Mount Ouray anchors the southern tail of the Sawatch Range on the Chaffee and Saguache county line, rising roughly 7,000 feet above the Arkansas River valley west of Poncha Pass. With more than 2,600 feet of prominence it stands well apart from its neighbors, and it carries the name of the Ute leader Chief Ouray, while Chipeta Mountain, a little over a mile northwest, honors his wife. Its east face is scooped into a deep cirque called the Devil's Armchair, a rarely skied line and an unmistakable shape from the valley.
The West Ridge route begins at Marshall Pass, reached on a passenger-car road built on an old railroad grade, and runs about 6 miles round trip with 3,275 feet of gain at Class 2. It heads north through forest and meadow near the Continental Divide, reaches treeline around 11,800 feet, then follows open tundra and grass over Point 12,685 before the final rocky pitch of about 1,300 feet. The East Ridge from Grays Creek is longer and more interesting, about 9.3 miles and 4,300 feet, climbing through a gnarled bristlecone pine forest to a perch above the Armchair near 11,800 feet before route-finding up grass and rock to the summit.
The top looks south over the San Luis Valley and the northern Sangre de Cristo, north toward Mount Antero and Tabeguache Peak, and west to the San Juans. The ridges are broad and exposed, so start early in summer thunderstorm season.
