In July 2011, we did a three-day, two-night backpack trip in the San Juan Mountains, Colorado. We planned to climb Uncompahgre Peak (14,309 feet) on the second day and Wetterhorn Peak (14,015 feet) on the third day before hiking out. John was 58 and I was 57.
Our goal was to begin becoming acclimated to altitude in preparation for backpacking the John Muir Trail (JMT) in California. So, we went to Colorado and planned to do three backpack trips. This was the first, but things did not go as planned.
We hiked in and camped in a spot at about 12,000 feet that positioned us to get an early start to hike up Uncompahgre Peak the next morning. However, we both had some trouble sleeping at that altitude and got up late. Once we started hiking up Uncompahgre, I felt a distinct lack of energy.
But the weather was good!
Unfortunately, I became slightly nauseated around 13,000 feet. Our already slow pace became even slower. When clouds began moving in, we tried to remain optimistic. When the clouds became dark, we realized we did not have time to reach the summit safely. We turned around and hiked back to camp in the rain.
It was still raining in the morning. We waited for a break in the weather to move our camp to the base of Wetterhorn Peak. We didn’t have far to go, so we had the time. That afternoon, we were delighted with how much the weather improved!
We then hiked to the base of Wetterhorn Peak and set up camp. The weather was still holding. It was unusual for there to be rain in the morning and for it to clear up in the afternoon. Usually, it was the other way around.
There was a tremendous thunder and lightning storm that night, with one strike sounding quite close. We also experienced strong winds. We were very disappointed to wake up the next morning to dark clouds rather than the hoped-for clear sky. But it wasn’t raining, so we headed up Wetterhorn. Once we reached the ridge below the summit, we were hit with strong gusts of cold wind. We still had about 1,000 feet to gain. We needed to ascend a narrow ridge and then scramble up about 150 feet of Class 3 rock before reaching the summit. In rock-climbing jargon, Class 3 consists of sustained scrambling using your hands on steep rock and narrow ridges with noticeable exposure. Falls can be serious.
We weren’t sure what to do. We dropped down a bit to shelter from the wind and put on more clothing. I had been apprehensive about the rock climbing ahead of me, given my lack of experience. I hoped it wasn’t any worse than the scrambling I had done many times before. However, in those situations, there wasn’t so much exposure. Now, the thought of ascending (and descending) the narrow ridge, climbing up and back down (especially back down) the exposed rock with strong gusts of wind and dark clouds looming overhead was more than I could face. I had also been feeling nauseous and had been unable to eat anything. We decided the best thing to do was to turn around.
After we had descended a bit, we noticed the gray clouds were breaking up and being replaced by white clouds and blue sky. It was maddening, and I kept wondering if we should turn around and try again. But I was still having some altitude-related appetite problems, and it was still windy. And we had squandered too much time.
John decided we should continue back to camp, pack up and hike out. I was demoralized after failing to reach the summit of either peak. But John reminded me that even though our trip hadn’t gone as planned, we did achieve our goal. We had camped above 12,000 feet for two nights and had hiked to at least 13,000 feet twice. We were on our way to being ready to do the JMT in August.
All photos from this trip are on Flickr.
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