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Mountains of strength

'Sea-of-peaks' views abound in San Juans, offering a wide variety of alpine adventures

David O. Williams, Special to the News

Published June 17, 2006 at midnight

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SILVERTON - Michael Constantine, a former recon paratrooper with the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division, scouted a lot of mountain ranges before finally landing in the San Juans of southwestern Colorado.

"I've been to all the most famous mountain ranges in the world, been to every national park in the western U.S. and a lot of them in Canada and Mexico, and I've never been to an alpine area that has such easy access to such a vast array of different geologic areas as the San Juans," said Constantine, a 40-year-old outfitter and guide based out of the Explorer's Club Southwest Pub and Grille in Silverton.

That immense geologic area of rugged alpine terrain covers about one-eighth of the state and includes more land above 10,000 feet in elevation than any other mountainous region in the lower 48 states - a huge collection of subranges that offers virtually every form of high-alpine adventure imaginable.

Few mountain ranges in North America rival the San Juans for sheer vertical splendor or remoteness, with the Denver metro area only slightly closer (340 miles) than Salt Lake City (395 miles).

But those 6 1/2 hours in the car offer rewards in terms of solitude and more mountains majesty per square mile than any other range in the state (apologies to the Elk Range near Aspen).

"I can pack more visual overload into a day here in the San Juans than you could find on a weeklong backpacking trip in just about any other mountain range in the country," said Constantine, who, during the summer months, specializes in light, high-altitude mountaineering trips but also guides Fourteener climbs, llama treks and car-camping forays.

In the early 1990s, Constantine guided in the remote and massive Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in Alaska. As awesome and "horrifying" as the mountains of southeastern Alaska are, Constantine says the San Juans kept drawing him back.

"Living here in Silverton in the middle of the San Juans is the closest thing to living in Alaska that I've ever experienced in the lower 48 states, but we don't have the short days, you don't need to own a helicopter or a bush plane to access all of the best trips, all you need is a Jeep," he said.

Or a train. The famed Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad lets backpackers off at Needleton, where a six-mile hike takes them into Chicago Basin and a set of three Fourteeners - Mount Eolus, Sunlight Peak and Windom Peak - that can be handled as straight walk-ups or by using slightly more challenging routes.

"It's cool seeing the backpackers get off the train, and for a lot of people who only have a weekend, it allows you to get into some very pristine backcountry in a very short period of time," said Keeton Disser of SouthWest Adventure Guides in Durango. "The San Juans are amazing; we have a really nice playground here."

About 750 miles of Jeep roads also snake through the San Juans, the legacy of one of the richest mining histories in the world, and those roads lead to some of the best bouldering, rock climbing and high-altitude trekking in the country.

And in late spring and early summer, those roads up to 13,000 feet often are plowed by San Juan County officials, allowing access to seemingly limitless Jeep skiing. At the same time, roadless terrain such as the state's largest wilderness area, the Weminuche, abound.

With 13 peaks surpassing 14,000 feet and hundreds more than 13,000, the numerous interconnected subranges jutting precipitously from the collapsed volcanic caldera of the San Juans offer "sea-of-peaks" views uncommon in the lower 48 states.

Add to that expansiveness the visual drama of being the youngest and most jagged range in the state, and it's easy to see why the San Juans have captivated climbers and outdoor enthusiasts since the first white men began tentatively poking around the remote range in the 1870s.

"We have a combination of very technical mountains and some that all you need is two legs and can just walk up," said Disser, whose husband, Nate, bought the company three years ago. "There's phenomenal climbing (in other ranges), but there's only so much of it. Here, there are so many peaks with so many technical routes. There is so much here and it's so rugged."

Besides guided Fourteener climbs, SouthWest Adventure Guides offers everything from easy backpacking to hard-core rock climbing in the Vestal Basin area of the Grenadiers, including the Wham Ridge route.

Constantine also has a permit for several of the 13 Fourteeners in the range but says he prefers guiding the region's lesser-known and less-climbed summits.

"The Thirteeners here in the San Juans are just as high and impressive as the Fourteeners in the rest of the state, and there's no one on them," he said. "You can go out and experience that feeling of being in an endless sea of peaks. You can only do that in parts of Canada and Alaska, really, where you're standing on a mountaintop and all you can see is peaks in every direction."

Just standing in front of Constantine's bar and restaurant in a remodeled 1890s "econo-brothel" on unpaved Blair Street, where, at the turn of the 20th century, there were more than 40 saloons, one feels the towering peaks closing in.

The Silverton West Range - home to Durango Mountain Resort and Telluride ski areas - rises abruptly to the west, and the Silverton Caldera, which includes Silverton Mountain Ski Area and some of the best backcountry skiing in the state, juts just to the east.

Constantine, a devoted backcountry snowboarder, moved to town permanently six years ago, when Silverton Mountain was opening its single lift to access all-expert terrain for guided skiing only.

His X Club, as the locals call the bar and restaurant, opened four years ago to provide a nighttime haven for outdoor adventurers to unwind in the sleepy hamlet of about 475 hardy year-round residents.

The grandeur of the San Juans is drawing a new wave of thrill seekers these days, but in the late 1800s Gerald Swanson's grandparents were attracted by similarities of surrounding mountains to their native Tyrol region of Austria and the lure of mining money.

Swanson, 75, and his wife own the Villa Dallavalle Inn in a 1901 stone building down a bit from the X Club on Blair Street that, at different times, used to be a boarding house and grocery store.

Swanson winters in Texas and spends the short summers in Silverton, where he welcomes hikers, bikers and passengers on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.

And while he wishes summers in the San Juans would stretch a little longer, he's glad to see winter recreation taking hold.

"Silverton will never die because it's a very beautiful area . . . but it's always going to be recreation. I don't think we're going to see mining here anymore," Swanson said. "I'd like to see an expanded ski area up there in the high country, but I'd hate to see it get to the point where you're just buried with them. We'd lose our identity then."

The identity of the San Juans themselves, though, seems safely etched in the imagination of every fan of the world's great mountain ranges.

San Juans

• Distance from Denver: 340 miles.

• Peaks above 14,000 feet: 13.

• Highest point: Uncompahgre Peak (14,309 feet). It is the sixth-highest peak in the state.

• Guide service: Explorer's Club Southwest in Silverton. , or call 1-970-387-5006.

• Silverton Chamber of Commerce: .

• Durango Chamber of Commerce: .

• Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad: , or call 1-877-872-4607.