Southwest Adventure Guides » Alpine Climbing

10 Days in the Weminuche Wilderness

Aaron Ball — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 17:09:34 +0000

Earlier this summer we did an amazing 10 Day climbing trip in the Weminuche Wilderness. During the course of the trip we climbed Centennial 13′ers Vestal Peak via the Wham Ridge, Jagged Mountain via the North Face, Pigeon Peak via the Southwest Slopes, Turret Peak via the Western Slopes, and Jupiter Mountain via the West Face. A Centennial 13′er in Colorado is defined as any peak over 13,807 feet, and in addition to the 54 14′ers quest, the 100 highest peaks quest has become increasingly popular during the past few years. Indeed, some of the best and most inspiring climbs in Colorado are on 13′ers.

The group on top of Jupiter Mountain

From the maps below, you can get a sense of how we accomplished this feat over the course of 10 days. Being out in the Weminuche for that length of time really gives you a sense of how remote and rugged this part of the San Juans really are. The Weminuche is a true wilderness area, with plenty of route finding and navigation required to travel between the major drainages.

Part 1 of our route

Part 2 of our route

We began the trip on the Colorado Trail and Elk Creek, and finished up on the Needle Creek trail. Along the way we traveled through Vestal Basin and down to Balsam Lake, along the “high traverse” to Jagged Mountain (one of the best mountain days you’ll ever experience!), up and over Jagged Col and down into the remote No Name basin, then back up and over Ruby/No Name pass into the super rugged Ruby Creek drainage, then back up and over Ruby/No Name and Twin Thumbs pass for a finish in the popular Chicago Basin.

View of Monitor Peak from upper No Name

In short it was an amazing trip with great clients (thanks Charley, Phanie, Greg, Doug, and Chris!!), and a great guide and support staff (thanks Matt, Mike, Drew, Ryan, and Alec!).

On the summit of Jagged Mountain

This is simply one of the most amazing trips that you can do in Colorado or the entire mountain west. We will be offering this trip again next year with some fixed date departures, so stay tuned to our website in the coming months for more information, dates, and costs!

Great pic of the group with Jagged Mountain in the background

Snow in the San Juans in July!

Morning moon over Pigeon Peak

Great shot near the top of Jagged Mountain

Jagged Peak

benk — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 05:27:55 +0000

Here are some photos from a great trip with Del and Marcus into Noname Basin to climb Jagged Peak.

This is our camp at 11,400′ in Noname Basin with Knife Point in the background.

Del on Jagged Pass with Monitor, Animas Mountain and Peak 13 in the background.

A photo of Jagged peak from Jagged Pass.

Marcus on top enjoying the amazing weather.

Del on top.

It was a pleasure climbing with the two of you!

Light and Fast on Vestal

benk — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 03:13:11 +0000

Just got back from a Light and Fast Alpine Course in Vestal Basin. It was a great trip with perfect weather, and fun people.

Mike and Terri started out their four day course at East Animas with Nate. They learned about belaying, rock climbing technique, climbing knots and much more.

The next morning I met them at the train station and we were off for Vestal Basin. We were dropped off by the train at Elk Park and started our hike to camp. It’s a tough hike into Vestal Basin and both Mike and Terri did great.

We woke up to a star filled sky and started up toward Wham Ridge on Vestal Peak. As we geared up at the base of the climb the sun was rising, and then we were off. Mike and Terri must have been paying attention when Nate was talking about climbing technique, because they flew up Wham ridge. I’d give them the option of the easier way or the harder way, they always said the harder way, so I finally stopped asking and just opted for the harder lines.

The next day the train picked us up at Elk Park and shuttled us back to Durango.

Mike and Terri you both did great, I hope to see you in the future!

