Wood Mtn (13,660), UN 13688 (attempt), "Animas Forks Mtn" (13,722) by Brian Schultz Tuesday July 31, 2007
With our plans to climb the Trinities falling through by mutual agreement, we set our sights on the trio of bicentennial peaks near Cinnamon Pass. All started well at 6:35 AM as we began hiking from our parking spot (just below the pass on the Silverton side) up easy slopes to the south ridge of Wood Mountain. We reached the summit at 7:35 with no difficulties and pondered the nasty connecting ridge to Unnamed 13,688 while taking a short break. We descended to the 13,300 ft saddle below Wood and from there down to Garratt & Martin's described gully on the backside of the ridge. The downhill from the saddle was a mix of steep scree and snow and once past it we spent some time debating the proper gully to ascend. They all looked challenging with steep cliffs to wind through.
We saw an orange flag marking a gully that correlated to the description so we started up that one. On our way up, every step we took moved dirt and sent rocks flying. It was so loose and steep that when we reached a large slabby cross-over point I was reluctant to continue on. Tim made it across but I had doubts about the holds, nothing more than small cracks and tiny protrusions, and asked him to come back to where I was to see how hard the return would be. Watching him struggle with the unsure footing made it real easy to say I wasn't going any further because there was nothing to grab onto if a slip occured- in my opinion this gully was far worse than the bowling alley gully on fourteener Little Bear. I suggested he go ahead and try to get the summit on his own but he declined and we turned around. I felt guilty for costing Tim the summit.
On our ascent back up to the saddle we diverged. I went up our descent route on the steep scree while Tim veered to the right to avoid it. When I reached the saddle ahead of him, I noticed a climber coming down from Wood. I waited for him, said hello, and in typical fashion on remote peaks, asked if he was by chance a member of Fourteenerworld. He said yes and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that he was Jim Mallory, someone I was familiar with through his webpage and his postings on Fourteenerworld. He had no intention of climbing the unnamed point we'd just turned around from and I asked if he knew of any other routes on it. He informed us that his brother Kirk, also a member of Fourteenerworld, said it's an easy climb from Gravel Mountain at the other end of the basin and suddenly I didn't feel so bad. We could easily come back and get it another day.
Jim forged ahead while Tim and I took a short break. After starting again, we bypassed Point 13,708 on the ridge by contouring to the left. Jim climbed the point and caught up to us heading to "Animas Forks Mtn," (aka Unnamed 13,722), and all of us continued together across a nifty exposed catwalk. Jim is a fast climber so he went ahead and waited for us on the summit even thought the weather was taking a turn for the worse. With dark clouds appearing to unleash a storm at any minute, our summit stay lasted just moments and we parted company with Jim as he went straight down the slopes while Tim and I angled left for an easier line to the truck. We stopped briefly to put on raincoats and reached the truck at 1:55, rain showers never materializing, and marveled at how steep the slopes were and how we managed to cut through the cliffs at just the right places without dead-ending.
We took the scenic route back to Ouray to avoid posted highway shutdowns. First though, we drove to Engineer Pass since we were close and neither of us had ever been up there, but hordes of tourists driving four-wheelers had the same idea and the ensuing logjams weren't much fun. After returning from Engineer Pass we then took the signed scenic loop to Ouray, which turned out to be an unexpected slow and bone jarring driving experience. I wished we'd taken the highway, at least I could've napped while waiting for the delays.
A fun day despite turning back on one of the peaks. We enjoyed meeting Jim and finding about the other route and hope to see him in the mountains again.
Cinnamon Pass parking area to Wood- 1 hour
Wood to Unnamed 13,722 ("Animas Forks")- 5 hours including attempt on unnamed 13,688
Unnamed 13,722 to parking area- 1 hour 10 minutes
Start to finish- 7 hours 20 minutes