June 14, 2026
Due to forecasted thunderstorms on the afternoon of this day, we decided on another early start, this time waking up at 4:30am. We didn't anticipate moving for the entire day, but hoped to at least reach cache 1. This was by far the worst weather day on our traverse, but it was actually overall very tame as far as how bad afternoon thunderstorms could get in the Rockies.
Our goal for today was to link The Saw and Jigsaw into Rockinghorse Ridge and finish on the Partner Traverse, all of which would contain copious amounts of class 4-5 terrain consisting of serrated towers and jagged ridgeline. Almost nothing this day would be simply walking across talus fields.
We set off shortly after 5am, retracing our steps to the saddle between Ripsaw Ridge and The Saw. The Saw ran from this saddle through Peak J while Jigsaw ran the short distance from Peak J to Peak P. We remained basically on the very crest of the ridge for these two sections, enjoying it immensely.
Connecting Peak P to West Partner was Rockinghorse Ridge, named after a formation in between that resembled a rocking horse when viewed from a certain angle. After descending the south ridge of Peak P, the towers immediately started back up. We went over the first few, then around the west sides of the next, and up and over the summit of the namesake Rockinghorse Tower which was class 3. A class 4 descent on the other side brought us to steeper towers which had several notches on their western sides leading to easier terrain. It was cool to pass from one notch to the next expecting impassable terrain but coming across class 2-3 passageways each time.
The pinnacles abruptly ended at few hundred feet below the summit of West Partner, with easy terrain to that peak.
Now we began the Partner Traverse, a 1 mile section of ridge linking West to East Partner which included the lowly Graduation Peak in between. Getting off West Partner started off as a class 2-3 rock hop, but quickly turned to class 3-4 as the ridge veered more east. The downclimbing was on very solid rock and actually pretty fun as we remained on the arete pretty much the whole time.
We hit another cluster of pinnacles around the lowpoint between the Partners, just west of Graduation Peak. Again we mostly went up and over these on 4th and low 5th class terrain. The rock quality was good here as well.
The pinnacles ended at Graduation Peak, which was easily descended on its eastern side.
A short section of rock hopping on the initial ascent of East Partner's west ridge gave way to another section of serrated knife edge (class 3-4) to its summit.
I was very happy to make it here, even though dark clouds were building all around us and dropping rain and snow to our west and north. We just needed to get down the northeast ridge of East Partner at this point to reach cache 1.
Getting down East Partner turned out to be more involved than anticipated. The ridge started out class 3, but then became an oversized staircase with increasingly steeper drops to the northeast. On one of these drops we were forced east of the arete and funneled into a low 5th chimney followed by a class 4+ slab downclimb. Thankfully the rock was decent in this section which marked the crux of the day.
looking back at the chimney and slab downclimb
Below this section, the ridge became less steep. Short sections of grassy ledges were intermittently interrupted by breaks in the ridge and class 3-4 terrain. A shower of sleet came in fast from the northwest and was upon us within minutes. I knew that lightning would eventually follow. Just before reaching the lowpoint between East Partner and Peak W, we dropped about 1,000 ft elevation southeast towards cache 1 on steep grassy slopes followed by ledgey terrain.
sleet falling
There was enough of a break in the storm to set up the tent at cache 1 before we crawled in and rain started falling in earnest. A few rumbles of thunder sounded, but none too close to us. Storm cells would continue moving through the area well into the evening, with us cooking dinner during a break between showers.
After some thoughts and discussion, we both agreed that we needed a chill day after covering a decent amount of ground the last couple days. I suggested taking a "half rest day" the next day by just climbing the section of ridge from Peak W to X Prime, a section known as The Spice Factory, then descending right back down to camp at cache 1. It helped that cache 1 sat in a basin that was surrounded by this ridge on three sides, making it convenient as a short out-and-back daytrip. We would leave the heavy packs at camp and enjoy a light and fast jaunt on the ridge, then descend back to camp to rest for the remainder of the day.
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