Last week, Garry from Florida came to Durango on his vacation out west to climb his first peak.  Garry had some multi-pitch climbing experience so the objective was the beautiful Wham Ridge on Vestal Peak.  We took the Durango Narrow Gauge Train to Elk Park and then hiked up to Vestal Basin to camp.  The next day was spent learning new skills (snow travel, climbing in crampons, knot tying, anchor building, introduction to self rescue to name a few), playing cribbage, and preparing for summit day.  Summit day was a little wetter then planned but everything went smoothly on the climb and the weather eventually cleared and gave us a nice afternoon.  The weather for the hike down was beautiful and before we knew it we were waiting for the train to take us back to Durango while playing another game of cribbage.

BJK

Garry saying goodbye to the train at Elk Park.

Wham Ridge on Vestal Peak.

Garry climbing into the meat of Wham Ridge.

Garry putting his new found skills to use on the descent of Wham.