Once you drive into Lake City, Engineer Pass is a well-signed turnoff west onto Second Street (trust me...it's hard to miss). Measuring from that point, you need to drive about 9 miles up Engineer Pass to the Capitol City townsite, which is an old ghost town that still has a few residents. The road is really pretty tame, and any car could make it up to this point. There's a well signed right turn (North Fork Henson Creek) where the road angles sharply left. Take that right turn, and the road becomes pretty bumpy for 2 miles. A high profile 2WD could probably make it this far, where there's some parking and a sign indicating the Wetterhorn trailhead is 0.6 miles further on, and that a 4x4 is recommended beyond this point. That 0.6 miles is most definitely 4x4 only! It's steep and very bumpy, with a number of large rocks in the road. At the end of the road is a forest service closure gate and the trail register

There's one common trailhead for these two mountains, and that's the Wetterhorn Creek trailhead. This is the standard trailhead for Wetterhorn, and is located up Engineer Pass from the town of Lake City (see "Getting to the Trailhead" above).

I reached thie trailhead at about 6am on August 13^th, and prepared myself mentally for the climb ahead. Wetterhorn has a good amount of Class 3 climbing (that's hand-and-foot climbing), and is a little harder than most of the 14ers I've bagged up to this point. All the guidebooks make mention of the fact that if you slip, it's 600 feet until you land on the rocks. Ulp! I was just a little nervous!

Anyway, I signed in and started hiking up the valley. The trail (an old jeep road) is obvious, although a little rocky as you wind through the evergreens. At 0.7 miles the trail leaves jeep road and switchbacks up the eastern flank of the valley. Although many of the guidebooks say you have to look carefully for this, it's pretty obvious where you're going. In front of you is a huge rounded mountain, and you can begin to see Wetterhorn's summit peeking over the top from time to time. The trail breaks treeline as you enter the Uncompahgre Wilderness area, and right in front of you is a sharp peak that you'll probably think is your destination. Nope. That's Matterhorn Peak...just a thirteener (but a fine climb in its own right). As you hike farther into the basin, Wetterhorn looms to the west (left).

Here's the tricky part. Once you hike into the basin you need to break off the trail and head west to the southeast ridge of Wetterhorn. There is pretty much no trail until you approach the base of the ridge, so use your best judgement. Its easiest to pick a route that takes you below all the boulders and up near some of the runoff streams. Here is where you'll start seeing a few actual trails, which converge at the top of the southeast ridge of Wetterhorn. Of course, once you get there and look below, several trails become obvious.

OK. Southeast ridge. As you look up at Wetterhorn's summit, you start to wonder how the heck you're supposed to get to the top. Take heart, it's not nearly as bad as it looks. From the ridge, start hiking northwest along the ridge. The hiking starts easy and gets a little harder the farther up you go. For a while, you'll stick to the west (climber's left) of the ridge. Look sharp for cairns and other people's footprints...there are several minor variations to the route. You'll approach a large block below the summit, known as the Ships Prow or Sharks Tooth, depending on who you listen to. This Prow is bypassed on the east (climber's right), and will put you on a large flat spot at its base. This is a good place to rest and get your focus. The rest of the trip is a little dicey. You're about 150 ft. below the summit here. As you look west, there are 2 notches in the rocks. The notch to the right (closest to the summit block) is the correct one to take. Going through the notch, you cross a flat, slightly angled stone about 15 feet long. At that point, it's time to climb! The gully before you is hand-and-foot climbing until the summit. For me, the easiest climbing was up the gully for about 80 feet, and then contouring on a narrow shelf to the left for several feet, and then one last 20 foot push up to the summit. You'll find minor variations on this idea in all the guidebooks. The main thing is to focus on what you're doing. Luckily, the rock is very solid, and the climbing is really pretty easy. Before you know it, you'll be at the summit!

The summit is actually several square yards of flat rocks and stubborn wildflowers. I hit the summit at 9:40 with my climbing companion, Robert. I met up with him near the ridge, and we decided it would be a good idea to pair up for the rest of the climb.

From the summit, the main point of interest is quite obviously Uncompahgre Peak to the north and east. It's a huge mountain, and it dominates the scenery to the east. We enjoyed the view and the cloudless, perfectly calm day for nearly an hour until a few other folks joined us on the summit. Then it was time for the hard part....going down.

Downclimbing Wetterhorn was just a little trickier than climbing up, since you're scrambling down handholds and footholds. The trip back down to the Ship's Prow takes patience and focus, but once you're there, it's a piece of cake! In no time at all we were back down on the southeast ridge. I decided to go ahead and trek across the basin to Uncompahgre. My original plan was to hike back down to the trailhead and drive over to Nellie Creek, the more common trailhead for Uncompahgre. However, I decided to go ahead and hike from the basin so as not to lose too much altitude....

continued on the Uncompahgre trip report...