GRIZZLY PEAK B
(13,738')August 23, 2009
By Tim Briese
6.5 miles, 2900' elevation gain, 6:10 roundtrip time
It was not easy crawling out of bed at 4:10 a.m. at our motel in Durango after returning from the backpack to Ruby Basin the day before. Nevertheless, we drove north out of town in the dark to the Durango Mountain Resort, where we left Brian= s car, and continued in my truck. We took the Hermosa Park Road and then FR 579 about ten miles to the trailhead at the end of the road at about 11,150'. The road was a fairly good one but required a high clearance vehicle in some places. It took us about two hours to get to the trailhead from Durango.
There were three other vehicles parked at the trailhead and four climbers who were also headed for Grizzly. Low clouds hung in the moist air, promising a threat of rain later. At 6:50 a.m. we embarked on a trail to the west through the trees that we followed about 200 yards to a junction with the Rico-Silverton trail. We went right at this junction and soon crossed a minor drainage before descending into a bigger drainage and crossing a creek about 0.35 miles from the junction. The trail turned to the northeast and after we hiked about 0.25 miles from the creek crossing we turned left on an unmarked trail which gradually climbed north up around a broad grassy ridge to a basin south of Grizzly. We passed a picturesque lake which lay below to the east. Grizzly loomed above to the north, its upper thousand feet or so obscured in low clouds. We followed the trail up into the grassy basin to about 12,200', where the trail gradually faded away.
At this point we were at a loss about where to go because the clouds prevented us from picking out the correct gully to get up to Grizzly= s ridge, and an array of faint trails offered little guidance. We could see the lower end of a gully to the right on Grizzly= s south face that held some snow and we headed toward it. Somehow this didn= t seem correct but a very faint trail that went up into the gully led us to believe this might be the right route so we began to climb it. The gully became steeper and steeper and only with great care and difficulty were we able to squeeze along the left edge of the steep snow over large jagged rocks that appeared dangerously loose. The gully narrowed to a very steep snowfilled crack above us and we realized this could not be the correct route! I dreaded a dangerous descent back down through the loose boulders so we climbed up to the sides looking for a way out of the gully. I climbed up to the right and saw a possible route out of the left side of the gully above Brian so he climbed up to check it out and thankfully it went! I followed and we scampered up 400 feet of steep talus to the crest of the ridge, where we found easy terrain on a gentle slope the rest of the way to the summit. We could hear voices of other climbers in the fog and met them when we stepped on top at 10:50.
They informed us that the correct route was a gully to the left, or west of where we had come up. I was very thankful we had safely made it up the dangerous route we had climbed, and that the weather had held out for us to salvage the climb!
A cold fog swirled around us on the summit and some sleet lashed against us so we left after only 12 minutes. Carl, who was from Montrose, and his companions pointed out to us the way down, which turned out to be quite easy. We scooted down from the summit on a gentle slope to the top of the correct gully, and then went down the gully on loose dirt and rocks on a reasonable climbers trail to the bottom. In short order we were on grassy slopes in the basin and back on the route we had come up.
As we hiked out of the basin the clouds finally lifted enough for us to see the peak and identify the correct gully we should have taken. This climb emphasized to me the difficulty of routefinding on lightly climbed peaks with faint trails when their slopes are obscured by clouds.
We tramped back down the trail and arrived at the truck at 1 p.m. After driving back to Brian= s car we headed to Ridgway for a shower and dinner.
