deep crack on the other side, which we would traverse above when we added Peak Six to the agenda later.

A short climb brought us up to the Peak Seven/Peak Eight saddle and another smaller lake at 12,760'. We stayed right of this smaller lake and were greeted with an impressive view of Storm King Peak before beginning a descent down a gully. We followed a handy trail on talus and scree to the Storm King/Peak Nine saddle, reached it at 8:00, and headed up Storm King's ridge. When the ridge's difficulty increased, we cut left and climbed up a loose, steep gully with class 3 & class 4 moves. We stepped on top at 9:10 and stayed for fifteen minutes, enjoying the excellent views, especially of the Trinities and so many other peaks we've climbed in this area over the years.

We returned to the Storm King/Peak Nine saddle at 10:10 and paused briefly in the basin for a great view of Arrow, Vestal, and the Trinities. Thirty minutes later we reached the small lake again and stopped for a break but Mark was eager to get going and started up to the Peak Seven saddle ahead of us. He didn't have to wait very long for us as it only took twenty minutes to get up to the saddle, and at 11:15 we headed up to Peak Seven.

We went up and over the first ridge hump, climbed to the right of the second hump on loose and steep rock, and reached a notch with a vertical class 3 drop that we downclimbed without difficulty. The route was somewhat complicated after that with lots of zig-zagging but we reached the summit at 12:00 noon under clear, sunny skies and stayed for twenty five minutes. More neat views from the summit.

We got off-route on the descent and nearly got cliffed out at one point. After finding a route through the cliffy area we came across two climbers, one from New Mexico, a fellow who'd completed the highest 100 peaks, the other from Denver. They'd come up from Balsam Lake but weren't from the same group. The fellow from New Mexico was climbing solo and three others from the Denver fellow's party were farther down the ridge. They said lots of backpackers were camped at Balsam Lake and after a brief chat, they flew past us up the ridge. We met two more from the Denver group shortly afterward but the last fellow from their group was sitting down at the saddle, intimidated with the exposure and going no further.

With the weather holding nicely and the time only 1:05, we continued on to Peak Six. Yesterday, Tim and I contemplated a route from Peak Seven to Peak Six without taking the ridge directly. We studied the map and our observation from camp convinced us a route would go from the small lake below Peak Seven over to Peak Six by traversing below the ridge. If it worked, it would save time and elevation without having to return to camp.

So we headed down to the small lake and traversed southwest below the ridge. The traverse was working out well as we crossed above the large crack above the 12,460' lake and continued high above Leviathan Lake. We ascended 300' to a rib, paused for a moment to enjoy the terrific view of Jagged Mountain ahead of us, and dropped down to 12,600' before ascending the steep gully to our right. Leviathan Lake lay straight below us and we took a short break at 2:50 before continuing up what could easily be called the "Dues Collector #2", referring to the Roaches' description of the gully between nearby Arrow & Vestal Peaks. It was horribly loose and time consuming but we finally reached the saddle above it and Mark forged ahead while Tim and I stopped for a quick break. He summited and returned to the saddle while Tim and I climbed the last 200+ feet to the top. We triumphantly stepped on the summit at 4:35 and for the next twenty five minutes enjoyed our third peak of the day under still clear skies.

On our descent, Mark and I kept to climber's left in the gully while Tim stayed in the center. We lost sight of Tim for a short period and when we saw him, he was way behind us. We hollered out to him but he couldn't see us so Mark headed over to intercept him. Meanwhile, I continued on and waited until they caught up to me just above Leviathan Lake. We passed by the guides' camp near the lake and followed a hit and miss trail back to our camp at 11,570'.

We arrived at our camp at 7:20 PM and discovered a marmot got into both tents. The critter ate through a plastic bag I'd left in our tent and chewed off the cap of a plastic bottle containing water filtration drops. It may have gotten sick from the chlorinated drops because nothing else was touched.

