LoJ: #178 (Pre-LiDAR #179) / 13,636' Mount Silex
N 37° 40' 13.14", W 107° 32' 52.95"
(Not Field Checked)
Peak Nine
Storm King Peak
The Guardian
Peak Summary
Mount Silex is one of the first prominent Needle Mountains you get to see when backpacking in from Hunchback Pass. It presents an impressive 2000 foot sheer north face and causes one to wonder what they may be getting themselves into, but fortunately, there's a Class 2+ route on the south side. For most parties, Silex is combined with The Guardian for a full day of high peaks and will be part of a multi-day backpack. The closest vehicle access is the Beartown/Kite Lake trailhead north of Hunchback Pass. 4WD with good clearance is required. Previous elevation for Silex prior to Lidar was 13,628 ft.
Mount Silex SW Ridge Route
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Bear Creek/Hunchback Pass/Kite Lake TH
WARNING: This trail head approach REQUIRES 4WD with good ground clearance. The drive as described below from Silverton may take up to 2.5 hours.
From the Town of Silverton, and where the main road splits at the NE end of town, drive 4.2 miles NE up along the Animas River on blue-signed County Road 2 to Howardsville. Turn right onto FR589 up Cunningham Gulch and stay right at the turn for the "Old Mine Tour" (4.4 miles) but do take the left fork toward Stony Pass (FR737) at 5.9miles. Once on the Stony Pass Road, expect 4W conditions. The road climbs steeply to the pass. Abundant wildflowers as you approach the pass may delay you. Once across the pass, the road becomes FR520 and eventually leads to Rio Grande Reservoir, but you will not drive that far. The road eventually descends down the valley to a low water crossing of Pole Creek. There are several primitive campsites on both sides of the Pole Creek crossing. Watch out for the steep embankment climb out on the east side if the road is wet from rains. You could easily slip off the edge. After the crossing, continue south for under a mile to another fork where you'll turn right (west). Another long, low water crossing is found here across the Rio Grande River. This crossing is usually more shallow than the Pole Creek, but the closer you are to runoff season, the more difficult these crossings will be.
It is also possible to come into this area from either Creede or Lake City over Slumgullion and Spring Pass to Rio Grande Reservoir. From state highway 149 either about 20.5 miles from Creede or 32 miles from Lake City, turn west onto FS520 and drive all the way to the reservoir on the well-signed, graded dirt road. Passenger cars can make it all the way to the "Lost Trail Campground" at the far west end of the reservoir. Beyond that point, FR520 continues west and crosses some rugged sections before connecting with the other section of FR520 coming down from Stony Pass and the low-water crossing of the Rio Grande. We have never driven in all the way on this section and from those we know who have, they have complained about one particularly difficult stretch.
From the Rio Grande crossing, continue up what is now, the Beartown Road for a slow 4 miles (mainly because of potholes) to the former location of Beartown. (There's really nothing left to see there, but just before the road crosses Bear Creek, beyond the old townsite, there is some good camping. The road goes all the way to Kite Lake at about 12,100 ft., but the Hunchback Pass trailhead is about 1/2 mile below the lake. There's a trail sign there and some very limited parking is available. Road Notes as of 2018: About half the distance toward Beartown, the road crosses an unnamed creek and at that spot, there are some difficult mud/potholes that have really been dug out. Longer bed vehicles may have some difficulty getting through. Take it slow. Closer to Beartown, the road passes through a fence line. At that point, the road conditions will begin to deteriorate and become more rocky as it begins to gain some elevation.
