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Aug 06, 2020 — Normally, the fairly well-known Fuller, Vermilion, Golden Horn traverse is approached from the east via the Ice Lakes Trail and Mineral Creek Trail. However, this requires a couple road walking miles to complete the loop, and for some reason just didn't feel as exciting to me than coming at these peaks from the west from Hope Lake. A few days ago, I hiked to Hope Lake to get up to San Miguel Peak. I repeated the approach along the popular Hope Lake Trail, passing the lake and continuing along the Mineral Creek Trail to the saddle between V8 and V9 (Vermilion Peak 8, Vermilion Peak 9). I started off by going up V9, which started off as nice Class 2, quickly becoming loose and unpleasant dirt and loose scree. The ridge mellowed out a bit, actually becoming more fun. A few non-exposed Class 3 moves and some minor route-finding brought me to the summit. I dropped back to the saddle of V9 and V8 and headed up to V8. This included lots of Class 2 loose talus, sometimes a little treacherous since moving one rock the wrong way seems like it could set off a bunch more. The start of the ridge seemed particularly steep so I wrapped slightly to the right before ascending in earnest. I made it to the summit ridge and continued over the summit and onward to Beattie Peak. Along the way, some fun Class 2 with gorgeous views made for a pleasant traverse. Getting to the saddle of V8 and Beattie Peak required some loose Class 2+ in a dirty gully, but otherwise not a big deal.
Once on Beattie Peak, I took in the bright orange colors of the Vermilion group before descending to Beattie's saddle with Fuller Peak. Take note of this saddle where there seems to be a social trail leading from the saddle down to Hope Lake - you may want to come back here later rather than use my descent route, but more on that later. From the Beattie - Fuller saddle, a social trail seems to switchback directly up to the summit of Fuller Peak, but I opted to follow a more pleasant-looking and less steep social trail to the Fuller - Vermilion saddle. From here, I continued onward to Fuller Peak on Class 2 stuff, before I continued onward to Vermilion Peak. A social trail leads to the left of the ridge, avoiding the jagged and crumbly pinnacles. It's clearly a fairly well-traveled route to get this peak. Just below the summit, the trail hugs the ridgeline cliffs and bisects a very steep and dirty gully that sweeps all the way down Vermilion Peak's south face. The route goes up this gully. I butt-scooted later to get down, but the ascent was maybe Class 2+. Some more Class 2 led to a false summit, and a very short knife-edge-like ridge led to the true summit of Vermilion Peak. Getting to Golden Horn from here would not be possible via Vermilion Peak's north ridge.
Back at the Vermilion - Fuller saddle, I noted a social trail that would take me to Golden Horn. It was a Class 2 talus/scree route (definitely a theme of this traverse) across a minor bench-like feature, leading to the Vermilion - Golden Horn saddle. Some Class 2+ moves led to the summit of Golden Horn. It was a relatively fun little peak with some outstanding views into Ice Lakes Basin and toward Pilot Knob to the north.
I dropped back down to the Vermilion - Golden Horn saddle and noted my intended descent route, an absolutely terrible Class 3 (I'm calling it that because it's dangerous, but it's really just a butt-scoot) slope of loose dirt and rock. I briefly thought about return way back to the Beattie - Fuller saddle (remember I mentioned noting that saddle earlier in my trip report?), but after a little self-convincing, I slowly moved myself down this slope at a diagonal angle. The center of the slope was bright white dirt that I definitely would have started sliding down without intending to. Once at the base of this slope, I continued down the center of the wide basin I had committed to, encountering some more steepness, but nothing like that first section. It was a wide open and not exactly unpleasant hike down, the Wilsons group waving ahead of me the whole time. While definitely a faster option from the alternative of returning to the Beattie - Fuller saddle, it was slow-moving. Eventually I made it down into a gully where I encountered a running stream called Poverty Gulch. I followed the stream for a while before stumbling on a completely unexpected trail. I figured I'd have to take this route and bushwhack all the way back to the Hope Lake Trail, but nope, somehow there was a trail. Someone walked by. Curious, I asked where she were going and she said "Hope Lake". Not wanting to mansplain, I gently mentioned I didn't think the trail went to Hope Lake, but she seemed confident and hiked on. I passed another couple of hikers. Maybe this did go to Hope Lake? After following the trail for a while and stepping over human-placed logs/sticks intended to deter hikers from going this way, I realized the hikers' mistake. This trail intersected with the Hope Lake Trail at a spot that was possibly unclear, where the trail crossed the Povery Gulch creek I'd been following and continued on the opposite side, whereas this misguided trail was clear enough to seem like the true trail. I marked this "misguided trail" section on my map.
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