Fluted Peak
7/17/2011
Distance: ~13 miles
Elevation Gain: ~6100’
Steve Knapp and I camped at the Horn Creek Trailhead Saturday night. We started hiking up the trail, but realized we were heading south, so decided to travel cross-country briefly to join up with the Rainbow Trail. We followed the Rainbow Trail briefly to the Horn Peak Trail. This trail climbs 4000’ in 3 miles, so it is quite steep. We met John Ladd on the trail who has climbed about 250 CO 13ers. We followed the trail to treeline. From treeline, the trail is no longer maintained and is difficult to follow, but the terrain is easy. At the summit of Horn Peak, we convinced John to join us on the traverse of Fluted and Little Horn Peaks. We descended Horn Peak’s southwest ridge finding some third class if staying true to the ridge. We contoured below the 13,300’ bump and followed Fluted Peak’s north ridge to the summit. We descended Fluted Peak’s east ridge finding many rocky ribs along the way. From the Fluted Peak-Little Horn Peak saddle, the terrain to the summit of Little Horn Peak was easy. On the summit of Little Horn Peak, we weren’t sure what the best descent route was, so we opted to head south into the Horn Creek drainage. The descent was steep, but it worked. We crossed the creek, found the trail and hiked out to the trailhead. We said our goodbyes to John and drove back to Westcliffe to get food. We drove north out of Westcliffe on CO-69 and pulled of the road just southeast of 7060. The terrain was easy at first, but gave way to large boulders requiring easy scrambling. We continued up CO-69 to a 4WD road leading to a quarry. It was a quick walk to the summit and we were glad this was an easy one since the temperature was 90 degrees!
Fluted Peak from Horn Peak’s southwest ridge. Photo: Steve Knapp
Fluted Peak from its north ridge. Photo: Steve Knapp
Horn Peak from Fluted Peak. Photo: Steve Knapp
Little Horn Peak from Fluted Peak
Fluted Peak, Horn Peak & Little Horn Peak Map
7060 Map
6980 Map