9/26/04 – Little Horn Peak & Fluted Peak – West Ridge & East Ridge via Horn Creek Trail

12.3 miles, 5170'


As Erin and I dropped into the Wet Mountain Valley near Westcliffe, we could see that there was no way we could climb Milwaukee Peak and Pico Asilado today. We had been planning on those two peaks for the whole month, but because of a storm earlier in the week, we knew it was likely that Milwaukee's crux ramp would be impassable. Seeing the lingering snow on east and north-facing aspects for ourselves sealed our decision to resort to our backup plan, Fluted Peak and Little Horn Peak. These peaks north of Mount Adams caught our eye when we climbed Horn Peak in 2003, and we've wanted to return to them ever since.

We started up the trail at 7:30 that morning. The Forest Service is doing some restoration work around the Horn Creek Trailhead, and unless my memory doesn't serve, it appears that the trails east of the Rainbow Trail have been reconfigured since June of 2003. We were still able to find the Rainbow Trail and then the Horn Lakes Trail without any trouble, but if you come to this area, pay close attention to the signs at the junction you reach with the Rainbow Trail. It would be very easy to head in the wrong direction if you thought you were at a different junction than you truly were. We slowly gained elevation on the Horn Lakes Trail, passing through thin stands of pines and fiery aspen during the first mile. As we drew higher the drainage thinned and the forest grew denser, revealing Horn Creek to be a very lush place. The trail stayed nearer the creek and its soothing roar, and we crossed to its south side about halfway up. We got our first views of Little Horn Peak just before we reached treeline, and soon after, we crossed back to the creek's north side while catching views of Fluted Peak's southeast face.

Now we were looking closely for signs of a trail leading northwest to Unnamed Lake 11,632. This trail is marked on Horn Peak quad, the Trails Illustrated map, and the San Isabel National Forest map, but we simply could not find it. This was a fortunate turn of events however because we ended up hiking on the Horn Lakes Trail further than we should have in the hopes of finding the trail. Because of our detour, we were rewarded with our most jaw-dropping view of the day (and, believe me, there was stiff competition for this title): Unnamed peaks 13,517 and 13,580 are simply a stunning backdrop to the rear of the Horn Creek drainage. Still, however, we were not finding our trail, and we backtracked nearly all the way to our last creek crossing in another effort to find it. After that failed, we gave up and bushwhacked through the forest to the lake. We rounded around the lake's east side and then started the climb up slopes to the northeast.

Once we broke from the trees, we could see the grassy slope leading to the Fluted/Little Horn ridge. As we climbed, we could see Mount Adams rise from behind its 13,325' subpoint. These slopes looked a lot shorter than they were, but eventually we made the 12,820' saddle where we were greeted by a group of bighorn sheep. We left them to their rocky knob, and Erin and I started the brief 320' climb to Little Horn's summit, which featured the expected oustanding views of the Crestones, Kit Carson, and Horn Peak.

We started our way back down to the saddle toward Fluted Peak and began the numerous ups and downs of Fluted's east ridge, with Mount Adams as our constant companion. Low on the ridge, there was a short section of required light scrambling under views of Fluted's spectacular northeast face, but other than that, I'm calling the climb easy class 2. About 45 minutes after we left Little Horn, we were on the southern of Fluted's three summits, and we started the traverse to the northern of the three, which is the true summit. If you take the trip to Fluted, don't miss the middle summit's inspiring overhang and the view down to one of the Sangre's largest lakes, North Crestone Lake. As if to confirm our decision not to attempt Milwaukee Peak and Pico Asilado, snow was falling over the Crestone group this early afternoon. We didn't want to wait around to see if the snow would be headed our way, so we kept our summit stay short, just enough time to snap another few pictures, including these two of Humboldt Peak and Mount Adams.

After climbing back down the east ridge, Erin led us on a different path, so we could avoid some of the ups and downs lower on the ridge. Though there was a series of cliff bands in our way, Erin found a grassy gully that took us straight through and back onto easy terrain. Nearer the lake, we should have headed back to our ascent route when we had the chance. Opting for the more direct route, we ended up in a section clogged by head-high willows before we burst back into open terrain at lake level. We still couldn't find the spur trail from the lake to the main trail, so once again we had to bushwhack. It sprinkled a little bit as we neared the Rainbow Trail, but clearly we were experiencing conditions nothing like what the Crestones were engulfed in. We couldn't even see much of Colony Baldy once we reached the trailhead, completing a nine-hour round-trip time. We feel fortunate that our better judgment kept us away from Sand Creek and Pico Asilado. Instead of failure in miserable conditions, we had a great day enjoying two of the fine peaks in the central Sangres.