My brother Grant has wanted to climb “his” peak, US Grant Peak, for some time. When I researched it and discovered that there was a technical section, I offered to help him reach the summit. So we met up in Crested Butte and made the drive down near Silverton.
Grant and I arrived at the Ice Lake Trailhead a little after 3pm and repacked, deciding at the last minute what climbing gear to take with us. Then we started off on the Ice Lake Trail.
The hike along the Ice Lake Trail took us through several alpine meadows.
When we reached the Lower Ice Lake Basin we briefly took notice of where the trail to Ice Lake should branch off, but didn’t positively ID it. There were several game trails and dry stream beds that looked like candidates, but we could see a switch back above us.
I left Grant and the packs on the trail and hiked a little above the path until I found a decent campsite. The ground was rocky, but smooth and flat.
Once our camp was established, I wandered off to find a good water source. I ended up hiking up the trail a short ways then dropping down to the creek that flowed out of Ice Lake above us.
A few marmots wandered too close to our camp for comfort. Having just had a backpack nibbled by a mouse the weekend prior, we tossed some rocks at them to indicate that we weren’t about to feed them. Grant and I also decided to construct some rock walls around the tent’s vestibules to help keep the marmots from our gear over night.
We woke up to clear skies and got ready in the dark. It was light enough to hike without our headlamps when we left camp at 6am. We backtracked down the trail then took the first good looking path that seemed to head in the right direction.
We ended up following dry stream beds and a few game trails plus doing a little bushwhacking until we came across the real trail where it crossed the stream bed we were following. Once on the path we had an easy hike toward Island Lake.
We also had our first good view of US Grant Peak and the saddle between it and “V4″, the peak to its south. That saddle was our next objective.
Looking southwest we also had a great view of Fuller Peak, Vermillion Peak and Golden Horn reflected in the small pond just before Island Lake.
Island Lake was a scenic highpoint on this hike. We passed north of the lake and admired the views to the east of the Needle Mountains.
Above the lake we headed toward the V4-US Grant saddle. The slope was a tedious grind up loose rocks and dirt.
As we neared the saddle the skies above clouded up and I could see dust blowing through the gap above us. The skies didn’t look like thunderstorms however, but it would definitely be colder and windy up on the ridge. So we stopped below and donned extra clothing and put on our helmets.
We actually had a few snow flakes come down on us before reaching the saddle. Once at the saddle I was relieved to see clear blue skies to the west. Some cloud building was obvious south of us, but I judged we had enough of a weather window to get to the summit and back. We also had views of the Wilson group of peaks, which I’d been on with Helen less than two weeks ago. Looking north on the ridge toward US Grant we could see that we weren’t done hiking up loose scree.
We picked our way up the loose scree slopes following some boot prints and a few cairns. There were several wild gendarmes on the ridge.
Soon we reached the crux section – a ten foot section of vertical wall with a good crack to climb. I asked Grant if he wanted a belay for the crux and took his delayed answer as a yes.
So we broke out the ropes and harnesses and I added a few pieces of rock protection to my harness. Also, as a joke, I’d drilled a hole into the guide book to keep it on my rack. This came from a discussion we had at the American Alpine Club Library to put keeper straps on all the guidebooks we lend out so people don’t drop them on climbs. I decided to prototype the idea and send some humorous pictures back to the library staff.
I climbed up the left crack, which had plentiful hand and foot holds then came to the small ledge where I built and anchor.
Anchor built, Grant began his climb as I belayed him up.
After Grant completed the climb, we removed the rope and anchor and started the traverse right on a ledge.
At the end of the traverse we came to a gully that we ascended to regain the ridge crest.
It was mostly solid rock, but covered with loose debris. So we moved one at a time up the gully. From the ridge crest we were nearly at the summit and had a great view of the other peaks in the Ice Lake Basin to the south.
We took several summit photos and admired the view and the much improved weather for about 30 minutes.
Grant had successfully climbed “his” peak! We would have stayed longer, but we’d forgotten to bring any “Grant” beer to enjoy on the summit, so it was time to head back down. We took the gully one at a time on the descent as well.
Then we repeated the traverse on the ledge.
Back above the crux, I reassembled the anchor and belayed Grant as he down climbed the cliff. Once safely down he untied and I re-coiled the rope then dismantled the anchor. Grant took several photos of me down climbing the crux section.
Then we put away the rope and harnesses and started back down towards the saddle.
From the saddle we could enjoy the scree run down to Island Lake.
Along the way we found a large boulder to play on.
And I got a photo of Grant, “his” mountain and Island Lake.
Instead of descending the way we came, we traversed around the other side of Island Lake and took a trail into Ice Lake Basin.
Here we reconnected with the Ice Lake Trail which brought us back to our campsite in the lower basin.
After packing up camp we started the hike out with one last look back at the peaks in the upper basin.
Love the suspended animation pics!!
Thanks Heidrun, those pictures were Grant’s idea. You should see how many we took that didn’t come out (miss timed the jumps). I think I look a little funny with part of a muffin in my mouth (the rest is in my left hand). Nope, not a BloomingFoods muffin – I finished that off quickly.