You're right the rock isn't great but there are peaks galore over 13,000 ft., great scenery and, unlike the Sierra, few people.
Jay Smith and I have been doing long hikes and mountain linkups sometimes solo, sometimes together. It's a fantastic way to get great conditioning without the monotony of running along the side of a road. You get solitude in a wilderness setting with lots of up and down and, believe me, you can keep it real.
Yesterday we did the Wham Ridge on Vestal and a couple of weeks ago we linked 5 high 13ers in the Sneffles Range.

The linkage was five peaks between 13,568ft. and 13,819 ft.....Potosi, Coffeepot, Teakettle, Cirque and Kismet. Lots of steep scrambling, a bit of easy 5th class and a wee bit of SKETCHY down climbing. A long 11 hour day with lots of vertical under our belt.

A steep 3,500 vertical foot approach got us to Potosi with the weather looking a little sketchy.

Looking back at Potosi with brewing weather. We had several brief periods of grapple and wet snow.

There was a lot of walking but the linkage had a fair share of steep, exposed scrambling and some tricky down climbing.

Teakettle Mountain has an interest "window" formation that gives it it"s name.

Posing for Jay on summit #3 Teakettle with the appropriate number of fingers. Jay took all of the pictures, I can't seem to locate my camera unless i'm on an offshore trip.

Number five Kismet has fallen to our skill an daring, now how do we get back down?

It was a great outing in the mountains. Loads of up and down, a bit of route finding, unsettled weather and, best of all, a wee bit of spice.

Yesterday we did the classic Wham Ridge on Vestal car to car in 12 hours. A nice aerobic outing....21.25 miles and 7,000 vertical feet. The climbing is only 5.4 and easily soloed. We saw no one on the trail going in and no one on the climb. We did run into a few people on our way out coming in for the weekend.

I wanted to tease you with this mini report. The San Juans are an amazing playground for moving fast and light in a beautiful wilderness where pikas abound but higher apes are largely absent.