Whale Peak (13,078), UN 12567, & UN 12088) by Brian Schultz Thursday July 27, 2017

Roundtrip mileage: 10 miles from Jefferson Lake boat ramp parking lot
Elevation gain: 3700'
Start to finish: 7 hours 35 minutes
Participants: Brian Schultz & grandson Tyler

From the town of Jefferson on Hwy 285, we turned onto CR 35 and then again on CR 37 to get to Jefferson Lake. The fee area wasn't staffed so we drove through and paid the $7.00 fee later on our way out. We parked near the boat ramp and at 6:35 AM headed straight up the steep slopes to UN 12088. Our weather forecast called for 60% chance of showers/storms but the morning was beautiful and our entire climb was completed under sunny skies. Lucky us to get such nice weather during the monsoon season.

The ascent was brutally steep but once above the trees, the going got much easier. We arrived on UN 12088 at 7:55 and took a ten minute break. The terrain to UN 12567 was easy and we topped out on that summit at 9:00. We continued on (photo 1, photo 2) over an unranked point along the ridge to Whale Peak and stayed on a mostly good trail to its summit. When we arrived at 10:35, we settled in for a longer break and didn't depart until 11:00.

On the descent, we took Whale's west ridge to the Whale/Glacier Peak saddle and made our way down the drainage to the lake. I let Tyler do the routefinding and he did a great job getting us to the lower part of Jefferson Creek, where we took a short break before continuing down through the trees. Once we hit Jefferson Lake, Tyler went ahead on a defined trail that skirts the lake back to the parking area. The trail had a few faint areas but was easy to follow, the worst of it was the annoying amount of deadfall to scramble over. I made it back at 2:10 to my waiting grandson and we drove out and paid the $7.00 fee before continuing nonstop to Leadville. It rained on the way.