Hiking Wetterhorn and Uncompahgre Peak

August 03, 2016

I have always wanted to hike in the San Juan Mountain Range of Colorado. I got a chance when I saw two other hikers in Colorado were looking for a partner to hike with on the weekend of July 30th-31st. I immediately chimed in and the plan was on.

We drove from Denver to Lake City on Friday July 29th afternoon. We had our camp setup on Friday by 6:00 PM.

We started our hike to Wetterhorn Peak (14,015 feet) the next day, July 30th at 6:00AM. It was a beautiful hike with some great views.

The next day we did Uncompahgre Peak (14,309 feet). That was one of the best mountains I have ever been on.

Here are two videos that I captured with a GoPro mounted on my head ;)

LINK Hiking Wetterhorn Peak

LINK Hiking Uncompahgre Peak

While driving to Lake City, we got see the presidential peaks near Buena Vista. This gigantic mountain is Mount Princeton.

You gotta love small town humor ;)

At the trailhead of Wetterhorn Peak

View from the campsite

First site of Wetterhorn Peak from the flower fields

Yours truly cannot get enough of "Mountain in the background" type photos.

And like to do the same for the people they hike with ;)

Pete needed a quick snack break here

The easy part ends here. The rest of the part is looking very small but it's still about a 800 to 1000 feet elevation gain.

What a beautiful mountain. It is a great introduction to class 3 hiking.

A different angle of Wetterhorn peak

I was taking countless selfies and photos of this good looking mountain.

Here's where it begins to get interesting.. and scary

I had Cory behind me and Pete in the front. They both were taking my pictures. I couldn't ask for better company to hike with :)

Two rules- 1. Move only one limb at a time 2. When moving a limb, make sure the other three are very well placed and are stable.

So much fun. I was forgetting to breath at times.

It's evident here that if you fall from here, there's no stopping until you reach the very bottom which is at least 3000 feet +

The last 50 feet of the climb

Route finding became tough at this point

I kept going straight and met with this exposure. I had to turn right about 30 degrees to find the correct route.

I was finally at the summit :)

Dancing Pete ;)

coming back

After coming back from the Wetterhorn Peak, we drove to the Uncompahgre Peak trailhead and setup the tent there.

The reason Alpine Tundra is so valuable

A deer kept roaming around our tents. People must have fed him there before

The first view of Uncompahgre Peak

It looked so far away from here..

Marmots were in abundance

Looking at Wetterhorn Peak from Uncompahgre Peak

Yours truly posing for another "Mountain in the background" photo

Right before climbing the lose rocks

Submitted in 2 hours. It was a 3.7 mile hike up.

A group photo on the summit of Uncompahgre Peak. Wetterhorn Peak is visible in the background

Thanks to Pete for this photo

Almost at the summit

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