LoJ: #265 (Pre-LiDAR: NR) / 13,494' Peak Ten
N 37° 38' 36.33", W 107° 35' 19.06"
(Not Field Checked)
Jagged Mountain
Knife Point
Peak Summary
By LIDAR technology, the once "soft-ranked" Peak Ten summit located SW of Jagged Mountain is now considered "ranked." It's prior elevation given was 13,420 ft. Lidar added 74 feet. While Jagged receives much attention as a Top One Hundred summit enjoying a low 5th class rating, Peak Ten is still a worthy objective and offers an opportunity to truly route-find on a seldom ascended summit that requires a minimum of 3rd class scrambling and a nice 4th class summit block. Peak Ten is located in the Sunlight Creek Basin which offers some of the most outstanding wilderness experience and scenery to be found anywhere in the entire Weminuche Wilderness, but the only way you'll get here is by horseback or backpack.
Peak Ten Southeast Face 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: 2018LIDAR technology has granted Peak Ten a ranked status now. Peak Ten, since it was a formerly "soft-ranked" summit, we have not sequenced with any other peaks in the upper Sunlight drainage, however, we suppose it could be easily paired up with Knife Point, and possibly Jagged Mountain, but combining it with Jagged would require navigating an uncertain route with little if any beta. Please also note that this climb was made without use (though we did have a short 7mm with us) of a rope or any hardware. It did push us into a zone of some discomfort when we hit the summit ridge, but with caution, we finished the ascent without any problem.
From the campsite we suggest at about 11,550 feet along Sunlight Creek, follow the trail for Sunlight Lake up to where it makes a definite turn to the south. This is at the juncture for turning up to hike into the basin north of Jagged. At this location, there's a stream flowing down that comes from the basin area below Peak Ten and Knife Point and three smaller lakes in that area. Hike basically west with little if any trail through some rock outcrops and lush vegetation laden with wildflowers during the peak summer season. Very soon, you'll enjoy a clear view of Knife Point and Peak Ten. The faint trail basically leads up to the Knife Point/Peak Ten saddle and there are some occasional cairns. The stream forks not too far from where you leave the Sunlight Lake trail. When it does divide, favor the right fork or the terrain in between the two forks, bearing right somewhat for Peak Ten. From this approach angle, the summit is clear enough to locate.
As you approach the base of the peak, you'll notice a lower set of cliffs and rock outcrops. You could swing way to the right (north) and bypass these by heading up a minor drainage that comes down from between peak Ten and Jagged, then turning back to the left to gain the SE face of Peak Ten above the cliffs. We ended up doing something like that for the descent, but for the ascent, we chose to go up through a left-slanted green slope that cut through the cliffs in about the middle. From a distance, this looked fairly easy. It was actually quite a bit steeper than anticipated and was difficult to handle with wet, early morning tundra & grass. Once through the cleft, we headed up in the direction of a very large, "whale-shaped" rock and hiked on ever steepening terrain to the head of that great rock. All of this is the easy part of the climb to describe. To this point, it was all basically Class 2 walking even though steep. See photos for an approximation of the route to this point.
To continue from here, first, walk around to the west side of "whale rock." Describing a specific route is almost impossible. The next step was to head more to the west and begin to cross the SE face of the mountain, ascending upward wherever we could find passage. Not long after the great "whale" rock, there was a fairly distinct gully that we crossed over. We probably should have gone up it because that's what we eventually came back down. This is the "central" gully and the most direct route to the summit. The gully is a steep combination of short cliffs, great blocks of rock and gravel ledges showing off various wildflowers. It was never any worse than 3rd class, and really, mostly Class 2+ scrambling. About mid way up this central gully, a larger rock cliff will necessitate climbing left, out of the gully some, then crossing right back into the gully.
If you examine Peak Ten on Google Earth, you'll see that this SE face is comprised of numerous, near vertical bands of rock with tundra paths interspersed in between. Probably, any number of these small gullies could lead you in the direction of the summit or the summit ridge, SW of the summit. All we can offer is that we eventually stumbled into one minor gully that led much of the way to the SW ridge, but we also crossed a rib or two in the process of going up. This is all the fun of climbing a peak like this - finding a route that works for you.
Eventually, we came out on the ridge, SW of the summit by about 100 yards, so we turned right here. This offered the chance to navigate the tricky ridge. In doing so, this is where most of the exposure was encountered . All of this ridge section is composed of great granite blocks with deep fissures. Again, we could not describe step-by-step how we worked this ridge. This is where we found solid 3rd and even some 4th class work, especially to gain the actual summit. Have some fun with it. The rock is great - solid and trustworthy for the most part. At times, you'll likely be on both sides of the ridge crest. When you do arrive at the summit, be prepared for the best view of Jagged Mountain you'll ever enjoy. The entire climb up Peak Ten offers a stunning panorama of the upper Sunlight basin. This is simply some of the most dramatic scenery in Colorado.
To descend, as we mentioned before, we headed back down along the SW ridge only a short distance before we spotted a more major gully that looked like it would take us all the way back to the vicinity of the "whale" rock. There were any number of down-climb steps in this gully, so plenty of lower 3rd class scrambling work. One thing that kept us entertained were the beautiful and usually isolated tufts of various wildflowers that grew in among the rocks on the ledges. Then there was also a lone male mountain goat that paid us a visit. See photos. Once you get below the "whale" rock, instead of trying to locate the cleft through the lower cliffs, it's easier to just swing wide left heading down and come close to the minor drainage between Peak Ten and Jagged to finish the descent back to the lower basin. Once down, enjoy the scenic terrain. The wildflowers here are prolific.
Additional BETA
Links to other information, routes & trip reports for this peak that may be helpful. -
