Wham Ridge! (Vestal Peak)

Capitol direct from 2wd

Regency > 4th flatiron

Longs peak speed run

Arrowhead McHenry

The body is powerful. Wow. 26 miles in just under 11 hours.

This trail is a bitch. It drops 1600 ft in the first 3.8 miles, which means that when you’re 20+ miles in, you have to regain the 1600 ft to finish.

I started almost 2 hours later than I wanted. The approach went quickly, and before I knew it I was at the base of the iconic slab: the north face of Vestal Peak. It was only a month ago that I first glimpsed a picture of this unlikely manifestation of rock on a poster in a coffee shop in telluride. 

The north face of vestal peak is too perfect: a symmetrical triangular ramp slab, who’s slope gradually increases like a half pipe.

I took a picture and posted it to Reddit. Turns out it is in the San Juan’s, and there is a “wham ridge” that goes 5.4 and “goes in a day if you’re in trial running shape” according to the comments. It’s a 13k, centennial peak. Pretty badass.

The Wham ridge goes to the right side of the north face. The rock is super solid, the best in the San Juan’s for sure. The route finding on the face itself was extremely straightforward: ascend the wide slabby base however you like, while slowly working your way up and slightly right. Eventually the ridge direct on the right side of the face is the most obvious and has the easiest climbing. I was able to keep it basically class 4 the entire time, except for one very well protected 5.2 mantle. Perhaps there is a way that goes completely class 4? I felt the rating of 5.4 was generous. It’s hard to tell, the flatirons might be some of the stiffest hardest low fifth class climbing, and that’s what I’m used to.

The climb went quick, and I was on the summit in around 5 and half hours… really good time to you ask me. I had made about a mile of detours on the the approach. Whoops.

It was easy to find the gully for the descent: the last gully on the left off the backside (south side).

This takes you back to the saddle between arrow and vestal. The standard way would be to descend and then take the classic sloping ramp up arrow. I thought I’d be clever and go up the backside to save time and spice things up a notch…

I had red the south ridge of Arrow Peak goes at 5.7. It somehow looked easier from the ground. I climbed as high as I felt comfortable, and yeah, it’s goes around 5.6 or so I would say… just a smidge above my comfort zone. I’m so close. I descend back down no problem. I think I was only 40 ft from the top. Oh well. I wanna try it next year with a climbing partner. Free soloing alone is scary as fuck.

The descent felt smooth and fast, but eventually became a slog. It’s not the worst I’ve felt, and this is one of the longest efforts ive ever done. I was able to run pretty much all of the runnable downhills. There was a lot of downed branches and super technical stuff.

All in all what a super day. I’m mighty proud of what I can do in a day. I’m 35 and this is the fittest I’ve ever felt.

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Wham Ridge! (Vestal Peak)

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Wham Ridge! (Vestal Peak)

Capitol direct from 2wd

Regency > 4th flatiron

Longs peak speed run

Arrowhead McHenry

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