We followed the Animas out of Silverton and the 4WD switchbacks that lead up to Engineer Pass (nowhere near Engineer Mountain). At the top of the pass, the views of Uncompahgre, Wetterhorn and Matterhorn were incredible. It was the first time I had seen them other than in photographs. The valley into which we descended was some of the most awesome county I've ever seen. It reminded me of the rolling hills of the Salem-Stayton area of Oregon, only massive. It was like being on a different planet. We found a campsite about half a mile south of the Matterhorn trailhead around 6:30pm.

Tom said his tent leaked, and we'd be just as well off just setting up a lean-to. I still can't remember why I agreed to that. We brought a cot for him and an air mattress for me. After setting up the lean-to and gathering some firewood, we started working on the mattress and discovered it was missing its plug. We tried to tie it off with twine and duct tape, but it was deflated by bedtime.

After a few hours of not being able to sleep on the deflated mattress and sleeping bag with the swarm of mosquitoes, we were treated to a little rain and cold. It was freezing, but with the bugs gone and the warm sleeping bag I was at least able to doze. At around 3am, the cold was just too...cold, so I got into the truck cab to sleep. I don't know why I didn't do that six hours earlier.

I was awakened by hikers flashlights around 5am and woke up Tom. We dismantled our mini Marriott and drove up to the trailhead. The trail along Matterhorn Creek was well maintained and defined. So well defined that we completely missed the cut-off to head towards Wetterhorn and were merrily headed to Uncompahgre.

We discovered our mistake about two miles too late. We cut up and across Matterhorn in search of the trail. I probably got within 750 ft of the Matterhorn summit. Just below the base of Matt-Wett ridge, we ran into a boulder field. We could have either hiked all the way down to the Wett's base to find the trail or cross the boulder field. We decided to cross the boulder field.

The boulder field was about 200 yards across. That was lot of boulders to scramble. We tried a couple of small snow-packed patches, but we both fell through a couple times and decided that was
yet another bad decision. We finally found the trail and stopped to eat. We later found out, from a fellow hiker with an altimeter, that we were at around 13,100 feet. I was pretty tired; my head had
started pounding from the altitude.

After eating some sandwiches and feeding a marmot, I decided to start heading up. Tom decided to stay and rest. I came to a snow patch probably 45 yards across. It was packed pretty solid on the side of a steep hill, so a slip would send me sliding down about 50 yards below into huge mud puddle. As fun as that looked, I did not like the idea of having to regain that 50 yards of altitude. I had to kick footholds into the snow for each step. Needless to it took about 30 minutes to cross. Talk about a whippin'. After that, the trial got steeper..... much steeper. I started my pattern of walking 12 breaths, resting 4 breaths. When I finally reached the climbing part, I met a couple that was descending Wetterhorn. They game me some great advice on the best rout up, which proved to be of no use to me whatsoever. I just couldn't find the cairns they told me about. The exposure was incredible. There were great footholds, but a wrong move and fall would not have left me in very good shape for watching fireworks or much else.

After several ascents, descents and route searching I finally reached the summit around 12:30. I signed the log and called Scott to brag about my accomplishment and express my concern for being able to get back down. Eight hikers ended up joining me on the summit. That included a man and his daughter from Oklahoma. She looked about 14. I was rather impressed with a fourteener from OK summiting a Fourteener, especially Wetterhorn. The third guy up, after me, said that this was the most fun out of the 27 Fourteener he had climbed. Shavano was on his list, and we agreed Shavano was much easier.

I was pretty exhausted for the descent. My head was really pounding now. I was telling myself the whole climb down that I had made it to the summit of my last Fourteener. By the time I got back to the snowfield, blood was pouring from cuts and scratches on my arms. The rocks really banged the shit out of me. I met up with Tom and apologized for taking so long, but explained that there was no way in hell I was going to let myself give up. He said he enjoyed the rest, the views and feeding the family of marmots. We were back at the truck and headed home around 2:30.

Just two weeks, and I'll get to do a few more.

Summary for Independence Day week: 2 hangovers, 2 mountains, 2 hockey
games, 2 almost fights (1 bar and 1 hockey game), 1 Toadie.

-Shayne Seymour