Peakbagger.com
Peak Lists	Climbers	Ranges	Geography	Help	Search	Log In

Ascent of Francs Peak on 2011-08-29

Climber: Bob Bolton

Others in Party:

Duane Gilliland
----Only Party on Mountain

Date:

Monday, August 29, 2011

Ascent Type:

Successful Summit Attained

Motorized Transport to Trailhead:

4x4 Vehicle

Peak:

Francs Peak

Location:

USA-Wyoming

Elevation:

13153 ft / 4009 m

Ascent Trip Report

Duane spoke to a local hunter in Meeteetse who said he thought the Explorer would make it up the Phelps Mountain Road OK, so we decided to give it a try. The risk was that we would be too far from the Meadow Creek approach by the time we would need to start from that TH in the morning, and we'd lose a day. Happily the rig did fine on the initial steep section, and had no trouble at all with the road once the plateau was reached. The key to successfully negotiating this road is reasonable clearance and low range.

We started hiking at 9AM, and it took us 4 hours up and 2.5 hours down plus summit time. Fun mountain with great views. We couldn't believe the amount of snow still in the Wind Rivers and Tetons, and all the other ranges visible from there. We easily picked out Gannett Peak, the Grand, and Moran. But the highlight of this climb was becoming aware that we had been following at least one grizzly, possibly a sow and cub, and sure enough when on top of one of the ridges we spotted them down in the basin below the summit, happily heading the other direction. I got video of this and will attempt to link get it uploaded to Youtube sometime in the next few weeks.

Summary Total Data

Elevation Gain:

2040 ft / 622 m

Route:

NE Ridge

Trailhead:

End of Phelps Mountain Road 11113 ft / 3387 m

Route Conditions:

Unmaintained Trail, Open Country, Snow on Ground, Scramble

Gear Used:

Ski Poles

Weather:

Cool, Windy, Clear

GPS Data for Ascent/Trip

GPS Waypoints - Hover or click to see name and lat/long
Peaks: climbed and unclimbed by Bob Bolton
Click Here for a Full Screen Map
Note: GPS Tracks may not be accurate, and may not show the best route. Do not follow this route blindly. Conditions change frequently. Use of a GPS unit in the outdoors, even with a pre-loaded track, is no substitute for experience and good judgment. Peakbagger.com accepts NO resposibility or liability from use of this data.

Download this GPS track as a GPX file

This page has been served 365 times since 2005-01-15.