Alpamayo via the French Direct

Aaron Ball — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 00:00:06 +0000

Earlier this summer Erik Weihenmayer climbed Alpamayo via the French Direct in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca with us and Southwest Adventure Guide Rodrigo Callupe. It was the first recorded blind ascent of the mountain. Alpamayo has long been considered one of the world’s most beautiful mountains, and one of the most sought after climbs in South America. Recently, however, the “normal route” called the Ferrari Route, has been subjected to unreasonable objective dangers and has been climbed much less frequently. For this ascent, we decided on an attempt of the French Direct Route which is more difficult but provides a more direct and generally safer path to the summit. Check out the video below and congratulations Erik!!

SWAG/IMG Mt. Bona Expedition Part 2

benk — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 02:02:44 +0000

Nate left off with the team about to carry up to camp 2.

May 28-Instead of making two carries to camp 2 as we did to camp 1 we did a single carry to give us another summit day. We ended up building camp 2 at 13,800′ which is a little lower then the plateau to stay out of the wind.

May 29-Rest day. Beautiful weather.

May 30-On our first summit attempt we got turned around at 16,200′ by wind and low visibility. Sadly the weather was pretty good everywhere other then the top of the mountain.

May 31- Planned day for second attempt at the summit but the weather didn’t play out as we needed it to so we sat in camp and rested up for a window.

June 1-Second summit attempt. Weather was great out of camp but we were again turned around with zero visibility and had to rely on compasses and GPS at times to return to camp safely.

After our second attempt we descended back to base camp arriving around 7pm

June 2-The team was flown out by the famous Paul Claus.

All in all it was a great trip with a really fun group of guys in an amazing range.

Alpamayo Expedition Getting Ready

Aaron Ball — Fri, 28 May 2010 20:28:56 +0000

We are about to launch our first Peru trip of the year, with a climb of Alpamayo’s French Direct. Joining us this year will be Erik Weihenmeyer, who is a veteran of Artesonraju from a few years ago, and Eric Alexander. Their guide will be Rodrigo Callupe, who has guided for Southwest Adventure Guides for the past 8 years. We will post updates when we receive them and as the group works their way up towards the mountain.

The French Direct has been the route of choice on Alpamayo for the past few years, given that the Ferrari Route has been closed due to objective hazard in the form of a large overhanging cornice on the summit ridge.

Alpamayo's classic SE Face.

SWAG/IMG Mt. Bona Expedition

Aaron Ball — Fri, 28 May 2010 19:19:32 +0000

This year we have joined forces again with International Mountain Guides (IMG) to offer the Mt. Bona Expedition in the Wrangell St. Elias National Park. The guide for the trip are Mark Allen and Ben Kiessel, both of whom work for SWAG and IMG.

Basecamp construction on Mt. Bona

After flying into the Klutlan Glacier and establishing basecamp on May 24th, the team has been enjoying some great weather and is currently dug in at Camp 1, snacking on some quesadillas in preparation for their carry to Camp 2 later in the evening. Camp 2 on Mt. Bona lies at the plateau between the summit of both Mt. Bona and it’s sister peak Mt. Churchill.

Camp 1 on Mt. Bona

We will keep you posted regarding the progress of the team, but things are looking great right now!

Snowdon Denali Prep. Course

benk — Mon, 10 May 2010 17:55:56 +0000

Chris is signed up for an expedition to climb Denali in July this summer with Mountain Trip. So he brought his family of seasoned mountaineers along with him to take a Denali Prep. Course. Chris, Dorris, Matthew and Isabelle, plus Bill and myself headed out from the Southwest office on Friday morning. The hike in was under stellar weather, and went by smoothly considering we were pulling a sled through some thick trees. We built a pretty plush camp with walls for wind block and a kitchen with benches, tables and shelves.

Before we left Durango to head into the mountains the weather report was not looking so good. It called for 70% chance of snow for three of the four days. So we were pleasantly surprised to wake up to a cloudless sky the first morning. We got up and went over Avalanche Awareness, did some beacon searches, talked about search techniques, and digging techniques. We split into two teams and had a timed beacon search competition with a Snickers bar as the prize. Matthew and Isabelle won with a time of 4 min. 45 seconds! After some food we went over snow anchors and built and tested them. Then it was on to Crevasse Rescue, and some team arresting. It was a lot of information to retain but everyone did great!

