July 3, 2022
North Star Peak 13,614' to Wheeler Mountain 13,690'
It's been three weeks since we have been on a mountain and both Laura and I were hoping to get out again now that we're back in Colorado after a successful trip to Alaska. While rain altered our plans to climb near Vail, we still chose to try something closer to the cabin where we were spending the weekend. Laura suggested North Star and I agreed but also added the idea that if weather looked okay, we should traverse over to Wheeler as well.
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| Looking at Northstar from near the start of the hike. Summit at the far end of the long ridge. |
We set off from the cabin at 6:30 am and were parked at the Hoosier Pass trailhead within just a few minutes. The skies looked blue for now. We hiked up the familiar road that we would normally ski and up to the long ridge that connects lower peaks with North Star. Traversing along the Continental Divide, there is no trail. It is mostly easy rock hopping until you reach the summit of North Star. It took us just 2 hours to get to our first summit of the day and both Laura and I felt great.
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| Summit of Northstar |
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| Summit of Northstar |
We agreed that we would start across toward Wheeler as we looked ahead and saw clear bail options if we needed them. We also noticed that the route would be far more challenging than what we had done so far.
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| Working across the ridge between Northstar and Wheeler (Wheeler Peak in the back) |
Across the saddle we climbed up and over a few towers or rocks as the route steepened. With careful route finding, we were able to keep the traverse to class 4 with a few short low class 5 sections.
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| One of the more technical sections on the ridge |
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| Continuing across the ridge |
The rock was loose in areas as we cautiously approached the south ridge of Wheeler Mountain. Ascending to the summit, it was just before 11 am. The traverse had taken us 2.5 hours.
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| Justin near the summit of Wheeler Peak |
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| On the summit of Wheeler Peak |
By this point in the day the clouds had begun to build. We looked down toward Wheeler Lake and noticed a group of 4-wheel drive trucks that were hanging out there. We figured we would descend to the lake and try to catch a ride rather than hiking several miles down the muddy and rocky road.
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| Crowd of 4-wheelers at Wheeler Lake |
The group was still at the lake as we passed by and started down the road but shortly into our hike out a single vehicle stopped and asked if we would like a ride out. We accepted and enjoyed the relaxing ride back to the trailhead. It's fun to look up from the cabin and see the ridgelines and be able to say you've traversed almost all of them. Today was a fun adventure and we were happy to be out in the mountains together again.
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| One of many water obstacles on the road before we got picked up |
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| The kind gentlemen that gave us a ride out negotiating one of the sections on the road |
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| Some of the ridge between Northstar and Wheeler |
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| More of the ridge between Northstar and Wheeler |
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| More of the ridge between Northstar and Wheeler |
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| More of the ridge between Northstar and Wheeler |
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| Looking back at Northstar from somewhere along the ridge |
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| One of the loose sections along the ridge between Northstar and Wheeler |
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| An interesting tunnel we had to crawl through along the ridge between Northstar and Wheeler |
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| Descent down toward Wheeler Lake with Wheeler Peak in the background |
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| The wildflowers were beautiful |
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| Old mining equipment near Magnolia Mill |
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