Wyatt Hughes climbed what’s considered the hardest 13-foot peak in Colorado, Lizard Head, just south of Telluride. A Norwood-native mountaineer who summitted Mount Everest earlier this year, his ranching family has a history with Lizard Head. The Hughes ran sheep on BLM land there, and his father had ridden a horse up toward the base many times.
Hughes originally planned to make the Lizard Head climb with Mountain Trip, of Telluride, but bad weather led to a cancellation of that day’s summit on Sept. 4. Hughes said he understood and endorses Mountain Trip; sometimes climbs must be cancelled. A week later he ended up climbing with Eric Ahlstedt, of Durango, on Labor Day weekend.
As far as Lizard Head goes, Hughes said it’s a volcano chimney, one that previously spit out lava and then cooled. Climbers may describe it as “chossy,” or unstable. He said erosion has taken away some of the earth around it. There’s much black shale at the base.
The ominous Lizard Head is classified as a very advanced climb. There are three pitches and loose scree, the scramble, which can be unnerving for some. Hughes said it was enjoyable. The last pitch involves two choices, the standard chimney or “Mark of Zorro.” Hughes said he and Ahlstedt went with the latter, a bit easier and safer to get done. They employed “traditional alpine climbing” techniques, and Hughes said that means placing one’s own removable gear into rocks.
“When describing the rock climbing route, we always grade it by the most difficult move, so I climbed Lizard Head via Standard Southwest Chimney, and The Mark Of Zorro summit pitch, option 5.8 YDS, Alpine Trad,” Hughes explained.
Hughes and Ahlstedt stayed at the top for 25-30 minutes and ate a bit. In his Lizard Head video, available on his Youtube channel which documents his mountaineering adventures, Hughes joked, “We’re only halfway there,” when standing at the top. He admitted descending is also part of the journey, and “it takes more concentration than you think.”
The pair of climbers rappelled down after a brief rest, before acknowledging the Hughes family having had a presence in the valley with sheep. They were somewhat pressed by weather. The whole thing took six or seven hours total.
In the last month, Hughes has completed his quest of the “Centennial list.” He’s now climbed all of Colorado’s tallest mountains, including, of course, Teakettle, Teapot, Dallas, Jagged peaks and more.
Now, he’s training, running, building muscle and enjoying his time outdoors. His future plans include doing Nolan’s 14, something Hughes considers much harder than Everest, since the event means climbing 14 mountains more than 14,000 feet tall in a rather short amount of time. He said much of it is off-trail and requires self-fuelling and self-navigation. He almost did it this summer but wanted to rest after Mount Everest.
He is saving his money and carving out time in 2028 to climb K2, the second tallest mountain on Earth, part of the Karakoram Mountains in Pakistan.
The Lizard Head climb did enable Hughes to spend some time with his father on the family place, a 2000-acre ranch on Beaver Mesa, outside of Norwood and Telluride. Hughes said his father is his greatest hero, but he’s also his greatest critic. He laughed when he said it’s hard to impress him.
“You freaking crushed it, dude,” Ahlstedt said in the video of Hughes’ climb.
