Hike V3, Ulysses S Grant Peak, V4, V2 via Swamp Canyon Trail San Juan National Forest, CO

Aug 07, 2020 — Excited to meet up for some butt-kicking and nonstop giggling with Whiley, I committed to this somewhat contrived route to get four Colorado 13ers near Ice Lake Basin, the most well-known of them being Ulysses S Grant Peak. Most people approach US Grant via the Ice Lake Trail, but Whiley was set on also hiking V3 (another 13er), which is best approached from the north. So, we decided to do this route starting from the Swamp Canyon Trail in order to bag V3. Overall, it was a great route and definitely the most efficient way to hike all four of the 13ers we did.

The trail starts off on a dirt road, passes a gate, crosses a couple of steams, and continues on a road converted to trail. There is an easy-to-miss junction along the road to get onto the Swamp Canyon Trail on the right, which I marked on the attached map. Once on this trail, we continued past any lesser social trail junctions by going straight, and soon were above treeline. V3 would be our first peak of the day - we had very little information on the peak, and knew it would likely be the hardest and least pleasant undertaking of the four we had planned. At a certain point as the trail passed by the basin to the north of V3, we left the trail and headed into the trees. Continuing into the basin, we passed through some light marsh and minimal bushwhacking and up talus and grassy slopes to the saddle that lies north of V3. From here, a lot more talus than we were expected led south, interrupted only for a short time by a grassy slope reprieve before continuing onto more talus and eventually lots of serious scree. This scree is notable because it's the kind that forces you to take two steps up only to slide you one step back, and it lasts for a several hundred feet of vertical gain. We made our way to a gully ahead. It will be tempting to go to a more open and blatant notch on the ridge, which isn't correct. The gully is to the right of that notch and would give us access the summit. Some light Class 3 on the steep slope before the gully forced Whiley and I to ascend apart from one another to prevent kicking rocks. As soon as we were in the gully, we took turns ascending. It's narrow and extremely loose, though not particularly difficult (Class 3). Here is where we messed up on the ascent: it will be very temping to ascend on the more solid-looking rocks on the right. At first, this is more pleasant and we gained a fair amount of progress until we got to an extraordinarily steep, loose, dangerous slope (Class 4) that had me shaking with fear. I wasn't happy. Instead, I recommend staying in the dirty, loose gully the entire way (Class 3+ due to steepness). It's not fun, but using this route I'd say is the best option. Once near the top of this gully, the dirt continues to be loose, and gains in steepness to reach the summit ridge. The summit ridge goes at Class 2, wrapping around a rock outcropping on the left before reaching the V3 summit. We didn't stay long - I was stressed from our poor ascent choice, and Whiley was stressed because I was stressed. It would be great to be able to traverse to US Grant from here (since it appears to be so damn close), but the traverse is incredibly hard and scary, if not impossible. We didn't even entertain the idea, instead dropping back the way we came and returning the same way to the Swamp Canyon Trail.

The Swamp Canyon Trail continued to be pleasant as it ascended toward Swamp Pass. Once the pass came into view, I laughed. It looked very steep. However, as we got closer we noted a series of switchbacks that made the ascent more pleasant. Whiley observed that the insane dryness Colorado has had might be the reason we were encountering so much loose and unpleasant stuff today. Maybe the slopes would be a bit less awful after it rains. Anyway, once we got to Swamp Pass (Class 2), we were greeted by lovely views of Island Lake below. An obvious trail led to the right before descending to the lake. We wrapped around Island Lake's south side until the trail ended and continued toward the obvious saddle separating V4 and US Grant. It's Class 2 at most, the grassy slope turning to talus as we got higher.

At the saddle, we decided to hike US Grant first, since Whiley would have murdered everyone in sight (lolz me) if she didn't get to bag this peak finally. So, up the ridge we went, a very heavily-used social trail making the route-finding pretty much a no-brainer. I should note that on the way back, make sure to keep to the ridge since social trails do lead off the wrong way. The trail brought us along a short and narrow ridge with a small notch between two hoodoos at its end, followed by a 15-foot Class 4 headwall. While the exposure here is minimal and the rock was the most solid stuff I'd seen yet in the San Juan Mountains, take your time because it's definitely Class 4 and will also require you to climb back down later. Once at the top of the headwall, a particularly interesting traverse along an exposed ledge continues on the right. It looks much scarier in the photos than it was, but take care since there is a fair amount of exposure. It's Class 2+, but don't fall. The ledge wraps around for about 30 feet before a Class 2 gully on interesting rock leads to the summit ridge. Some more Class 2 and we were on US Grant's beautiful summit. I loved this peak.

On the way down from US Grant, we stared at V4, hoping to come up with a possible route. We had no information on how to ascend this guy, and the loose and treacherous-looking cliffs were almost enough for me to skip it, especially since I was pretty much over sketchy loose crap after V3 earlier today. We were particularly scared of a bright red, extremely steep-looking gully on the peak's north side that we ended up not even using. From the US Grant/V4 saddle, we followed a light social trail along the talus/scree slope, gaining minimal elevation until it reached a less-steep section of slope. From this slope, we ascended south on somewhat steep Class 2 rock along a social trail that hugs the cliffs on the left before reaching V4's east ridge. The trail continues, and while steep at a couple of sections, has minimal exposure and maximum views toward Ice Lake below. There seem to be two possible summits, the first likely taller. Both are accessed on the south side of V4 using a Class 3 couple of fun moves on solid rock. We descended V4 the same way we ascended, continued past Island Lake, and back up to Swamp Pass.

The quick excursion to V2 before we would head back along the Swamp Canyon Trail was a perfect ending to the day. In fact, the peaks seemed to increase in beauty and decrease in difficulty as the day progressed. V2 requires following a social trail to its true summit (very low Class 2), but continuing along the ridge farther is worth the minor extra effort (Class 2). The ridge becomes narrow and has nice views north toward Clear Lake, and back toward US Grant. We returned the way we came, quite happy.