STEWART PEAK
13,983 ft.
July 18, 2002
By Tim Briese
After completing the rugged backpack to Pigeon Peak with my friend Brian, I wanted to climb one more mountain while I was in the San Juans before returning home. I settled on Stewart Peak since it was on my way and would be an easy climb to wind down the trip.
I left Brian after dinner in Montrose and headed east toward Gunnison, intending to drive all the way to the Cebolla Trailhead and camp there before the climb the next morning. I was very tired when I reached Gunnison at 8 p.m., though, and decided that a motel bed would be much more suitable than a tent after three nights of backpacking. The next morning I drove out of Gunnison early in the dark and drove south some fifty miles to the trailhead, through one of the most remote areas of Colorado, following Gerry Roach’s impeccable directions. I saw a herd of antelope and a few deer along the way. The sun rose and began to shine on the gentle slopes of Stewart a few miles to the south as I approached.
There was no one else around when I parked at the trailhead and headed up the Cebolla Trail at 6:30 a.m. The woods seemed rough and uninviting at first, as huge downed logs with sharp dead branches protruding from their trunks lay about everywhere. Everything was tinder dry, too, in this year of extreme drought, and a tiny spark could have quickly turned the entire forest into a raging inferno. I followed the trail as it wound upwards for a half mile or so and then broke out of the trees at timberline. I was greeted here by a fine view of a vast sea of willows that lay below the slopes of Baldy Chato (13,401') to the south. The excellent trail continued to the southwest through the willows, marked by tall poles every few hundred yards. It was a simple matter to hike through these willows, for there were convenient alleys through them that allowed for easy passage, unlike the dense jungles of willows I have engaged on Bierstadt and other places. At about 12,400 feet I left the trail and bushwhacked to the south toward the summit of Baldy Chato. I passed through the last of the willows and then hiked upward on gentle grades across grass and rocky slopes. I did not see a trail the rest of the way. In relatively short order I reached Baldy’s summit and sat to rest for a while as I studied the rest of the route to Stewart, which lay about a mile to the southeast. It looked gentle and easy, in sharp contrast to the rugged climbing I had done in the Needle Mountains over the previous few days.
After a short break I headed to the east and dropped down a couple of hundred feet from the summit of Baldy. Then I turned to the south and hiked below a gentle ridge toward Stewart, contouring around the west side of a broad basin in an attempt to avoid losing elevation. I hiked up easy slopes and reached a 13,540 foot saddle west of Stewart, and from there followed the gentle west ridge on up to the summit.
I reached the broad summit at 9:15, and sat down in the warm sunshine to enjoy this noble perch. As I gazed about at the landscape I noted again that the surrounding mountains were quite gentle and rolling, compared to the jagged peaks I had just come from. These soft contours were pleasant and soothing, lending themselves to long thoughts and deep reflection, whereas the former had been wild and exciting. I noticed in the summit register that two climbers from Port Angeles, Washington had been inspired by this place to wax philosophic, in quoting Emerson, “A life which is not examined is not worth living!”
A perusal of the climbing log showed that only about twenty people had visited so far this year, and that about 140 had visited over the past three years. What a haven for those who seek solitude! I gazed at San Luis Peak off to the south and reminisced about my climb to its summit in September of 2000, when I reached the milestone of completing all the 14ers. To the southeast lay Organ Mountain (13,801') with Phoenix Peak (13,895') beyond. I thought about Roach’s description of a combination climb of Stewart and Organ in his 13er book, and noted that it looked like quite a grueling undertaking from where I sat. Far below to the north I watched some elk graze in a meadow at timberline as I sat in the calm and pleasant alpine air.
At 9:40 I left the summit and began my descent. I circled back around the grassy basin northwest of Stewart and contoured around Baldy Chato on its eastern slopes. I walked across a side slope to avoid losing elevation for quite a distance before hiking back up over a gentle ridge northeast of Baldy. It may have been simpler to drop lower into the basin and avoid the side slope, but either way was gentle and easy.
When I crossed up over the ridge the vast sea of willows reappeared to the north below me. I stopped to watch two large herds of elk grazing out in the bushes. They were soon alerted to my presence and cautiously began to move away. I decided to take a shortcut and bushwhacked down through the willows to regain the Cebolla Trail down lower than where I had left it. This was easy enough to do, for once again I found ample alleys through the willows for easy passage. More elk appeared around me as they stood up from reclining positions when they heard me passing by. I startled a large bull elk with a huge rack that leaped up about fifty feet away and bolted off. All told, I probably saw nearly 100 elk in the willows.
I navigated back to the Cebolla Trail by heading toward the big poles that marked it, and then rapidly hiked down through the woods back toward the trailhead. I met an older couple coming up the trail who told me they were on their way up to the willows to see the elk, which led me to believe that the area is noted for them. This place began to seem like quite a wildlife mecca when I spotted a wild turkey along the trail. I arrived back at the trailhead in the warm sunshine at 11:35. The five hour hike was about nine miles long and entailed about 2800 feet of elevation gain. It was a rewarding climb to a fine summit that lay in a setting of reclusive splendor.
