Rolling & V9

Date: 06/25/2021
Partner: Kristi Henes
Start: Lake Hope
Summits: Rolling Mountain, V9
Distance: 5.2 miles
Ascent: 3000ft
Duration: 4hrs 40min
GPX
Rolling 14ers.com Page
V9 14ers.com Page

Although it was a relatively short route, we started hiking at sunrise given the iffy weather. We were a little concerned about V9's north ridge and how awful so many trip reports described it to be. However low expectations often result in pleasant surprises... and thankfully this was one of those times. We found V9's north ridge to be kinda fun. Are we weird?

From V9 the ridge to Rolling was straight forward... although Rolling's north face looked awfully steep. Thankfully it wasn't as steep as it looked from a distance and while loose in spots was solid when it mattered.

Once we climbed Rolling's north face, we did an out and back on the summit ridge to the true eastern summit before retracing our steps back to V9.

With weather quickly closing in we made the call to descend V9's loose northwest slopes back to camp. The descent wasn't too bad and included some scree surfing and glissading. Definitely faster than the north ridge. Midway down it started to snow and hail... we got a little wet but not too bad.

We spent a rainy afternoon drying out and hanging in the tent before making a run at Beattie and V8.