wetterhorn basin – Wild Wanderer

RT Length: 4 miles

Elevation Gain: 2364’

I know most people do Fortress and Precipice together in one day, but for personal reasons, I wanted to spend more than one day in the basin, and these were the only two peaks I had left, so I made it a two-day trip. I parked at the Wetterhorn Basin Trailhead, at about 10750’. The road to get in is mostly 2WD, until the last 2 miles, which are 4WD and requires clearance. Here’s where you park for the 2WD trailhead

And here’s a picture of the Wetterhorn Basin Trailhead parking area. The road in was worse than I remembered from two years or so ago.

From the parking area, here’s a visual of the route to the ridge

The route starts to the north of the parking area, parallel to the “Wetterhorn Basin” sign, at the drainage. I headed east up the drainage.

There’s a faint trail here, that I kept finding and losing, but as long as you stay to the left of the drainage and right of the hillside, heading east, you’re going in the right direction.

After hiking for about half a mile, there will be a large tree blocking the trail (the trail is obvious here). Climb over the tree, and head north/northeast, looking for a dirt gully. There are a few cairns in this area to help, but I wouldn’t rely on them.

I found the dirt gully and headed up, towards the ridge. This dirt is very steep and very slippery. I’d recommend wearing microspikes for traction. I gained about 300’ of elevation to 11400’.

At the top of the gully, around 11400’, a trail will pick up that heads right (east) along the ridge. There are cairns here to help get you to treeline, and a faint game trail to follow. There are also cairns in the clearings (but I didn’t find any in the treed areas).

Once at treeline, here’s a visual of the route to the saddle

First, I went around this large rock, which has a cairn on it. It’s important to remember because it’ll be your exit point on your descent.

Then I headed northeast, across the rock/scree field, aiming just to the right of the caves in the distance.

At the base of the caves, a faint trail picks up, and you should be able to spot cairns in the distance to your right. Put on your helmet, and follow cairns through the class 3 rocky terrain.

When the rocks end, so do the cairns, but from here the route is easier to figure out. You’ll want to dip down a bit into this drainage, and ascend on the tundra towards the large rock towers

Stay to the right of the towers, aiming for this small saddle

When you hit this small saddle, turn left, and head towards the window in the rock ahead of you. There will be a very good trail leading the way.

Climb up and over the center of the window. This is class 3, and there are plenty of hand and footholds. It’s probably no more than 7 feet high. Just be careful, as the holds are rocks in held together by loose dirt, and could come loose.

Once you climb through the notch, turn right, and ascend this hill. I did my best here to stay on the scree and tundra, away from the rocks.

From here I mainly stuck to the ridge, except for two times when I went left to keep this class 2. There is a visible (yet faint at times) trail from here to the summit. Here are some pictures of my route up the ridge.

Here is what I thought was the summit. It’s not. This was the second time I went left, around the block on a nice trail

And from here I could see the true summit, which was an easy hike on a well-worn trail

I summited Precipice Peak at 7:45am

Precipice Peak:

This was an out and back hike for me, so I turned around and made my way back to the false summit

And then back down the ridge to the notch

I climbed through the notch

And made my way back down to the tundra

Where the tundra stopped at the rocks I turned right, and headed back down towards the basin. Also, from here I could see the parking area (circled in red)

I made my way towards the rocky area, and followed the cairns back down into the basin

I was aiming for that large boulder in the distance

Once at the boulder, I picked up the trail through the trees, and followed it until about 11400’

At 11400’ I found that dirt gully, and headed southwest towards the drainage, losing 300’ of elevation.

Once I was close to the drainage, I turned right, and followed a slight trail west towards the parking area

I made it back to my truck at 9:30am, making this a 4 mile hike with 2364’ of elevation gain in 3 hours, 45 minutes.

On to the next trailhead!

RT Length: 5.76 miles

Elevation: 2482’

I parked at the Wetterhorn Basin Trailhead, and was greeted to a herd of cows. They were all over the basin, and would be my companions for the next few days. They had a penchant for licking my truck. The drive in is 2WD on a dirt road until 2 miles before the trailhead, where it becomes 4WD and requires clearance. None of these pictures are as clear as I’d like. The fires weren’t helping in the morning, and the sun wasn’t helping with shadows in the early afternoon. I know not to head east early in the morning, but I did it anyway. Sorry!

I was on the trail at 6am, following Wetterhorn Basin Trail No 226 south for just under 1.5 miles.

After hiking for 1.4 miles, and at around 11050’, I came to a drainage, and followed it east

I came to an obvious “y” in the drainage, and went left, still following a drainage.

The drainage became narrower, so now I hiked to the left, trying to stay on tundra, but mostly staying on rocks

This next part is difficult to explain. You’re going to WANT to head straight up to the rock formation in front of you, but don’t do that. Instead, continue following the drainage, but aim to the right of the rock formation.

You’re trying to avoid the mess to the right of this picture… loose kitty litter on solid rock

Now is the time to put on your helmet. Ahead there’s a more solid gully to climb. You can climb either to the left or right, I chose right.

At the top of this gully is another gully to the northeast.

This one was more difficult then the last. Solid on the sides with large scree down the center. I went straight up the center

And then walked on tundra to the ridge.

Once on the ridge, I turned right and followed it east, staying below the ridge. I noticed a cairn that marked an ok game trail, and followed that trail as it skirted below the ridge. The cairns especially helped in this area.

At 12700’, just before the rock formations directly in front of the trail, I left the trail and headed northeast for the ridge once again, this time on scree.

Back on the ridge, I followed it east towards the summit. The terrain here became slippery. Rocks the size of softballs and footballs were held together by dirt, and that’s what I was walking on. There were steep runnels on either side of the trail, which at times was less than 2 feet wide. A slip would have been dangerous here, on either side. This was all class 2, but I’d advise wearing microspikes for traction.

I summited Fortress Peak at 8:15am. There was a summit register in one of those pipe tubes, but the paper inside was so wet I didn’t want to disturb it, so I left it alone.

Fortress Peak:

Here’s what some of that exposure looks like

Now to head back down. This was an out and back hike for me, so I just retraced my steps, back down the sketchy section with no traction just below the summit.

Then I hiked down the ridge until I was parallel with the rock formations on my left (circled). Here I turned and headed southwest towards the game trail.