We felt pretty good about getting Peak Six today because our original plan was to climb Peak Six separately the day after Mt Silex and The Guardian and pack out to Beartown that same day. In retrospect, that would've been quite the challenge and I'm glad it didn't come to that.

Storm King Peak, Peak Seven, and Peak Six from camp: 13 hours 20 minutes, 8.4 miles, 5,200' total elevation gain.

Thursday July 26, 2012: Mt Silex & The Guardian

The weather was looking very nice as we departed camp at 6:15 AM. We headed northeast up the meadow toward Mt Silex and The Guardian and found a handy trail that led up to the basin below the peaks. The trail abruptly ended in the talus of the basin but the route was obvious. We could see a solo climber at the Mt Silex saddle above us who'd obviously come from the other side, and we thought it might be the climber from New Mexico because he mentioned going after these two peaks also. We didn't go to the saddle directly because we figured we could hit the ridge higher up by staying on the rock and grass of the slope. It worked fine and we were on the ridge at 8:30, and treated to a great view of Storm King, the Trinities, Vestal, and Arrow.

We bypassed a tower on the right side and scrambled up steep rocks to a very steep scree slope. The other climber had summited and was well on his way to The Guardian as we continued up the scree to just below the summit. We turned left toward the summit and arrived at 9:10. We took a long break until 9:40 and put on our helmets before heading over to The Guardian.

We dropped down the scree slope and began a traverse below the cliff band at approximately 13,000'. As we got further along we debated which gully was the correct ascent gully and finally agreed on a prominent gully. It turned out to be the correct one but it was extremely steep and loose with lots of class 3 & 4 moves, and the potential rockfall had each of us climbing segments separately and regrouping at safe areas on the sides. At the top of the gully we turned left and walked to the summit, arriving at 11:50 and wrapping up Tim's final bicentennial peak (photo1, photo 2). It was a happy time for all of us and we stayed on top for a half hour under clear, sunny skies. Way to go Tim!

We left at 12:20 for what we knew would be a slow descent. On the way down one of my water bottles fell out of my pack and bounced down several hundred feet. I didn't think I'd ever see it again but it stopped between some rocks and I was able to retrieve it. Mark picked a route through the lower cliffs that required a fair amount of zig-zagging before reaching the basin below, once in the basin, we regained the trail and made it back to camp at 2:25. No marmot issues today. 

Mt Silex & The Guardian from camp: 8 hours 10 minutes, 4.3 miles, 2,800' total elevation gain.

After a short rest, we packed up camp and departed at 3:55. The descent went quickly and we crossed Vallecito Creek at 5:25 and set up camp on the other side of Rock Creek at 6:40. The excellent site was in the woods between the trail and Vallecito Creek. Light rains fell in the evening.

Upper camp to Rock Creek camp: 2 hours 45 minutes, 4.25 miles, 300' elevation gain.

Friday July 27, 2012: Backpack out

We packed up and left camp at 7:05 AM, taking a slow and steady pace until Mark bolted ahead near the Nebo Creek trail junction. He was eager to climb Hunchback Mountain and figured he could climb the peak and still catch up to us at Hunchback Pass. Tim and I had no doubt about that because Mark is a fast and strong climber and when we reached the pass at 10:35, Mark indeed caught up to us.

On the descent toward Beartown we stopped to visit with two backpackers. Both had fishing poles and we asked if they were climbing any peaks but they said climbing wasn't their priority. They'd seen two moose and a bear earlier this morning, and last night they ended up camping near the Rio Grande River because the local cows wouldn't move off the road and let them drive by.

We pulled in to the trailhead at 11:10 and hiked up the road to the truck. It sure felt good to get out of the boots and relax with a cold refreshment. As much as I dislike backpacking, this was an enjoyable one and the weather held up nicely. It was great to have Mark with and we look forward to many more climbs together. Special thanks to Kirk Mallory for his helpful trip report and to Terri Horvath for providing great information as well.

Rock Creek camp to Beartown trailhead: 4 hours 5 minutes, 6.1 miles, 2,300' elevation gain

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