Gore Range Grand Traverse

This is the long ridge traverse across rugged terrain from North Traverse to Grand Traverse Peak, visible from Vail - fun scrambling in a majestic location. The round trip will involve ~11.5 miles and 5800 feet of gain.

With adequate route finding, the route can be done at 4th Class, but expect harder if you get off route.

Described N to S:

First, you may want to set a car shuttle to avoid 1.6miles of road walking after a long hike. Drop a car off at Gore Creek TH, and then start at Bighorn TH.

First ascend from the Bighorn trail to the saddle to the North of North Traverse Peak. The ridge up to the summit is 3rd Class. From there, expect a 2-2.5 hour traverse to Grand Traverse - you can see the route well from here.

Scramble along the ridge for 20 minutes or so until you get to the first difficulty, which is passed by dropping down and to the right. After another 15 minutes, you'll reach the crux tower of the ridge, which is climbed directly at Class 4. At the top, head to your right to find the downclimb, which if careful, can be done at 4th-low 5th down a shallow dihedral system. Heading straight over reaches pretty tricky downclimbing terrain. At the next gendarme obstacle, instead of going through the narrow notch, head a little (50 feet) further down to the right and around it on grassy ledges.

Continue to the low point of the ridge (12674 feet), and again move right to find a route across. At another gendarme, head right to bypass it on grassy slopes. You'll shortly come to the false summit gendarme, and again, you guessed it - circumvent it on the right. Scramble up gully systems to the real summit on 3rd-4th Class terrain.

To descend, head pretty much straight down to Deluge Lake (great for a cold dip) and out on the Deluge Lake Trail.

Start from the Bighorn TH in Vail.

If you stay on 4th Class terrain, nothing is needed except approach shoes and a helmet!