South Face from Storm King Pass

Overview

Peak Nine is a narrow, crumbling ridge of rock between Storm King Peak and Peak Eight in the Weminuche Wilderness. Its north and south faces are near-vertical, and it's one of the more serious 13ers in the area. Reaching it is a multi-day backpack from the Hunchback Pass trailhead.

You follow the Vallecito Trail 4 miles to Trinity Creek, ford Vallecito Creek, and climb Trinity Creek and the Lake Silex basin to Storm King Pass. From there you cross to the Peak Eight–Nine saddle, drop into the basin to the south, and climb a green ramp and then either a steep couloir with a 12-foot Class 4 wall or the southeast ridge. Recent reports suggest the unmaintained Leviathan Creek trail, to the Peak Eight–Nine saddle, may now be easier than Trinity Creek, but we don't have details on it.

The round trip is about 14.7 miles with 6,200 feet of gain. From Storm King Pass it's about 1.2 miles and 1,000 feet. Most people camp along upper Trinity Creek or at tarns west of the pass, and add Peak Eight.

Plan of the day

Getting to the trailhead

This trailhead needs a high-clearance 4WD, and you should allow as much as two and a half hours from Silverton. From the northeast end of Silverton, take County Road 2 up the Animas about 4.2 miles to Howardsville. Turn right up Cunningham Gulch, then take the left fork onto the Stony Pass road. It climbs steeply over the pass and down the far side. You will ford Pole Creek, then turn right at a fork and ford the Rio Grande. Both fords are harder early in the summer. Then follow the Beartown road about 4 slow, rough miles past the old Beartown site and up a rocky, rutted stretch. The Hunchback Pass trailhead is about half a mile below Kite Lake, at roughly 11,800 feet, with limited parking.

You can also reach this area from Creede or Lake City by driving to Rio Grande Reservoir, but the road west of the reservoir has very rough sections. There is some camping near the trailhead and near the old Beartown site.

Conditions on Stony Pass and the Beartown road change from year to year, so check before you go. Trips from here into the Weminuche usually take several days.

Next: the route, step by step →

The route

1. 1

   Hunchback Pass trailhead 11,800' · 0 mi

   Walk south on the Continental Divide Trail through open, willowy ground. It bends southeast, then southwest and west, up to the pass.

2. 2

   Hunchback Pass 12,490' · 0.9 mi

   From the tundra pass, head south down the willow-filled fork below. The trail keeps to the west side of the drainage until just above the trees.

   Watch for: Willows soak you after rain.

3. 3

   Trinity Creek camp 10,560' · 4 mi

   Stay on the Vallecito Trail where the Continental Divide Trail turns east up Nebo Creek (big campsite nearby). Ford Nebo Creek near a waterfall and switchback down to a meadow on the right.

   Watch for: The Nebo Creek ford is swift.

4. 4

   Leave Trinity Creek 11,400' · 5.5 mi

   Wade Vallecito Creek west of camp (cold, but not as deep as lower down). The unmaintained trail runs up the south side of Trinity Creek and crosses to the north side near 11,000 feet. Recent reports say beetle-killed deadfall and thick growth have nearly erased the lower mile; plan on a couple of hours of thrashing. Watch for an old cairn on the north side and follow the faint trail west to a knoll with an old campsite.

   Watch for: Hard bushwhacking in deadfall.

5. 5

   Storm King Pass 12,800' · 6.75 mi

   Turn south toward the Lake Silex basin. Stay west of a rock glacier tongue and climb steep tundra ramps (or a rift west of the Silex outlet stream) to rocky benches. Contour into the valley west of Lake Silex and grind west up rubble and talus to the pass between Storm King and Peak Nine.

   Watch for: Slow, unstable talus.

6. 6

   Peak Eight–Nine saddle 12,750' · 7 mi

   Rather than contour through loose rock, drop about 200 feet west and climb back to the saddle. In July a snowfield may lead up a couloir to it. The saddle is just a narrow notch.

   Watch for: Hard snow early in the day.

7. 7

   Green ramp 12,650' · 7.15 mi

   Drop south into the basin on big rubble and go left (southeast) along the bowl, descending about 200 feet. At its far east end the green ramp comes into view, angling southeast across the face. Don't start up too soon toward greenish rock above.

8. 8

   Summit 13,404' · 7.35 mi

   Climb the ramp (some Class 3) to a large cairn. Either keep going to the southeast ridge and follow it back northwest, or climb the couloir just past the cairn: steep broken rock, maybe ice, then its right branch to a 12-foot Class 4 wall and out onto the ridge. Follow the narrow ridge, with one hard bypass on the left, to the top.

   Watch for: Class 4, loose and exposed.

Getting down

Down-climb the same route to the green ramp, then recross the bowl and climb back to the Eight–Nine saddle. A used rappel anchor leads down into the couloir if you carry enough rope.

If things go wrong

The green ramp and the bowl lead back to the saddle.

3D flyover

See the trail on video

Other routes

Every way up Peak Nine we list, with its class.

• Peak Nine South Face this routeClass 4 14.7 mi