Sept 20-26 Weminuche Wilderness – Backpacking and Scrambling

I have heard the Weminuche Wilderness described as one of the most remote parts of Colorado, and after having been there I would certainly agree that it feels that way! There are a few different ways that you can get to where you’re going, either hike in ~10mi from Molas Pass on Hwy 550 or you can save you feet and pay the fare for the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railway. The D&SNG is definitely a treat on it’s own, an authentic coal-fired and steam-powered train runs the route hauling passengers and freight and even firefighting equipment (used mostly to put out fires caused by the coal cinders I’m told). We boarded in Durango and had one of the “open air” cars which afforded us great views of the passing wilderness and only a few coal cinders in the eyes.

Train rounding the corner

 

 Entering the San Juan National Forest

 

 Most famous part of the ride, the Highline

 Crossing the Animas River

The whole ride up from Durango had been in glorious sunshine with only a sight wind to chill things off, but as we rounded the corner to Elk Park the skies opened up and it actually began to rain! Dean and I looked at each other with a “here we go” look as the thought of 6 days in the backcountry in pouring rain was not something either of us relished. The Engineer blew the whistle and the Conductor came ’round to where we were and unceremoniously threw us off the train!

Shot of the train after being dropped off

The olde tyme steame traine (prononced: old-e time-e steam-e train-e) fired up with a snort and was gone around the bend before we could even shoulder our packs. The passengers all waved at us as they went by and one jackass even shouted out “enjoy the rain!”… yeah, thanks. Ironically the joke was on him because as the train passed out of sight it seemed to take the rain with it and the skies cleared away to a glorious autumn blue.

In most back country adventures, whether it’s climbing or hiking or alpine, one of the things that’s discussed is commitment, which simply put, is the degree to which one is screwed if something goes wrong. Climbing by the highway, low commitment; easy hike to a lake, low commitment; alpine big-wall climbs, high commitment; getting dropped of by a steam train in the Colorado wilderness… it certainly feels like a lot of commitment.

Where we’re headed!

 

 Pack ready to go

 

Self portrait, the ‘before’ shot

Shouldering packs, adjusting straps and heading for the trail we got the adventure underway! The plan was to hike to the Beaver Ponds and then get off the main trail and head up into the Vestal Basin where we would camp for the next 6 days. While camped there we’d scramble Arrow Peak and then attempt Wham Ridge on Vestal Peak and then perhaps round it off with the Trinity Peaks before hiking out and catching the train back to civilization.

View of Electric Peak from the trail

 

Deano on the trail, note the HUGE backpack!

The trail from the train spur to the Beaver Ponds was excellent, nice and clear and easy to follow it made for good hiking, even with a heavy pack. We turned off the main trail and had a few route finding challenges getting through the campsites there and onto the trail proper but before long we were winging our way up the Vestal Creek trail. We’d met a group of other climbers on their way out and they advised us that the bit after the Beaver Ponds was really steep…and they were right! The trail quickly became narrower and and much steeper with roots and rocks in it, still easy to follow it just required some fancier footwork really. Unfortunately as the hours and the miles went by it became fairly clear that Dean wasn’t in is as good of shape as he had thought which I didn’t think would be a huge concern since a week in the backcountry is always worthwhile.

 Path leading to our valley

 

 Another self portrait

 

Eventually night began to fall and what I had thought would be a 4hr hike was quickly turning into an epic! Our altimeters were showing that we still had a long ways to go before hitting camp and the trail was steep and nasty as the sun was setting.

 Losing daylight

 

 Sunset across the valley

 

We hiked for a while in the dark using headlamps to scout the route and avoid broken ankles but by 9pm we decided to call it a day and bivy at the next flat spot. A quick pasta dinner was whipped up and we both crashed right afterwards.

The next day dawned bright and glorious again and we cruised the final few miles into camp which was situated at the south end of Vestal Basin at roughly 11,400 ft elevation. From there we had a great view of Vestal and Arrow and the whole valley.

First view of Vestal

 

 Valley where we camped

 

We set up camp and had some lunch and generally took it easy since it was obvious that no big objectives were going to be conquered this day. Around mid-day we hiked back down the trail to pick up some gear we’d stashed the night before in a vain attempt to make it to camp before dark and during this hike was the only real time we got rained on enough to pull out the shells. It was a nice kind of rain though, not too cold or driving, just enough to keep you cool on the trail without soaking everything through and through.

Sunset the second night

 

 Sunset the second night

That night we had hot tea and watched the sun go down and the stars come shining through. It’s almost amazing how easy it is to forget the effect of light pollution when you’re in the city, honestly how often do you look up? But when you’re far from town and the entirety of the Milky Way Galaxy is on display it’s hard not to be awed by it. The other great thing about being out there is there its perfectly acceptable to go to bed at 8:30pm because it’s dark out!

The next day we set out for Arrow Peak, a moderate scramble with no need for ropes or any of the tech gear that we had brought along. The trailhead for Arrow and Vestal is the same and leads up out of the valley we were in on a steep rocky trail until one hits a hill-top with Vestal on the left and Arrow on the right.

Wham Ridge on Vestal Peak, wow!

