LoJ: #99 (Pre-LiDAR #104) / 13,817' Arrow Peak

The following summary will apply to all the peaks accessible from Vestal Creek. These include: Peaks Two and Three, The Trinities, Vestal, Arrow, Electric, Graystone, Point Pun (unranked) and Garfield. In describing the routes for all these peaks, we have used the beaver ponds on the Elk Creek trail as the "base camp" starting point. Mileages and elevation gain are measured from there for each. However, for those with the strength and fortitude, you can continue the backpack portion of the trip by heading up the unmaintained and sometimes confusing Vestal Creek Trail. That hike will be included with each summit in this area as part of the "approach." Not only is the Vestal trail confusing at times with multiple tracks to follow, it is very steep and also harbors a large number of fallen logs to cross. The campsites in upper Vestal Creek are also known for their aggressive and camp-destroying marmots. Protect your food supply accordingly and even your gear as well. In 1992, we had marmots chew their way into our tent, then they both slept and defecated on our sleeping bags. In addition, they completely destroyed a pair of shorts we had left outside to air out, chewed on our packs and socks left out and they chewed through one of the tubes for our water filter. In short, they were attracted to anything that had salt on it.

To climb Arrow, use the same instructions as for Graystone by beginning from either the "lower meadow" along Vestal Creek at 11,300 feet or from the higher camp at 11,760 ft. From the lower meadow camp, you'll need to ascend SSW steeply for 600 feet to gain the valley between Arrow and Vestal. This will be something of a bushwhack that will take you through trees, willows, rock benches and minor cliffs, and tundra. Roach reports a "strong climber's trail up through here. In 1992, there was no evidence of such. According to Roach, the trail starts from near the east end of the lower meadow and begins faintly. If coming from the higher camp, you'll need to contour back to the west across rock benches interspersed with tundra and grassy shelves to the same valley. Once in that valley look over to the great east face of Arrow and identify the prominent ramp on the east face that sweeps upward with increasing steepness to the summit. This will be your easiest access to the heavenly heights. This route can be found in at least 4 sources: the "Guide to the Colorado Mountains" where it's identified as a "steep and slabby NE gully;" "The San Juan Mountains" by Robert Rosebrough where it's identified as the NE Rib route; "Colorado's High Thirteeners" by Garratt & Martin where it's identified as a "channel/ramp;" and "Colorado's Thirteeners" by Gerry & Jennifer Roach where it's identified as the "Classic Northeast Face" route. All of these (if you can find them) offer additional details that may assist your climb.

Here's our description of this classic Colorado ascent: At the NE end of the ramp and at about 12,200 feet, a talus cone allows access to the ramp. Once on the ramp, you can enjoy well more than 1,000 feet of gain on steep, slabby rock. Most of the time, it is quite solid, but with an occasional scramble or some loose rock to navigate through. In some places the rock is quite polished, so if it's wet, it can be a little problematic. Also, in early season, you may encounter snow. Ice axe and micro spikes could be useful then. We did this in early July and did find some snow, avoidable by staying right of it. None of this section exceeded Class 2+. At about 13,600 ft., where the ramp now turns more westward and angles up more steeply, it divides and turns into what more properly may be called a gully or couloir with a rock rib dividing the two. The one further to the south we found filled with snow so we chose the other, sometimes traversing onto the rib. You will likely find cairns along here. We stayed mostly in the couloir. As it steepened it became what we considered to be 4th class climbing, but we're not rock-jocks. This couloir joined the north ridge and we turned left (south) to make the final scramble on 3rd class terrain to the rocky summit feeling a real sense of accomplishment. All along this route, the views of Vestal Peak's Wham ridge are absolutely spectacular. This is truly one of the most unique peaks and sights in all of Colorado and the view from the Arrow summit is no cheap photograph either. Revel for as long as you can on this spectacular summit and enjoy a 360° view of Colorado's most rugged mountains. From an upper Vestal Creek campsite, we made this climb up in about 2 hours. We never used rope, but it's not a bad idea for a climb such as this to have a short piece for emergency use.

We should note a variation to this route in the other sources cited. Roach warns to not stay on the ramp's eastern edge, but to get into the higher, western ramp near its bottom. (I think this is probably what we did.) Roach has you working the rib probably more than we did. His mention of a climb up a Class 3 chimney at the head sounds familiar to us, but we may have considered this closer to 4th class, coming from our less experienced perspective compared to someone like Gerry Roach.