The ridge traverse over to Clover Mountain is about 1.3 miles. It’s all class-2 with some class-1 as I wandered up the CT for a short stretch. This was the only time that I encountered anything resembling a trail, developed or otherwise. 98% of this traverse is either tundra or easy choss.

Once I reached the summit of Clover Mountain (12,965’), I took my first real break of the day. I spent 15 minutes devouring a late breakfast and admiring the views. I was enjoying the scenery from vantages that people normally don’t see.

From Clover to Vulcan Mountain, the ridge is roughly ¾ mile. The entire way is perhaps Class 1+. It’s just a scree-patched tundra stroll. Both Clover and Vulcan Mountains aren’t ranked because of Bald Mountain and Monumental Peak respectively. While sitting on Vulcan, I could clearly see the ridge pushing up to the summit of this mid-13er. It was going to be some decent elevation gain. I would lose about 300’ give or take. But have to ascend about 740’. In terms of numbers, it wasn’t that bad. But of course, things always look worse when viewed from afar.

Along the 1.5-mile stretch, I saw the only two animals of the whole day (minus the grouse). I ended up scaring the hell out of a bull elk as I rounded a shoulder of talus. But more than that, there was another animal, small like a terrier that took off like a bullet. I watched it out of fascination because it moved so effortlessly and fluid across the talus. It wasn’t a wolf or coyote, of that, I am positive. If anything, I’d have to guess that it was probably a lynx or bobcat. I’m still in awe at how fast it moved.

The ridge leading up to Monumental Peak actually wasn’t bad as long as I wasn’t constantly watching the summit. Bill's page for it here on the .com is pretty good. The ridge was a talus masterpiece of great stability. In fact, all day, of all the talus I hopped (there really wasn’t much scree), like 95% of it was stable. And I only encountered maybe, two short sections of rock that I considered easy class-3, and they were super short at that. It was such a delight! Especially down here in the San Juan’s where if you even look at the rocks a little bit shifty, they’ll move.

Monumental Peak was a good summit. The north face has a huge scree slope that is entirely avoidable. The South Ridge winds to the summit via an easy talus march and continues to the north on an equally easy descent towards “Van Wit.” The views of Chalk Creek Pass, Sewanee Peak and Point 13,150 were wonderful. I lingered here for perhaps 15 minutes taking it all in. I could even still make out the radio towers over on Monarch Crest.

And thankfully, the weather cooperated all day. Only mild clouds meandered through the sky providing momentary relief from the sun. I never once worried about rain or wind. It was truly turning into an exceptionally great day.

The march over to “Van Wit” was quick and without notice. It’s a short distance, maybe a half mile. Looking over at the equally unranked “Van Wirt,” I thought, ‘Man, that’s going to take a while.’ The ridge dropped about 600’ in roughly .4 mile. But again, the talus was surprisingly stable.

About halfway up “Van Wirt,” I turned around to gauge my progress and was rewarded with what I thought was the best view of the entire ridge. From the north, “Van Wit” raised up like a massive parapet along the ridge. The North Face of Monumental was still visible just to the left and the north side of Chalk Creek Pass, Hancock Lake and the CT down below gave depth perspective. It really was amazing.

The traverse over to Hancock Peak was long. It looked farther than I was expecting. And with it being around 3:30 pm, I was really hoping for something shorter or at least, a social trail to follow. From “Van Wirt” to Hancock, the ridge was roughly 1.7 miles. But again, I was rewarded with a quicker than expected trip across the talus and blocks. I switched over to a playlist of old-school Industrial (think KMFDM, Sister Machine Gun, The Prodigy) so that may have had a part to play in making time go by fast. Even the steeper sections didn’t seem all that bad.

I replaced the register on Hancock Peak as the one that was there was in bad shape. Since Regina was going to walk up the road & meet me, I didn’t want to dawdle. I knew the north ridge off Hancock goes from Whiley’s trip but I REALLY didn’t want to add unnecessary additional mileage from walking down that 4x4 road from Hancock Pass since it meanders too much. So instead, I descended the north slope of Hancock down to the basin and dog-legged left and caught the road much further down.

I found a decent stream crossing the road and washed up. I only had to walk for maybe 15 minutes before I saw Regina and Kaiah chillin’ on the side under some trees. Of course, the dog went apeshit seeing me walk up. That made me smile!

This was a sweet ridge traverse and as easy as it gets. If you don’t care about unranked vs. ranked, 12ers or 13ers, blah, blah, blah, I highly recommend this route.