 

 Arrow Peak

 If you look at the larger picture of Arrow you can see that there is a huge ramp leading up the one side that forms a super-obvious highway to the summit, and as you may guess this is the route to the top! (click here for a rough drawing of the route) Starting off on some ledges just below the first slabby-bit it’s quite easy to work your way onto the huge ramp and avoid some nasty slippery slab rock. Once on the huge ramp you just stick with it until the ramp splits into an upper and lower ramp. At this point you want to stay on the upper ramp until you gain the notch between the summit and false summit. We experienced a little difficulty with route-finding on this upper ramp and as one gets higher and higher it gets quite steep and the exposure feels quite high.

Looking down from Arrow to Upper Vestal Basin

 

 Deano on Arrow

 

 Jon on Arrow with Vestal in the background

We had already been on the route now for some hours and the drop-dead time for turn around was approaching so we decided to head back even though we hadn’t reached the summit. The exposure was pushing the limit and there were going to be some tricky down-climbing moves to do yet on the retreat. Arrow is a great scramble and I’m definitely looking forward to getting back and knocking off the last 500 vertical feet or so to stand on the summit.

Once back at the hill-top I hung around and enjoyed the afternoon and took some pictures while I was at it

 Trinity Peaks

 

 View out of our valley

 

 View out of our valley

 

Cool silhouette

 

Like lichen?

My plan was to stay up there until sunset but the thought of navigating the tricky trail back to our valley in the darkness seemed like a bad idea so I hit the road around 5pm.

I’ve been hooked on hummus ever since I was in Spain earlier in the year (there was this great Lebanese restaurant there that served it and now I can’t get enough!) so I whipped up a bunch of that before dinner and in doing so noticed that our stove was acting up a little. An MSR Whisperlite weighs 300g, is nearly invincible, and can boil a liter of water in 3.9 minutes but ours was taking upwards of 10min to boil half a liter. This would prove to be a bigger issue than just the delay of our hummus which was the main concern at the time.

 Sunset the third day, making me wish I’d stayed up there…

This was the day that we were supposed to attempt Wham Ridge, a 5.5 II alpine route up that glorious sloping face of Vestal Peak, but Dean pulled the plug saying that he wasn’t in shape for it and frankly I was glad to hear it. During our trip up Arrow I was thinking the same thing, which combined with a few factors (commitment, experience, etc) had my gut screaming a warning at me. Instead he elected to hang around basecamp and I went and explored the upper portion of Vestal Basin. Mostly I cruised around wherever I wanted to go and sat in the shade letting my mind wander where it would and enjoying the day. What follows are some pictures I took during the day.

Vestal and Arrow together from Upper Vestal Basin

 

Vestal and Arrow together from Upper Vestal Basin

 

Vestal Peak

 

 Arrow Peak

 

Trinity Peaks

 

 Trinity Peaks

 

 Willows

 

 View to the Needles

 

Trinity and willows

 

Pond and Trinity

It isn’t really in any of the pictures but the valley ends with the Trinity Peaks and cruves around sharply with a col leading to the next valley over. Right at the upper portion of this I found some great flat rocks, kicked off my boots, sat cross-legged and slowed my breathing down. With a focus on the breathing came greater focus on everything and for quite a while I sat that way peering down our valley and working on clearing my mind. Eventually a cold wind came up and reminded me I was sitting up above 12,000′ and that it was time to move on so I began working my way back to camp.

 My new tent and the stupid stove

When I got back to camp we discussed heading out the next morning for the Beaver Ponds since Dean wasn’t sure he could do the whole trail back to the train before it came to get us the day after at 2:24pm. I agreed since missing the train seemed like a really bad idea and we cooked up the last of the hummus. As before the stove was functioning poorly and it took forever to heat just 300ml of water; by the time we got around to cooking dinner it took almost 30min to boil 1 liter of water! Since all of the food we had left required boiling water to make it edible we didn’t have much choice though really.

 The next morning it was 3C at 7am and rolling out of bed seemed like a bad idea! Nevertheless it had to be done and besides, a nice bowl of warm oatmeal would be my reward right? Wrong! The stove, which until now had been an annoyance was now completely non-functioning and neither coffee nor oatmeal nor anything edible was terribly likely. Since going hungry didn’t sound like fun either we decided to pack up and hit the trail with the intent of meeting the train and finding a burger and a beer back in town!!

 Looking back at Vestal from just past the Beaver Ponds

We boogied back down the twisty Vestal Creek Trail and before we even knew it we were at the Beaver Ponds. While we had been in Vestal Basin the aspens had started to change colour and everywhere we looked the hillsides were an amazing array of yellows and reds and greens.

 Deano (and his pack) on the way out

 

Me with Vestal in the background

 

Once on the main trail it was easy going and all we had to do was keep trucking until we hit the train tracks. There is something about the trip back to civilization after a few days that makes it seem extra long and by the time we finally hit the tracks my legs were rubbery! Fortunately our effort was rewarded and we had over an hour to spare before the train arrived! Whew… the thought of spending the night with only a few Cliff bars for food was rather unappealing. While we were waiting I took the chance to snap some shots of the changing colours:

Back at the train!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice Pose!

 

Packs waiting for the train

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Train arrives

That night I had a couple of beers and an enormous burger in Durango and I can’t decide which was better, the food or the shower! Either way it was an excellent trip and one that I would do again without hesitation.

On the drive back to Denver the next day we stopped to take lots of pictures… I don’t really have much to say about them, but here there are for you anyway (c:

 Close up of train from bridge