Wetterhorn Peak (german: Wetterhorn, literally ''Weather Horn'') is a
fourteen thousand foot mountain peak in the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
of
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...
. It is located in the
Uncompahgre Wilderness of the northern
San Juan Mountains
The San Juan Mountains is a high and rugged mountain range in the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico. The area is highly mineralized (the Colorado Mineral Belt) and figured in the gold and silver mining industry ...
, in northwestern
Hinsdale County and southeastern
Ouray County, east of the town of
Ouray. It lies west of
Uncompahgre Peak
Uncompahgre Peak () is the sixth highest summit of the Rocky Mountains of North America and the U.S. state of Colorado. The prominent fourteener is the highest summit of the San Juan Mountains and the highest point in the drainage basin of ...
.
Wetterhorn Peak, and its neighbor
Matterhorn Peak
Matterhorn Peak is located in the Sierra Nevada, in California, at the northern boundary of Yosemite National Park. At elevation, it is the tallest peak in the craggy Alps-like Sawtooth Ridge and the northernmost peak in the Sierra Nevada. T ...
, , are named after the
Wetterhorn
The Wetterhorn (3,692 m) is a peak in the Swiss Alps towering above the village of Grindelwald. Formerly known as Hasle Jungfrau, it is one of three summits on a mountain named the "Wetterhörner", the highest of which is the Mittelhorn (3,704 ...
and the
Matterhorn
The (, ; it, Cervino, ; french: Cervin, ; rm, Matterhorn) is a mountain of the Alps, straddling the main watershed and border between Switzerland and Italy. It is a large, near-symmetric pyramidal peak in the extended Monte Rosa area of the ...
, two famous peaks in the
Swiss Alps. Both Colorado peaks are pointed rock spires (hence resembling their namesake peaks), whose shapes contrast with the broad bulk of the higher Uncompahgre Peak.
The first recorded ascent of the peak was made in 1906 by George Barnard, C. Smedley, W. P. Smedley, and D. Utter,
[ but a previous ascent by miners working in the area in the 19th century is likely.]scrambling
Scrambling is a mountaineering term for ascending steep terrain using one's hands to assist in holds and balance.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. It is also used to describe terrain that falls between hiking and rock climbing (as a “scrambl ...
( Class 3/4) on the ridge itself. The nearby east face is considered a high-quality advanced snow climb or extreme ski descent.
See also
*List of mountain peaks of Colorado
This is a list of major mountain peaks in the U.S. State of Colorado.
This article comprises three sortable tables of major mountain peaksThis article defines a significant summit as a summit with at least of topographic prominence, and a m ...
**List of Colorado fourteeners
This is a list of mountain peaks in the U.S. State of Colorado that exceed of elevation.
In the mountaineering parlance of the Western United States, a ''fourteener'' is a mountain peak with an elevation of at least 14,000 feet. This is a co ...
References
External links
*
Wetterhorn Peak on Distantpeak.com
Mountains of Hinsdale County, Colorado
Mountains of Ouray County, Colorado
Fourteeners of Colorado
North American 4000 m summits
San Juan Mountains (Colorado)
Uncompahgre National Forest
Mountains of Colorado
{{Colorado-geo-stub