UN 13626 by Brian Schultz Sunday August 21, 2011
Roundtrip mileage: 7.15 miles from Grouse Canyon trailhead
Elevation gain: 4,500'
Participants: Pete Krzanowsky, Brian Schultz
Pete and I arranged to met up on the Mt Princeton road at the junction of CR 162 and CR 292. His drive from Denver went quicker than expected and he arrived a half hour before I did. We drove a short distance to the trailhead parking area and began at 7:00 AM on the Grouse Canyon trail. The weather forecast called for a 60% chance of thunderstorms after noon but this route had us confident that we'd be off the summit long before any storms rolled in. The trail began as an old road but quickly narrowed to a defined track as we headed up the east side of the creek, a steep ascent that passes by towering vertical walls on the west side of the canyon.
We stayed on the east side all the way to the junction where the route exits the canyon. At that junction we headed to the left on a game trail but it didn't feel right so we backtracked and found the correct trail on the right. It was marked with a cairn and continues steeply to timberline, a grunt all the way up. From timberline we climbed ahead to the ridge above and once we got there we could see UN 13626.
Getting to the peak required dropping into a large basin of talus and grass so we picked a line that wouldn't lose too much elevation while contouring toward the summit ridge. As we reached 13626's slopes, we saw a few bighorn sheep who obliged for pictures before scampering away. Pete went on ahead but I managed to reach the summit five minutes after him, at 11:00, and we ended up staying a long time enjoying the fine weather, the views, and more animal sightings. We noted the age of the register when we signed in. It's been there a long time.
We departed at 11:50 under nicely holding weather and made quick time on the descent. We reached our vehicles at 2:20 and Pete headed for home while I headed for the San Juans. I appreciated Pete keeping a slower pace as he's a fast climber and could've easily left me in the dust. Most of this route is described in Gerry Roach's fourteener book for Mt Princeton but it works very nicely for 13626.
Trailhead to summit- 4 hours
Summit to trailhead- 2 hours 30 minutes
Start to finish- 7 hours 20 minutes