Foto ©2000 by John C. Maki
Handies Peak, San Juan Range 14,048'
West Slopes I, Class 2
From American Basin Trailhead: 4.5 miles/2750'
May 29, 2002
Bob Dawson and I were assistant instructors in the Fall 2001 Wilderness
Trekking School in the Colorado Mountain Club. We're both avid 14er climbers
and decided to do a couple climbs in the San Juans. Since we both had Handies
and San Luis left on our lists, and they're reasonably close together, we
headed out the morning of 5/29 for American Basin near Lake City. We hoped
to climb Handies that afternoon then head over to the San Luis trailhead to
climb that peak the next day.
We arrived at American Basin around 14:30, and the weather looked good so we got our gear together and started hiking at 14:45. Only one other vehicle was present on the road, but we did not see the driver during our hike. The other vehicle was gone by the time we were finished. The trail goes up the basin and then swings east and climbs up the south side of Handies. As we got higher in the basin, the trail became obscured by snow and we weren't sure where we should head east, so we just started climbing up. It wasn't obvious where the trail went, so we just traversed some talus until we hit a steep grassy slope and made our way toward the summit. It turns out we left the trail too early, but it didn't seem to matter much - our route was shorter but steeper.
After more steep but easy climbing we reached the summit at 16:50. We
spent some time identifying the surrounding peaks, shooting bearings to later
confirm our observations. After scouting out the west side from the summit,
we decided to descend the west face on scree and grassy slopes.
Our descent took us 1:05 hours. The slope started out as excellent scree
mixed with soft dirt, then steep grass and rock, and more dirt/scree. It was
a leg-pounding descent but we reached our vehicle quickly. We headed back to
Lake City, made a phone call and picked up some beer (just in time, the town
was shutting down at 20:00). Then we headed for Slumgullion Pass and the
backroads leading to the Stewart Creek trailhead for
San Luis Peak.