Wetterhorn's Summit April 1, 2007

Due to the wintertime road closure, this climb started at the Nellie Creek Trailhead (at Henson Creek) on March 30 sleeping in the car after a long day of travel. An 8 hour approach hike in cold wind-blown snow of March 31 led to where I set up base camp on a 12,900' ridge on the flanks of Mt. Uncompahgre. From there I set out before dawn of April 1, 2007 for a long trek to Wetterhorn in deep snow, frequently post-holing (even with snowshoes) at the lower elevations, ascended the glorious east face snow slope, and a few rock climbing moves to the summit in perfect weather. Summit day turned out to be a 19 hour affair by the time I made it all the way back to my tent because the warm weather that came through during the day melting the snow. Slept hard as the wind howled through the night. Off mountain mid-day April 2, and sadly I had no time to climb Uncompahgre, even though I hiked past it twice.