8/11/07 – Redcliff – South Ridge

5.8 miles, 2130'


Erin didn't get home from work Friday night until late, so I offered that we didn't have to kill ourselves getting down to the San Juans. She gleefully agreed to getting some sleep that night instead of leaving immediately for Ouray (Dwight, you'd have been proud). We woke up at around 5:00 to pack and were on the road by 6:30. We took I-70 out to Ouray for the first time, and I enjoyed seeing the sights because I'd never been west of Glenwood Springs. Mount Lincoln, near Grand Junction, presented an especially striking Western Slope vista. We arrived in Ridgway at around noon and ate a satisfying lunch at Kate's Place (formerly Sandy's Sunshine Kitchen). We noticed that, despite an abundance of light cloud cover, the weather was holding. We decided to try for Redcliff, so after we finished lunch, Erin drove us over Owl Creek Pass.

Redcliff had been a thorn in our side for a couple of years. We had been close to the peak in July of 2005 after a harrowing climb of Coxcomb Peak. A thunderstorm had swiftly appeared while we were in the notch in Coxcomb's summit ridge. Dwight led the rappel down Coxcomb's north face, which after all the anxiety on the summit ridge was quite a relief. We were soon standing at Coxcomb's saddle with Redcliff, just 500 feet from its summit, but we couldn't press our luck any further. With the storm still close by, we turned our backs on Redcliff and descended to safety.

Now, two years later, Erin and I were in the Ouray area to celebrate our second anniversary, and the mountain gods blessed us with our second P.M. climb in the West Fork valley. Last time on Precipice, however, it was a cloudy affair, so to see the valley peaks bathed in afternoon light was to see the area anew. We made the acquaintance of two bighorn rams. The flowers delighted. Views of Wetterhorn Peak amazed. It was simply the perfect way to spend the afternoon.

Courthouse Mountain
Redcliff
Bighorn rams
Redcliff's west face
Coxcomb Peak's north face
Redcliff's upper heights
Uncompahgre & Wetterhorn Peaks
Courthouse, Precipice & Fortress
Coxcomb
Wetterhorn Peak
wildflowers under Coxcomb