Other climbers: Emily Sharpe — not yet · Shawn D Keil — ✓ climbed
Chief Mtn A — 13,019' (Weminuche)¶
At a glance — recommended day
15.5 mi · 4,093 ft gain · Class 2 · 1 peak · ~5.75 h drive
Researched: 2026-07-21
NOAA weather link: Chief Mtn A Weather
CalTopo research map: https://caltopo.com/m/306L9V1
Status in DB: unclimbed. A ranked (CO #625), gentle Class 2 13er deep in the Weminuche Wilderness — no ranked neighbors within 4 miles, so it's a standalone tick with a long approach. Its whole difficulty is the distance, not the climbing.
Note: the recommended route was distilled from 5 recorded GPS tracks of real trips (14ers.com · ListsofJohn) — all layered on the interactive CalTopo research map.
The peak¶
A long, gentle Weminuche day — the climbing is easy Class 2 tundra and talus; the work is the ~7.7-mi Ute Creek approach from the Thirtymile / Rio Grande Reservoir trailhead (the same trailhead complex as the Rio Grande Pyramid group, up a different drainage). Realistically a big day or an easy overnight.
| Chief Mtn A | |
|---|---|
| Elevation | 13,019' |
| Lat / Lon | 37.6365, −107.2091 |
| Route | Ute Creek → SW/W slopes |
| Class | 2 |
| CO rank | #625 |
| listsofjohn.com | 807 |
| peakbagger.com | 15195 |
Recommended route — Ute Creek from Thirtymile ⭐¶
The composed line follows a recorded Ute Creek track that summits Chief and starts at the trailhead — ~15.5 mi · ~4,090 ft, Class 2.
Route sequence¶
- From the Thirtymile / Rio Grande Reservoir TH (~9,300'), take the Ute Creek Trail south up the Ute Creek drainage, climbing steadily through timber then into the open Ute Lakes basin.
- Leave the trail below Chief's north/northwest side and climb grass and talus slopes to the summit ridge — Class 2 throughout, easy route-finding.
- Reverse the approach. A tundra-and-talus walk-up start to finish; no scrambling.
Getting there — Thirtymile / Rio Grande Reservoir TH¶
| Drive from Boulder | ~5h 45m via Google Maps — via Creede / South Fork to the Rio Grande Reservoir (FR 520), then the Thirtymile trailhead. |
| Trailhead | Thirtymile / Rio Grande Reservoir TH, ~37.7233, −107.259, ~9,300' — 2WD (passenger car to the Thirtymile campground / trailhead). |
| Access corridor | Ute Creek Trail south from the reservoir (the E branch off the Weminuche Trail junction). |
| Land | Weminuche Wilderness (Rio Grande NF) — no permits/fees, foot/stock only; dispersed/backpack camping allowed. |
Gear & season¶
- Best window: July–September — deep, high Weminuche; the long approach and north slopes hold snow into early summer.
- Terrain: Class 2 tundra/talus, no technical sections — the challenge is mileage and altitude, not difficulty.
- Storms: you're a long way from the car — start very early, or camp in the Ute Creek basin and summit on a short morning.
- Cell: dead, deep wilderness — InReach essential.
Other considerations¶
Consider a backpack ⛺ — like the neighboring Rio Grande Pyramid peaks, this is classic backpack country. An easy pack-in up Ute Creek to a basin camp turns a ~15.5-mi push into a short summit morning, and sets up other Ute Creek / Rincon La Osa ranked 13ers (Ute Ridge, Middle Ute, etc.) on the same trip if you want to link them.
Southern approach (alternate): Chief can also be reached from the Pine River / Vallecito side to the south, but every recorded track in the sweep uses the Ute Creek (Thirtymile) approach — it's the standard line and what this route follows.
Trip reports & GPX (all three sources swept)¶
Sources confirmed logged in: 14ers.com ("Basin"), listsofjohn.com ("letsgocu"), peakbagger.com ("Kyle Knutson"). 5 unique tracks — 1 from the 14ers.com library, 4 from listsofjohn trip reports; peakbagger's 2 ascent tracks were byte-identical duplicates of those (same trips uploaded to multiple sites). All layered on the research map; recommended route magenta.
listsofjohn.com — the useful beta: a 15.4-mi Ute Creek round trip (14251, the recommended line) and a 16.9-mi variant (12793); the 30- and 53-mi tracks are multi-peak Weminuche traverses.
14ers.com — one long library track through the Ute Creek zone (a mega-traverse; used for corridor context, not the route).
peakbagger.com — 2 ascent tracks, both duplicates of the LoJ trips above.
Sources checked: 14ers.com · listsofjohn.com · peakbagger.com · climb13ers.com