Jim, Kevin, and Sean ready to go at 3:30am on the nose
Matterhorn (left) and Uncompahgre (right) coming into view at sunrise
The summit of Wetterhorn somewhere back there in the clouds
Sean finds his way around a corner
Sean in the small gulley leading up to a notch in a large rock rib (behind him)
Jim on the way up the gulley
Sean (left) and Kevin (right) heading up toward the notch
This particular slab, just before the crux of the climb was still a bit wet and slippery
Jim, Sean, and Kevin at the base of the crux - a nice 150' staircase-like gulley
Karen climbing the final crux pitch
This shot gives good perspective to the exposure in the final gulley
Almost there!
Jim getting ready to top out on Wetterhorn
Karen was excited to be summiting her 40th 14er!
6:30am: Good morning from the summit of Wetterhorn Peak!
A cool view of the low level clouds north of the Dallas Divide
The views to the southwest from the summit of Wetterhorn
Another nice view of the green basin SW of Wetterhorn
The sun cast a cool shadow of Wetterhorn that pointed toward the Dallas Divide and Mt Sneffels - next weekend's destination
A look back along the ridge we ascended. Look closely right of center and you'll see a herd of about 500 sheep in the basin
A closer view of the sheep
13ers Coxcomb (left) and Redcliff (right)
Looking toward our next objectives - Matterhorn in the foreground and Uncompahgre in the background
The ridge connecting Wetterhorn and Matterhorn looked gnarly!
Looks like a long way down!
Sean on the descent
Kevin and Jim descending the crux gulley
Karen on the descent
Whoa nelly!
We all agreed that this gulley felt more exposed on the way down than it did on the way up
Stay away from the edge please
Almost back to the notch at the Ship's Prow
We debated whether we were spotting black sheep or if those were just the herding dogs
Sean on another section of the descent
Almost back to the saddle, it was looking like the weather might hold out for us long enough to get Uncompahgre
Hey there Mr. Marmot
13er Broken Hill - the third peak on Kevin's hit list today
A look back at Wetterhorn
Looking forward to Matterhorn (Kevin's next objective) and Uncompahgre (next for Jim, Karen and Sean)
Uncompahgre's massive size makes the trek over to it from across the basin deceptive - it seemed like we were hiking for days
We opted to avoid the loose gulley (center) leading up to the ridge of Uncompahgre and traversed south to link up with the standard route
Broken Hill, as seen from the northeast
The weather was holding out, we were just hoping we would have the stamina to finish
Looking back at Wetterhorn - our path is marked in red from the saddle
A closer view of Wetterhorn and its impressive North face
Cool rocks on the ascent of a small gulley on Uncompahgre
More cool rocks in the gulley
Awesome views of 13er Precipice Peak along the way up
We topped out on the summit of Uncompahgre at around 11:13am
Congrats on 14er summit #3 Sean!
Looking over the edge of Uncompahgre's north face - a serious vertical drop to the basin below
Just taking this picture of the drop gave Sean the chills
A side view of the cliffs that make up Uncompahgre's north face
On the descent, in the small gulley below the summit of Uncompahgre
Looking back to our west - the clouds were getting darker and we could see some areas were rain was starting to fall
Another couple of marmots
Finally back to treeline, weather still holding for us
A cool waterfall right next to the trail
Another nice cascade
The best one yet, right off the 4wd Nellie Creek Road
Our tracks and elevation profile for the day