As the road begins climbing more steeply toward Kite Lake and the Hunchback trailhead, after crossing Bear Creek, it becomes quite a bit more rocky in that stretch as well. For a long section, the road is deeply entrenched in the middle because of runoff and the trench tends to fill with loose rocks. If you have driven in here to do the Ute Ridge group of summits, camp in the vicinity of where the road crosses Bear Creek just past the old Beartown site. See coordinates below. From that creek crossing, it's not quite .3 mile to the trailhead for Ute Ridge, which is a jeep track that turns off to the left and drops down to cross another lesser fork of Bear Creek. Park somewhere along this track if heading for Ute Ridge. On the Caltopo map, this trail is called the "Bear Town Trail" and designated FR869. On trails Illustrated Map #140, it does not appear to have a designation. Coordinates for this road & trailhead are: N 37° 42' 54.53" W 107° 30' 35.00". You can find a good camp spot here as well. You can also find some additional camp spots within a few hundred yards of the Hunchback Pass trailhead. One of those spots goes off to the south to an old mining area.
Camping
You can find some very limited camping spots in the immediate vicinity of the Hunchback trailhead. There's one particularly good spot back down the road a fairly short distance on the south side. There's also some good camping back toward the Beartown site. See coordinates provided.
Campsite Locations
Beartown Campsite › N 37° 43' 05.02", W 107° 30' 35.47"
Click thumbnail to view full-size photo + captionRoute Description
Year Climbed: 1994The mileage and elevation gain estimate provided are measured from the campsite at the intersection of the Vallecito Trail and the Trinity Creek trail. If accessing Silex from the suggested campsite at the two small lakes a mile west of "Storm King Pass", located above Balsam Lake, then the one way mileage would be 2.25 with 2000 feet of elevation gain and 600 more on the return to that campsite. Neither estimates include Guardian. Use the "Trinity Creek to Storm King Pass" approach for the first part of the route to Silex if coming from the Trinity Creek/Vallecito Creek campsite.
If coming from the Trinity Creek/Vallecito Creek campsite, you'll want to veer off the route to "what we call "Storm King Pass" at about the 12,400 foot contour level and begin the traverse around the south end of Silex Lake. If coming from the campsite west of Storm King Pass, you'll need to gain that pass, then descend to the same contour level. That descent from the pass will first be mostly on boulder talus. Sources indicate a sloping, rock-strewn bench above the lake that you can make the contour around to the SE end of the lake on. You'll need to drop below some cliffs to get to the start of this so-called bench and then regain some elevation on nasty scree. In 1994, we found a sketchy trail that contour around on this bench, but it offered little respite from the difficult sidehill traverse. The contour level is about 12,400 ft. The goal is to get to an easy-to-identify couloir that leads up the SW ridge of Silex and a saddle where the SE ridge of Peak Nine joins in. (Pt.13,176) In earlier season, this couloir may still have snow. It is steep enough where ice axe will certainly be of use and at least microspikes if not crampons. We may also mention that one source book suggests descending all the way to lake level to make the contour over to the couloir. That will of course mean more gain in the couloir. Pick your poison.
The couloir up to the saddle, if not filled with snow, will be an ascent on loose rock and scree with poor footing. We give it a Class 2+ rating. Farther up, staying right of center gully will provide some exposed rock outcrops that will offer a brief relief from the loos rock. After what may seem like a lengthy struggle to gain the 12,820 ft. saddle, pause to consider your options.
G&M suggest going directly up the SW ridge to the summit, but Rosebrough warns of 4th, even brief 5th class sections along that ridge. So we opted to follow Rosebrough's south face route that stays at Class 2. That route had you descending the couloir on the other side of the 12,820 ft. col, by as much as 400 feet to find a break in cliffs that would allow access to the higher, Class 2 talus and tundra slopes to the summit. We found it unnecessary to drop that far however. Losing only about 100 feet in elevation, we began to traverse left and then down a little more across small boulders. This led us to a break in a cliff band that allowed access to the terrain above without losing more elevation. The point here is that you may not have to descend that far to find a way through the cliffs. You may want to mark where you emerge above the cliff band. Once above it, it's a simple, but long Class 2 ascent to the summit on mostly talus and loose scree as the route steepens.
Enjoy the view of the northern Needle Mountains and the Grenadier Range to the west. Take a break and then decide if weather is going to allow you to continue over to The Guardian. It would be a shame to leave that one hanging.
Additional BETA
Links to other information, routes & trip reports for this peak that may be helpful. -
