Pigeon Peak : Climbing, Hiking & Mountaineering : SummitPost

Foreword

The page was completely erased, no information preserved, so I am starting all over with some new and hopefully useful information. I have not climbed Pigeon Peak yet, but I am planning to spend a lot of weekends in the Needle Mountains this summer, and climb this beautiful peak.

Overview

Pigeon Peak is one of the most prominent mountains in the Needles area. It can be seen from the train as it proceeds along the Animas River from Durango.

Pigeon has a rich climbing history, starting with 1908 first ascent by Cooper and Hubbard, and continuing to this day with assaults on the great east face.

Needle Mountains

The Needle Mountains are a vast climber's paradise. The fact that they are wild and rugged, with few roads and trails, has tended to make them a preserve for mountaineering. Only the Chicago Basin area saw any of the mining activity that swarmed over the rest of the San Juan in the last century. Except for ascents in Chicago Basin, and of Pigeon Peak, many of the first ascents of major peaks were not accomplished until Colorado Mountain Club and San Juan Mountaineer expeditions of the 1920s and 1930s. each decade since has seen new routes and climbs established, especially technical ones. There are still new routes to be explored on remote pinnacles and cold, dark north and east faces. In fact, there is a lifetime of climbing possibilities here.

The Needles proper, as part of the large Weminuche Wilderness, lie between the Animas River to the west and Vallecito Creek to the east. In a general sense, the term Needle Mountains also encompasses the West Needle Mountains, west of the Animas River, and the Mount Oso group, to the east of Vallecito Creek.

Needles TOPO

[img:643119:aligncenter:medium:Upper Ruby Tarn]

[img:643125:aligncenter:medium:]

List of peaks - Needle Mountains
/tr> Vallecito Creek Access

Peak	Elevation	Access	Note
Mount Eolus	14,083 feet	Needle Creek Access	fourteener
North Eolus	14,039 feet	Needle Creek Access	not recognized as a separate fourteener; it is a short scramble from the low point between Eolus and North Eolus
Glacier Point	13,704 feet	Needle Creek Access	route goes up its easy southeast ridge from lakes
Twin Thumbs	13,420 feet	Needle Creek Access	the north Thumb is harder, rope is needed for short sections
Peak Eleven	13,540 feet	Needle Creek Access	climb from the col between Twin Thumbs and Peak Eleven
Sunlight Peak	14,059 feet	Needle Creek Access	fourteener
Sunlight Spire	13,995 feet	Needle Creek Access	technical route rated 5.10 or easier if aided
Windom Peak	14,082 feet	Needle Creek Access	fourteener
Jupiter Mountain	13,830 feet	Needle Creek Access	several non-technical routes, or a very difficult Windom-Juniper ridge
Aztec Mountain	13,310 feet	Needle Creek Access	can be climbed from Columbine Pass
Heisspitz	13,262 feet	Noname Creek Access	4th class scramble in a gully
Peak Four	13,410 feet	Noname Creek Access	again 4th class scramble in a prominent gully
Peak Five and Peak Six	13,283 ft and 13,705 ft	Noname Creek Access	both go from the 12,900 foot pass between them
Jagged Mountain	13,824 feet	Noname Creek Access	is one of the more difficult and certainly one of the most rewarding climbs in the Needles
Gray Needle and Noname Needle	13,430 ft and 13,620 ft	Noname Creek Access	interesting technical climbs
Levithian Peak	13,528 feet	Noname Creek Access	climbed by its southwest ridge, 3rd class scramble
Vallecito Mountain	13,428 feet	Noname Creek Access	3rd class scramble
Knife Point and Peak Ten	13,265 ft and 13,400 ft	Noname Creek Access	are climbed from the col between them
Peak Twelve	13,120 feet	Noname Creek Access	the route not very technical from pass south of the great wall of Monitor Peak
Monitor Peak	13,695 feet	both Noname Creek and Ruby Creek Access	high east face has some of the longest rock climbs in San Juans
The Index	13,400 feet	Ruby Creek Access	technical peak, route rated 5.7
Animas Mountain	13,786 feet	Ruby Creek Access	both technical and nontechnical routes
Peak Thirteen	13,705 feet	Ruby Creek Access	both technical and scramble routes
Little Finger, Peak Sixteen, and Peak Fifteen	13,200, 13,500, and 13,700 ft	Ruby Creek Access	all these peaks are technical and hard to get to
Pigeon Peak	13,972 feet	Ruby Creek Access	semi-technical route, rope may be needed
Turret Peak	13,835 feet	Ruby Creek Access	hike up the talus from Pigeon-Turret saddle
Hope Mountain	13,012 feet	Vallecito Creek Access	can be approached on an old road that crosses north of it going east to Hazel Lake
Grizzly Peak/td>		13,700 feet	there are several Grizzly Peaks in Colorado, climb obvious ramp from Jupiter-Grizzly saddle
	13,554 feet	Vallecito Creek Access	usually done via ridge from Grizzly to McCauley
Echo Mountain	13,309 feet	Vallecito Creek Access	steep southwest slopes to the ridge west of the summit
Thunder Mountain	13,108 feet	Vallecito Creek Access	has a 0.5 mile long, sheer cliff face that stops any attempts from the basin, better to climb from by its southeast ridge
Greylock Mountain	13,575 feet	Vallecito Creek Access	is the only walk up in Grizzly Gulch Basin
Florida Mountain	13,076 feet	Vallecito Creek Access	can be climbed most of the way by an old road that traverses south out of Vallecito Basin to Trimble Pass 12,840
Bullion Mountain and Mount Valois	13,182 ft and 13,185 ft	Vallecito Creek Access	0.5 miles west of Trimble Pass, and Valois 0.5 miles southeast, are easy walk ups.
Emerson Mountain, Sheep Mountain, Amherst Mountain, Organ Mountain	all thirteeners	Vallecito Creek Access	to visit these thirteeners follow the trail south from Trimble Pass three miles to Florida River (good camping)
Peak Seven	13,682 feet	Vallecito Creek Access	is the northernmost peak of Needles Proper, it is climbed by angling over to its easy north ridge

What a list of peaks! What a project to climb them all!

Weather

Images



[ View Gallery - 25 More Images ]