From Every Mountainside: Let Freedom Ring!

WOW ... what a peak. People say this is a fun mountain and it is SO true. The hike is in relatively mild (by 14er standards) and the scramble to the top is pure joy. I am Chiken-Little and scared to death of heights. So, needless to say hearing the mention of "ropes the last 85 feet" had my full attention. 

We stopped right above the easily recognized "yellow sand" and had lunch before starting the real scrambling. I opted to leave my pack and poles at this point based on advice from a fellow 14er buddy. It was the right decision because it certainly made climbing easier for me ... HOWEVER ... my "Snickers/PB&J/Gatorade/Cheese Its" flavored pole handles made a delicious snack for some lucky Mo-Fo-Marmot (I USED to think they were cute ... now they are all just sneaky robbers/vandals/thieves in my eyes).


The route finding from in this section was a little tricky for us. This was our first Class 3 route and we picked some wrong cairns at one point. We ended up traversing some VERY loose sand on the right side (made me very nervous) and spit out at the Ship`s Prow staring back at a well-marked trail. How the hell did that happen? Oh well, so at this point some real 4-point scrambling starts. I was shaking in my boots. Deb is a former free climber and shot up the wall like Spider woMan.


I was impressed ... and depressed. I felt so slow. I guess I tested every hand and foot hold 3 times each. I abruptly stopped about half way up and said, "I`ll never be able to climb all of the 14ers". I was so worried about the last section that people rope on ... then all of the sudden ... WHAM! I see a big FAT CAIRN and seconds later I was standing on the summit. SWEET HEAVEN - I made it! We were greeted with the Most Absolute Perfect July 4th Summit Day EVER ... warm and no wind. I never dreamed it possible ... but it happened. 

I celebrated my successful Class 3 climb all of 5 minutes before I started worrying about down-climbing ... because I heard at an REI Seminar that some people have a horrible time going down ... but it turns out that I LOVE to down climb. It seemed so much easier to me than coming up. I think it`s because I have the perfect ass for going down. What EXACTLY does the perfect down-climbing ass look like, you might ask? 

Some helpful things that I`d want to know: 
1. The 4WD road above the Matterhorn TH sign is NOT bad. We parked at the bottom and walked this section. HOWEVER, a 4WD vehicle would have NO problem and it`d knock off some extra hiking (UNLESS, of course, you want do some EXTRA hiking). 

2. We did notice the white "slime" on the rocks and would never consider drinking water up there. 

3. If you`re comfortable sleeping in the middle of nowhere ... the dispersed camping along the Alpine Loop Trail ... where you turn to the Matterhorn Creek TH ... is gorgeous. 

4. If you`re scared sleeping in the middle of nowhere ... stay at Wupperman`s Campground. Pat and Cecil Mitchell ... good Texas people running the show there ... they will take care of you for $15/night. 

5. Lake City ... is a sweet little place. Good burgers at Packer`s Saloon ... FANTASTIC ice cream at the San Juan Soda Shop. 

6. If you trout fish ... carry a pole ... and hook a fish or two (like me!).

The Trout Slayer

WTHandies?

We arrived at Lake City on Friday afternoon intending to hike Wetterhorn the following day. The weather was questionable and we decided to do Wetterhorn on Sunday. So, we had Saturday to play around and asked Cecil (Wupperman Campground Host) what to do. He suggested that we fish Sloan Lake in American Basin... he said it was absolutely gorgeous up yonder. He got out a map and dropped his Texan finger on a small lake ... I picked up the Texan`s finger and asked, "Is that the trailhead for Handies?" Well, Cecil had never heard of Handies ... as a matter of fact, he`d never heard of 14ers. 

We decided to check out American Basin. Turns out ... Cecil knows something about beauty. American Basin was other-worldly. It was AMAZING. 

It was 1:00PM when we got there. Most people were finishing their hike. We started walking up the trail and got to the sign in post. Deb asked, "Are we going to the summit?" Ummmmmm .... YEP .... you can`t take crack away from a crack head. Let`s go! 

WTH? We didn`t do Wetterhorn today because of the weather. And NOW we are starting up Handies with graupel falling? It was warm and the hike was actually pleasant. We decided that we would turn around at the first lightning bolt. We were almost to the top and thunder cracked. OMG. I froze and waited for another one. The summit is RIGHT THERE. Magically, the clouds started to blow over and the skies cleared for us to finish. I thought for sure this was my "The summit will be there for another day" days. We were lucky. We reached the peak under clear skies. 

By the numbers, it looked easy on paper. However, no fourteener is easy. This one was a grunt to the top. Nothing technically challenging ... just steep ... and did I mention other-worldly beauty? 

Difficulty: Class 2 
Summit Elevation: 14,048 feet (Handies Peak) 
Elevation Gain: 2750` 
Round-trip Length: 5.6 miles 
Trailhead: American Basin TH 

7:30 AM Awake 
1:00 PM Start Hiking 
3:00 PM Summit Handies Peak 
5:00 PM Back at Trailhead 

Date Ascended: 7/3/10 
Roundtrip: 4 hours 
Temperature: 60`s