West Trinity (13,765), Trinity Peak (13,805), & East Trinity (13,745) August 22-24, 2008
Friday August 22:
We were looking forward to climbing the Trinities after postponing them several times over the years. We even had them on the itinerary last month but when Tim called to check on trail conditions, the ranger told him that a section of the trail had washed out, lots of snow still remained up high, the deep water of Elk Creek might be difficult to cross, and we might very well be the first climbers of the season up there. It was an easy call to wait until now.
With the afternoon weather holding wonderfully, we drove straight from climbing Mt Emma near Yankee Boy Basin to the Molas Trailhead. The parking area at Molas was full of vehicles and several people were milling about while we prepared our backpacks. Two fellows adding climbing gear to their packs told us along the trail later they'd be climbing the Wham Ridge on Vestal Peak. We started at 2:50 PM and hiked mostly nonstop to the Animas River before taking a break on the other side at 4:30. It's an excellent trail and easy because it's all downhill to the river.
After a fifteen minute break at the river we began the ascent up the Elk Creek Trail. The trail was indeed damaged in an area where fractured rock had to be carefully maneuvered with our heavy packs, not too much of a problem for us but it could be for those riding the popular trail on horseback. We reached the beaver pond (elev 9,980) at 7:00 and continued to the other side of Elk Creek to set up camp, the water level of the creek surprisingly low and creating no issues.
Camping at Elk Creek instead of the high meadow was our intention all along. We would make up the time and distance by starting early and carrying light packs, saving the wear and tear of backpacking up to the high meadow and in particular over the downed timber along the trail. If all went according to plan, we'd be at the high meadow at first light, about the same time we'd be starting had we'd camped up there.
Saturday August 23:
We knew our day would be long from Elk Creek but in our favor was a weather forecast calling for sunny clear skies the entire day. Hoping to keep routefinding to a minimum, we had with the route descriptions by the Roaches, Dave Cooper, and Garratt & Martin, as well as Ryan Schilling's trip report. We left camp at 4:25 AM by headlamp and found the downed timber on the trail to be quite manageable, even in the dark. We reached the upper meadow at 6:45 and took a 30 minute breakfast break before following a trail that led up in the direction of the Vestal-West Trinity saddle. The trail steered us to Vestal Lake before disappearing, not our intended destination, but it turned out fine and we just continued from there up into the basin below the saddle.
There was a trail of sorts up the scree to the saddle but it was terribly loose and we worked to the right on talus for better footing. We reached the saddle at 8:50 and took a fifteen minute break before continuing on a climbers trail up the ridge to West Trinity. The class 3 climbing was exposed on the upper ridge and when the ridge got nasty just below the top, we contoured to the south face to reach the summit. Our arrival time was 10:30. We scanned the traverse to Trinity Peak and took a few photos before leaving at 10:45. The class 2 descent to the West Trinity/ Trinity saddle was was straightforward enough and we easily found the Roaches' described ledge.
This ledge system on the traverse around Trinity Peak worked nicely and although we took it too far and had to backtrack, just as Ryan Schilling's group did, we easily found the 4th class chimney that splits the cliff. I went up the exposed vertical chimney first, which wasn't too bad, but the top had a committing move that I hesitated at because it required leaning out to grab a hold above. I was rattled at the thought of falling here but finally settled my nerves and made the move. I can't remember a class 4 move that scary and exposed in all my years of climbing.
After Tim came up, I led again to a narrow ledge, also extremely exposed and requiring careful attention to get around. Tim refused to follow and instead scrambled to the left up the rock face. Definitely off route, the narrow ledge soon had me stopped cold by a long step-across so I returned and climbed up to where Tim was. It was a relief to get above the cliffs and to the class 3 ridge, but once again, we didn't like the nasty ridge just below the summit so we contoured to the south face and headed to the top from there. The time was 1:05, the weather was perfect, and we took a few minutes to enjoy the views. We paid close attention to the steep gully on East Trinity we'd soon be climbing and fifteen minutes later departed.
The descent off Trinity Peak was in a steep loose gully and although only rated class 2+, it was terribly slow because of all the loose rock. At the bottom we climbed a class 3 crack to enter the long gully up East Trinity. The class 3 scrambling up this gully was a joy on solid rock, my favorite climbing of the day, and we arrived on the East Trinity summit at 2:40. The weather was still sunny and mostly clear so we kicked back for over a half hour enjoying the summit and taking in the great views.
On the descent we picked our way down steep slate rock and finally met up with the trail below the saddle. The scree trail went quickly and when we reached the unnamed lake we soaked our tired feet in the cold water. It felt good to get the boots off.
We talked for a while to climbers camped in the upper meadow who'd climbed Vestal Peak and finally pulled into our own campsite at Elk Creek at 7:40. Our 15 hour and 15 minute day was longer than expected but having great weather allowed us to take over two hours' worth of breaks, which wouldn't have happened had the weather hinted of storms. All in all, it was a great day to be in the mountains.
Sunday August 24:
We left camp at 7:10 AM for the pack out and other than a break at the Animas River we hiked non-stop to the Molas trailhead. We arrived at 11:50, just in time to head into Silverton for lunch. Our total distance for the three days was 23 miles, total elevation gain was 7,900 feet.
Molas trailhead to Elk Creek camp- 4 hours 10 minutes
Elk Creek camp to West Trinity- 6 hours 5 minutes
West Trinity to Trinity Peak- 2 hours 20 minutes
Trinity Peak to East Trinity- 1 hour 20 minutes
East Trinity to Elk Creek camp- 4 hours 25 minutes
Start to finish- 15 hours 15 minutes
Elk Creek camp to Molas trailhead- 4 hours 40 minutes
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