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| Morning light |
Overview
My 41st
birthday has rolled around, and I’m not sure what really happened to the last
year, so sounds like a good occasion to get out into the mountains and climb as
many peaks as I can. I took the day off work and decided on a group of peaks in
the Mosquito Range of Colorado. Near Mosquito Pass there is a group of 5-13ers:
Mount Tweto, Treasurevault Mountain, Mosquito Peak, Kuss Peak, and London
Mountain. This was a route I came across recently while trying to research my
next climb a few weeks ago. I knew the Mosquito Range had many 13ers to offer,
I just didn’t realize so many of them could be done at one time. This is a
great climb where there isn’t much technical difficulty, so most climbers in
decent shape should be able to enjoy this loop. I hope you enjoy this trip
report and find it helpful in planning your next adventure in the hills.
Directions/Trailhead Information
The Mosquito
Creek Trailhead is located at—latitude 39.299155°, longitude -106.155524°.
There is parking along the side of Mosquito Pass Road that will accommodate
about dozen vehicles. There are no restrooms at the trailhead, but there are
signs that past groups have camped nearby. From the Denver area make your way into
the mountains on US Hwy 285 S. Follow US Hwy 285 S till you get
to Fairplay, then head north on CO-9 N heading towards Alma. Follow CO-9
N for 4.8 miles turning west onto Mosquito Pass Road, this is also
known as Co Road 12, follow this road for 6.4 miles to the TH. There is
parking along the right side of the road near the provided coordinates. The
access road is dirt road that gets a bit rough near the TH. I would recommend
high clearance, but 4WD is not required. From my place the drive was about 100
miles and took me about 2 hours to get to the TH. Further descriptions of the
trailhead can be found at the link I provided above. Please note that the
mileages provided are approximations and are not exact distances.
The Climb
After
another early morning wake up, I had made it to the TH geared up and ready to
start by 5:30 am. It’s always tough to get going after the 2 hr drive to the
mountains, especially when its pitch dark out and the temps are freezing, so
today would be no different. There is always a little bit of eeriness heading
out on the trail solo in the dark, but I never think to much about it. I’m
usually asking myself, what the hell am I doing, I could be asleep in bed right
now. But, when that first bit of alpenglow hits the high peaks you get
re-centered and the feeling of exhaustion from lack of sleep fades along with
the darkness.
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| Mount Tweto |
When I climb
solo I often set time goals for reaching summits or notable locations along the
route. Today I set the goals of summiting Mount Tweto by 7:30 am, Treasurevault
Mountain by 8:30 am, Mosquito Peak by 9:30 am, Kuss Peak by 10:30 am, and if I
made it down to the road between Kuss and London Mountain by 11:00 am, I would
add the ascent of London Mountain with a goal of summiting by London by noon,
then making it back to the TH by 1:30 pm. So, a fairly structured climb, and if
you’ve climbed with me before, I’m sure you have seen this in action. I find it
helps keep my mind focused on short goals while I climb, helping to center my mental
wandering. I think this is a critical element of climbing, especially solo
climbing, because mental battles can make you throw in the towel too early when
someone else isn’t out there to help you push yourself through small instances
of doubt. I will say, that I have enjoyed getting back into solo climbing
again, which is where my roots of mountain climbing in Idaho started. It’s nice
to set my own pace, and I don’t have to worry about complaints when I say we
need to meet up by 3 am to reach the TH at 5 am. I will say that the majority
of my climbing partners have not complained out loud, but I know nobody wants
to get up at the insane hours climbing requires on your day off.
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| Mosquito Peak |
Focusing on
my first goal of Mount Tweto by 7:30 am, I headed up the rough 4WD road in the
darkness. I did my best not to trip on the boulder clad road in the dark, but I
had to adjust to waking up. Having an access road to follow for the first
couple miles was a good way to start, it sure beats trying to navigate through
the willows or through a dense forest that I’ve done on my past few climbs.
About 2 miles up this road was the remnants of an old mine, as I got to that
point, I could see the darkness fading and the glow of the sun out to the east.
Once you are near the mine, you leave the road and find your own path heading
up to the ridgeline. Around the 13,000 ft contour, I made a more direct route
heading through the large boulders rather than making my way to the small
saddle around 13,200 ft and heading up the ridge. I’m not sure if this was more
efficient or not, but I seemed to be moving well up the boulders so I went with
it. I reached the summit at 7:26 am, so I beat my goal. Tweto was the one peak
in this group I really wanted to climb as the naming of the mountain has
significance to what I do. The mountain was named after Ogden Tweto who was a
geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey who compiled the 1979 Geologic Map of
Colorado, which I have used on more than one occasion at work. After a few
summit shots I was on the move to Treasurevault Mountain.
On route to
Treasurevault the wind was constant along the ridgeline. The forecast report
was for winds in the 20’s and gusts in the 30’s, along with a temp in the 40’s.
So, it was pretty chilly. I had three layers on with the outer layer being my
shell jacket. This was enough to stay warm as long as I was moving, and I did
have my mid-weight puffy in my pack, but never ended up needing to put it on.
