Peak Five and Peak Six

Christy Mahon heading up to Peak Six with Jagged Mountain in the background — Passing the lake below Peak Five and Peak Six. Jagged Mountain stands tall in the distance.

At the head of Noname Creek, deep in the Weminuche Wilderness, lie Peak Five and Peak Six, two ranked 13ers that are often overlooked due to their more well-known neighbors.

But if you’re looking for some quiet peaks with dramatic views of both the Needle Mountains and Grenadier Range, look no further than these two summits.

The easiest way to access Peak Five and Peak Six is from the Noname drainage. As an alternate route, you could approach from the Balsam Lake area.

In our case, we found ourselves looking at these two peaks after a successful day on Monitor Peak and Animas Mountain. We climbed those two (along with Peak Thirteen) from Ruby Creek. After the climbs, we packed up and headed over the Ruby/Noname saddle and descended the south fork of Noname Creek to the valley floor, where the route to Jagged Pass begins.

We set up camp there.

The next morning, we followed the faint trail up towards Jagged Pass, and at 12,200 feet, we broke from the route and began cross-country up to an unnamed lake to the north marked at 12,552 feet.

Christy Mahon ascending Peak Six in the noname creek drainage — En route up Peak Six.

From there, it was an easy hike to the saddle between Five and Six at nearly 13,000 feet.

We started up the southwest ridge of Peak Six. From the saddle, the terrain appeared to be loose and perhaps challenging. As we made our way higher, we found it never got too tough. It had some fantastic views from the summit.

Christy Mahon on the summit of Peak Six — At the summit of peak Six. The trio of Monitor, Peak Thirteen, and Animas Mountain is out to the left in the photo.

We descended back to the saddle and then made our way up the northeast ridge of Peak Five. Its summit is lower than Peak Six by a few hundred feet, and it didn’t take long before we were on top. The route was similar in difficulty, about Class 2+.

Christy Mahon on the final ridge to the summit of Peak Five — On the final smooth slab to the summit of Peak Five.

Christy Mahon descending from the summit of Peak Five — The Peak Five summit block. Vestal and Arrow peaks can be seen out in the distance.

We retraced our route of ascent and were back at camp in a reasonable time. The travel isn’t fast due to a lack of established trails, but it was a beautiful day, so we weren’t in a rush, and there wasn’t a single person around.