Uncompahgre Peak

Description

Elevation: - 14,309' (13,000' approx. highest elevation gained)
Location - Northwest of Lake City in Colorado in the San Juan mountains.

Trip Report(s)

This is the second of three segments to a trip Mike and I made in the third week of September, 2004.

The following is extracted from my trip journal. Photos follow.

Thursday, Sep. 23, 2004

Missed journaling yesterday, so today will have to play catch up. We tried Uncompahgre Peak from Henson Creek Road, walking up the four mile jeep road (and yes, it is that, the Colt would not have made it a quarter mile on the Nellie Creek jeep road). We started at approximately 8:30AM on Wednesday, Sep. 22, 2004 and made it to the end of the jeep road by 10:20AM. Then we hiked about 2.5 miles to the pass that leads to the summit slope of Uncompahgre on one side, and the spectacular ridge of the Wetterhorn and Matterhorn on the other! We were at that point about 13,000' up and decided to turn around, more for the total mileage for the day (which ended up being 13+ miles! Oof!) than the sleet coming down around us and the peak being obscured once we were within the last mile or so. It is big country up here! It is easy to put together "day" trips of 10-15 without even trying. Anyway, we trudged back out the 6.5 miles and rewarded ourselves by staying in another cabin (with a tub! :-) in Lake City last night.

Photos

Jim among the aspens

I am guessing this is on Henson Creek, so I am putting this picture in this group.
(Photo by Mike Slinkard)


Generic Colorado jeep road

"Generic" Colorado jeep road with "generic" aspen and "generic" snow covered peak in background. Yawn. Beauty gets so boring after a while, don't you think? :-)
(Photo by Jim Lehmer)


Mike among the aspens

A good shot of Mike if I do say so myself. I actually worked on composing this shot (for once, instead of just snapping a picture).
(Photo by Jim Lehmer)


Uncompahgre Peak

Uncompahgre Peak from the trail. One of the few times it actually allowed us to see the summit that day - most of the time the last 600' or so of the summit was socked in by those clouds. It started sleeting on us a little higher up.
(Photo by Jim Lehmer)


Jim and the 'Horns

From the saddle leading between the final summit ridge of Uncompahgre and the Matterhorn Creek drainage, with "the Horns" (Matterhorn, and then Wetterhorn) behind me. The view is extremely foreshortened, with Matterhorn being about one and half to two miles beyond me, and Wetterhorn another mile or so beyond that.
(Photo by Mike Slinkard)


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