My fingers were quite chilly only having a mid-weight glove. A full-on winter
glove would have been the gear of choice, but the mid-weight along with some
pocket time was sufficient enough for the day. The hike along the ridge was
fairly mellow, the hardest part was the descent of the boulders from Tweto.
This is the longest traverse of the day, and it took me significantly longer
than I expected, where I summited at 8:54 am. I did stop to chat with another
climber along the way for a bit so I’ll give myself a pass for not making my
summit time goal on this one. After a quick break for a couple pictures I was
off to Mosquito Peak and I would try and make up my lost time.
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| Me on a peak |
The descent
off Treasurevault went rather quickly as I found a solid climbers trail to
follow. Near the saddle that splits Treasurevault and Mosquito Peaks is where
some mining took place. I could tell the site has been out of commission for
some time, but there was some heavy equipment up there. Its hard to imagine the
life of a working miner above 13,000 ft. From the saddle there are quite a few
climber/miner routes heading up Mosquito. The climb felt substantial, but I’m
sure it was only a few hundred feet. I was able to make up some time and
summited at 9:29 am, so this stretch was significantly shorter mileage wise
than the last peak. Having another solo summit, makes me glad to have taken a
mid-week day off for a romp in the mountains. With the three big peaks down, I
had two to go and was back on schedule.
The climb to
Kuss Peak progressed rather nicely with a summit at 10:18 am. There are some
set in trails and old mountain roads that are used to maintain a facility of
some sort on the summit. The view of the basin I came from started to open up
and it looked like a lot more mileage than I actually have hiked. I was undecided
about adding London as I was a bit beat. My water bladder hose had frozen early
in the day so I was drinking my Gatorade for the most part as I hiked. I needed
to re-hydrate so I took a break and had some fluids and ate my Kit-Kat as I contemplated
my next move. I could start to see some adventurous 4WD folks making their way
up Mosquito Pass. The road is pretty rough, so I would say you would need a modified
vehicle to drive it, but I’m no off-roader so take that with a grain of salt. I
started feeling good after my break and I decided that I would stick with my
plan. If I made the road between Kuss and London by 11 am I would head up London.
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| On route to Mount London |
As I started
down the ridge of Kuss, I heard the thundering sound of a jet. I was able to
see two fighter jets fly up the valley and they weren’t much higher than I was.
That was neat add on, you know if you can’t see any wildlife at least I got a
couple jets in for the day. The other bonus along the ridge was I got a great
view of the ridge up London. There appeared to be some jaggedness, so I was
hopeful for a short scramble for the last peak of the day. I made it down the
saddle between the peaks right on schedule. It was now 11 am, I recouped for a
minute and started up London Mountain.
I had 2.5
hours to get back to my car to be on schedule. The climb was 500-600 vertical
feet, and it was the last peak of the day, so I gave myself an hour goal to
summit the peak. There was a nice climbers trail heading from the saddle, and
the route didn’t mess around, it headed through an interesting rock band where
I was able to do a bit of scrambling. The nice thing about scrambling is you
gain elevation rather quickly, so before I knew it, I gained 300 ft, so about
half of the climb for this peak. After the scramble the ridge mellowed out and
it was a long ridge walk to the summit. I was moving pretty good, and made the
summit at 11:41 am. I was pretty excited to be able to summit all 5 peaks today,
the sun even came out and I was down to my base layer while I ate my sandwich. It
was cool to view all the peaks I climbed throughout the day from the summit.
Like always I like to be on the move, so I didn’t linger long on the summit and
I was soon on my way down.
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| Mount London |
I was pretty
efficient on the route down to the road. I found a few side paths that made the
climbing a bit easier. I made it back down to the road at 12:27 pm, from there it
was a hike down the rough road to the car. On the hike out you pass by the
North London Mine, where there are a few historical markers that may be of
interest. I found it quite interesting that they had a tunnel dug in to the
south side of the mountain where there was the South London Mine. Mining
started in 1874 and went into the 1930’s where gold, silver and lead were produced.
The hike from the mine to the car took about half hour and I was back to my car
by 1:10.
Parting Notes
The icing on
the cake was the climb up London, so I’m glad I saved that for last. I also
enjoyed the climb up Tweto, the views of the surrounding peaks were best seen
from here. I’m starting slowly getting the Mosquito 13ers ticked off my list. I’m
planning to make it back to this area for Buckskin and Loveland in the near
future, so I have those to look forward to. It’s always great to get out in the
mountains, and even better if you can do it on your birthday. This is a
tradition I hope to keep pushing forward. I hope you are all getting the chance
to get out and climb a few peaks as well. Cheers!
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| GPX Track |
Date: September
12, 2019
Trailhead
Elevation: 11,580 feet
Mount Tweto:
13,619 feet
Treasurevault
Mountain: 13,691 feet
Mosquito
Peak: 13,694 feet
Kuss Peak:
13,548 feet
London
Mountain: 13,182 feet
Total
Ascent: 3,311 feet
Class: 2
Distance: 9.6
miles
Moving Time:
6 hr 30 min
Stopped
Time: 1 hr 05 min
Climbing
Partners: Solo
GAIA GPS Link: Mosquito
Group
