5/27/05 – Square Top Mountain, Henry Mountain & Broncho Mountain – East Ridge, Southeast Ridge, West Ridge

8.5 miles, 4500'


Erin and I were looking for a good climb on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend before we spent a few non-climbing days in the Uncompahgre Valley. Henry Mountain, the highpoint of the Fossil Ridge Wilderness, is a peak that's had my attention for a couple years, but Erin and I had never made the time to visit this somewhat obscure 13er. I put a call in to the Gunnison Ranger District and found out that the trailhead, the Gold Creek Campground, was already open. Given this trailhead's close proximity to US-50, and the short drive we'd make to meet Erin's dad in Ouray that afternoon, we were decided. We left at around 1:00 a.m. from Broomfield, and after descending from Monarch Pass, we turned on the nice paved road that ultimately leads to Pitkin and Cumberland Pass. Once we reached the small town of Ohio City, we turned north on the Gold Creek road to get to the campground. There were no issues on this road aside from a few minutes spent locating the correct trailhead, which is actually north of all the campsites. Even though this was the beginning of the holiday weekend, there wasn't a single person at the campground.

We started up the Gunsight Pass Trail, which first leads to Lamphier Lake, and for the initial mile we were hiking on dry ground. Soon after, we faced a creek crossing that we didn't like, so we bushwhacked up the east side of Lamphier Creek until we found a decent crossing, and then we backtracked on the west side to get on the road again. After maybe a quarter-mile, we found that the road crosses back to the east side of the creek again, and we faced a more difficult crossing on a log. Too bad we didn't know, because a slightly longer bushwhack could have avoided the two crossings entirely! As we reached the 11,000' level, the snow got a lot deeper, and we needed to don our snowshoes. Now and again, we could see southeast through clearings all the way to Mounts Ouray and Antora at the southern end of the expansive Sawatch Range. We lost the road as we drew nearer Lamphier Lake, and we bushwhacked until we found the small pond just north of the lake with Fossil Mountain towering a thousand feet above. From here we could identify distinctive Gunsight Pass and our route up the east ridge of Square Top Mountain, which looked more difficult than the CMC book had revealed. We pressed on up a short snow slope and gained our ridge slightly west of the pass. Now that we were on the crest, our views north opened up to the western Sawatch and the Elk Mountains, still looking very snow-covered.

Now it was time to take on Square Top's east ridge, the crux of our day. This ridge reminded us of Mount Hope's east ridge in spring conditions. When dry, there'd be a lot more options on the south side of the ridge, but with all the snow we were compelled to stay on the crest most of the time. The difficulty was often third-class, punctuated with a couple touches of fourth-class. The ridge doesn't gain much elevation until you get close to Square Top, but there were a number of notches for us to negotiate. The last of these notches was problematic, involving a short fourth-class downclimb and then a fifty-foot traverse on snow below the ridge crest to get back on more reasonable terrain. Then the ridge shot skyward for a swift 400' atop a small cliff face, but the climbing was easier the rest of the way. We liked the rocky ridge's end where it meets up with the tundra on the summit plateau, looking lke a spine jutting from the yellow grasses, and there were nice views back down the ridge and out to Broncho Mountain and Fairview Peak.

We hurried on to Square Top's rocky, block-top of a summit before starting the traverse to Henry. The ridge connecting these two peaks is wide and gentle, and we enjoyed looking into Crystal Creek and down the length of Fossil Ridge's seven miles. Unfortunately since we weren't on Fossil Ridge itself with its limestone deposits, we didn't see any of the fossilized marine animals that give the ridge and the wilderness area its name. Nevertheless we did see some very bizarre and unique rocks, pocked with iridescent ovals. After finishing the easy climb up Henry, we sat behind the summit cairn, bathed in the sun's rays, and had a good time identifying the Elk Range's 14ers as well as the numerous prominent peaks of the West Elks.

Back on Square Top's east ridge, we made better time on the way down, finding a couple of sectoins where we could avoid the ridge crest and the exposure. Slipping through the Gunsight, surrounded by rocks teetering at odd angles, was fun before we started up Broncho Mountain's west ridge. The lower few hundred feet of Broncho's ridge is just like Square Top's east ridge, with a few spots of interesting scrambling. However, this ridge relents to a simple talus climb before the halfway point, and we churned out the last 400' to Broncho's east summit. We actually needed our snowshoes again for the traverse from here to Broncho's true summit because of deep snow in the flat expanse between. Henry was starting to look far away from here! Erin had come up with an interesting idea, and now that we were on Broncho's summit, we could make a decision. Rather than descending back to Gunsight Pass, she offered, we could descend Broncho's southeast ridge down to treeline and then bushwhack down steep slopes to Lamphier Creek, thus avoiding most if not all of the postholing below Lamphier Lake this warm spring afternoon. From the top of Broncho, we could see that the southeast ridge was mostly clear of snow, and we also noticed a few spots on the ridge's slopes that were devoid of trees. This looked like the way to go!

We made a few short glissades coming down Broncho's wide ridge before it narrowed. From the summit, we had chosen our spot to leave the ridge, and now we were counting small clearings in the trees on the ridge crest. Once we reached the third clearing, we started the steep descent to the creek. The slope was loose near the ridge crest but amidst the trees it became much more stable. Erin's strategy worked perfectly, dumping us out on the road well below all the snow higher in the drainage. We reached our first creek crossing, and this time we just made the short bushwhack until the road crossed back. After an easy mile, we were back at the still empty campground with plenty of time for the drive.

We spent a beautiful holiday weekend in Ouray with Erin's dad, Gordon, and his family. Gordon helped out tremendously as we made some final decisions for Erin's and my August wedding, and we had fun taking his dogs, Bella and Bear, around town especially when we made the short hike up to Cascade Falls. On Tuesday, Erin and I tried to go to Castle Rock, the Montrose County highpoint, but we were turned back at the entrance to the Buckhorn Lakes park because of an extremely muddy road.