Monitor and Animas
Date: 08/29/2025
Partner: Kristi Henes, J Weingast (separte trips)
Trailhead: Ruby Basin Camp
Summits: Monitor, Thirteen, Animas
Distance: 2.75 miles
Elevation Gain: 2700ft
Duration: 7 Hours
GPX
Monitor Peak 14ers.com Page
Peak Thirteen 14ers.com Page
Animas Mountain 14ers.com Page
Monitor, Thirteen and Animas are three of the 9 peaks J and I climbed as a part of our 5 day Needles and Fingers trip. This overview summarizes the trip and includes links to reports for the other peaks we climbed.
Monitor to Animas over Thirteen is one of the most fun scrambles in the Wemi. Add The Index to the front end of that and it becomes one of the best days ever. That is exactly what J and I did in August of 2025.
The lion's share of the images (and stats) in this gallery are from a trip Kristi and I did a few years before J and I returned. However there are some shots from my trip with J.
Checkout The Index Report for details on that route
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2.75m - 2700ft - 7 Hrs
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Animas(L) - Monitor(R)
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Climbing the steep grass on the southwest slope - camp below
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Sunrise light on Pigeon
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Peak Fifteen(L) and Turret (R)
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Looking up to Animas
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Looking up to Monitor
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A local loiters at the foot of Monitor
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Exploring ascent options
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We found a weakness... wasn't more than class 4
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Up!
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J on some fun class 3 & 4
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J
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J
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There was a cairn here that lead us to another gully.
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A fun little tunnel
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Climbed this gully to the summit
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Approaching the summit
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Summit views of Arrow, Vestal and the Trinities
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Summit views of Sixteen, Fifteen, Turret and Pigeon
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Sixteen, Fifteen and Turret
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Ruby Lake and the Twilights
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Jagged to the east
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Monitor summit selfie... love those goggles J found on Peak Twelve
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Where we are going! Animas(L) and Peak Thirteen(R)
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Eolus and North Eolus
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We descended the way we came and crossed over to the Monitor-Thirteen saddle
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Jagged and Knife Point
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Looking back to Monitor from it's saddle with Thirteen
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Blocky scrambling on Peak Thirteen's granite and quartz
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Some spots felt steep and exposed
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Jagged views ascending Thirteen
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Climbing to the summit ridge
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Peak Thirteen summit view with Sunlight and Windom
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Summit selfie with Fifteen, Turret and Pigeon (L2R)
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Descending Thirteen's north ridge to Animas required some route finding and 4+ down climbing... we even saw a rap station.
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Kristi hiking towards Animas with Peak Thirteen behind.
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Peak Thirteen(L) and Monitor(R)
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Sizing up Animas's southeast ridge
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Fun class 3 on solid granite
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J scrambles up Animas
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Kristi approaching the summit - Jagged behind
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Animas summit selfie with Peak Fifteen and Turret
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Stoked to be on our fourth summit of the day... The Index was our first!
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A great view of The Index from Animas. The three high points in this image are all along The Index's summit ridge with the one on the left being the summit
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L2R: Little Finger, Sixteen, Fifteen, Turret and Pigeon
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Descending Animas
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There was even a bit of surfing... although my calf was tagged with a softball sized rock from above
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Scoping descent options
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Looking across to West Eolus... the big fin in the center/back. Little Finger far right
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Kristi descends a steep section with Peak Thirteen above
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Back to the grass and back to camp
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A look back to Monitor, Thirteen and Animas from camp
