McHenrys Clarity

After three attempts had been chased off by weather in the last five years, my wife and I finally summited McHenrys Peak (RMNP) on September 13, 2015. It was a perfect weather day, and we'd planned to only go when conditions were expected to be that good. You never know, of course, around Longs Peak (or lots of other places in Colorado), but it turned out gorgeous. High cirrus clouds in mid/late afternoon, and enough of them to actually help keep temperatures nicely moderate. We hiked in from the Glacier Gorge Trailhead; it's a moderate approach, not bad, to Black Lake. At that point, you have a couple choices. On the advice of friends, we decided to climb the slope/wall to the west of Black Lake, and save at least a mile, more like a mile and a half, over the traditional route that heads east from Black Lake, and then west across the wide basin west of Longs Peak. There is a faint trail for a portion of the tundra climb, and eventually you reach a point where you have to make it through a small rock band or two. In my opinion, the moves on the spot we chose were more than 3+, and I'd base that on having done all the CO 14ers. Anyway, it's not a long climb up to the "ledge" to the south of Arrowhead, but it's intense. If you can reach one of the higher spots of horizontal tundra or bushes, you've got it made for turning south toward Stone Man Pass. At this time of year, the pass is a real slog, one of the worst scree slopes I've been on for awhile. (I'd compare it to the starting scree slope on the Snowmass headwall above the lake, for those who chose the scree over some other route on rock below. Worse than the Pagoda Mountain climb, worse than most.) It's not real long, but when you top out, and turn northwest on McHenrys, the fun begins. This is where my title (Clarity on McHenrys) comes into play. There are guidebooks that state that you might have to lost a little altitude, go around a rock rib, and climb the gully you find there -- and that this is the only route that is nontechnical. Wrong. We went and looked at that, despite seeing some cairns that seemed to point to an ascending traverse across the broad southwest face of McHenrys. That gully is messy, more scree, a standing snowfield even now, and not cool. We backtracked to the main face, and had a great time angling up directly from the pass until you do start reaching some 3+ stuff. At that point, you actually DO turn a corner that takes you high in that "second" gully past that aforementioned rock rib. You're about 400 vertical feet from the summit, and the climb begins to resemble the high reaches of Maroon or Pyramid, lots of ledges, lots of exposure, but better rock than the Maroons. We continued to ascend and traverse, and about 200 v feet from the summit, turned one other last corner (another rock rib, more or less), and the rest is gravy, straight up over good rock. An absolutely incredible summit. Stunning 360 views. I will try to attach some photos. But if you do plan to do McHenrys this route (rather than from Arrowhead or the McHenry's Notch), just keep looking for cairns and keep ascending at a gentle angle northwest, you'll get there even without the cairns. Clarity is good. Climb safely.