The next morning we again woke to clear skies decided to try for the summit of Snowdon. It had snowed a little the night before so we decided to climb the West Buttress instead of the Naked Lady Couloir. The West Buttress is a little more technical but more conservative in respect to avalanches. Everyone did great under some challenging conditions(Matthew lost the sole of his shoe and the Buttress was covered with a few inches of snow making finding holds difficult).

On the final day we went over some fixed rope travel and packed up camp to hike out.

I was really impressed with how well everyone did during the 4 days we were out. It is easy to get ornery when stressed physically and mentally, but everyone was pleasant throughout the course.

Great Job!

Snowdon Peak under winter conditions

mattp — Sun, 02 May 2010 04:32:19 +0000

Southwest Colorado’s combined cold spring and overall great snowpack during the 09/2010 winter have created long-lasting winter conditions in the high country. John flew in from Malaysia for a couple peak climbs during the end of April. On the 25th, Nate took him up Engineer and John admitted to being wide-eyed most of the day with constant winds and temps he has never experienced. The 26th allowed for a half rest day, half hike into camp at 11,500 feet on the western flank of Snowdon Peak. The trail was packed snow all the way from HW 550 to camp. Luckily the weather was much warmer, 40 degrees, than the previous day and the wind had died down. We arrived at camp around 3 PM and after a cat nap, we went over some basic avalanche pit analysis and tips and tricks on how to stay warm in the winter.. The low that night was 20 degrees and the warm water bottles kept John toasty all night.

The West buttress of Snowdon proved to be still holding a decent amount of snow and ice which made the climb mixed and exciting. We summited under warm blue skied at 10 AM and ate and rested on top for a leisurly 45 minutes. Once at the top of the NW coulouir we took to our bottoms and glissaded down 600 feet in a matter of minutes. Afterward, John told me he doesn’t get to do much sledding in Malayisa and he really enjoyed it.

Once back in camp we packed up our tent and sleeping bags and began hiking out. Looking forward to a warmer and softer night’s sleep, John set a quick pace for the car and we made it out in an hour and 15 minutes. From here we toured Silverton, CO so John could photograph the booming metropolis and then returned to Southwest Adventure Guides basecamp back in Durango, CO.

Snow in May, 20 degree nights with 40 degree days, 13,000 ft summits, 200 ft/ min glissading descents; sign up today for your story of a life time!. Excellent work John and way to keep a smile alive!

Leaving the trailhead and solid footing behind.

A frozen Andrew's Lake, the Naked Lady Couloir and the West Buttress on Snowdon Peak

John very much excited about the blue bird day and lack of wind

Summit Shot. 13,077 feet above Kuala Lumpur

Denali Prep. Course

benk — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 02:32:40 +0000

We had a great Denali Prep. Course last week with two really fun participants, Sergey and Edie. The course took place at the foot of Snowdon which is just off of Molas Pass.

Day 1: Everyone met at the office and did a gear check then headed up to the mountains. We packed the sled and took turns pulling it up to our camp. It’s hard work but Sergey and Edie both did great. We dug out a bomb proof but comfortable camp, and called it a day. It’s amazing how good burritos with fresh red peppers and avocados can taste in the mountains!

Day 2: We learned about crevasse rescue techniques, climbing knots, Avalanche Awareness including (beacon use, search techniques, digging pits and travel techniques in avalanche terrain.) Its a lot of information to absorb but all important.

Day 3: We attempted to climb Snowdon but decided to turn around on the ridge and on the way back down we went over snow anchors. Later in the day we put a rope in a tree to practice jugging a line to get out of a crevasse.

Day 4: Started out the day with some glacier rope travel and team arresting. Then we found a small cliff jugged some more fixed lines. Back to camp for lunch and to pack up.

We had great weather for the trip which meant some cold nights and mornings. Despite the cold we had a great time and learned a lot.