The Guardian  Photos:  Recent | Best | Popular Elevation:  13,600' Lat, Long:  37.6624, -107.5407 Map Page Views:  5,116. Good page? (6 likes)    Administrators:  Ben Mottinger, Leo Paik, John McNamee, Frances Fierst, Monomaniac, Tom Erickson Submitted By:  Nic Harnish on Aug 17, 2010 Make this area a Favorite What's New   Print a Mini-Guide with routes Add Route  Add Photo  Add Comment  Add Event

Views from the basin below the NE Face.

Description 

The Guardian is the easternmost peak in the Grenadiers. The circa 1700 foot North East Face offers superb, technical, quartzite climbing. So far I have not found any information for any previous technical ascents of the peak, so I imagine if there are there are very few. Negotiating the southern aspects are the best bet for descent (if you're willing to leave gear possibly the E ridge). Surprisingly good, quartzsite rock climbing awaits.

Getting There 

From Silverton, Co drive up and over Stony Pass until you reach junction that has a sign that says 40 miles to Creede or 6 to Kite Lake. Go to Kite Lake. A half mile before the actual Kite Lake there is a trail head for Hunchback Pass which leads to the Vallecito Creek Trail. Go over Hunchback Pass and down into the valley. Hike another mile or so, the Guardian's North Face looms above more prominent than anything else to the west. Cross the creek near a waterfall over a grouping of downed timber and head directly up the sparsely forested slope to the basin diectly below the North Face. From the trailhead to basin is only about 4.5 miles. There is a running creek in the basin.

The Classics

Featured Route For The Guardian

Weather Window Waltz (The Guardian NE Face) 5.9  CO : Alpine Rock : ... : The Guardian

This is a wonderful, sustained route with mostly quality rock on the NE Face of The Guardian in the Weminuche Wilderness. It has 8 pitches of corners and cracks with occasional broken sections and about 500-600 feet of simul-climbing on the final ridge section.Descend off the South aspect of the mountain. Depending on where you camp, this can make for a long day (for us it was a 19 hour round trip camp-to-camp)....[more]   Browse More Classics in CO

Photos of The Guardian Slideshow

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Stormy Creek on the way up.... This is the base of...

The 1700 foot NE Face of The Guardian.