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I'd planned this peak as an early Sunday morning hike after finishing Colorado's Counties on Saturday. I hit the road at 5:00am, arriving at the westernmost end of FR 861 at 6:10. I'd neglected to waypoint the summit, and thus went by memory of the map's appearance. The road reaches 10,700' in the trees northeast of the summit. I followed an atv path west for about a third of a mile and took the left fork heading south. I kept on the road to the first switchback, where the raod headed north and genreally downhill. I bushwhacked a little too far southeast and came to a fence, which I followed west before it ended quickly. I lost about 200' descending to an open area with talus below cliffs lead the way toward the base of the Southeast Ridge. I went under this area on the ascent, but over it on the return, which was easier. A little more time heading through the trees southward led me to treeline below the ridge, where I had my only view of the peak from below of the day (photo on right).
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The slope above looked fairly timid (photo on left) though would be a grunt like most steep slopes of late. I watched a Bighorn carefully traverse the scree above me, apparently not wanting to be noticed. The slope was stable and gained the ridge quickly. I saw large cloud banks moving quickly east, so made haste up the ridge. It didn't take much time before a jacket and gloves came out, with winds around 30 mph. The ridge was for the most part small semi-loose talus. Visibility drastically declined at 12,500' and all signs of sun faded. There appeared to be at least half a dozen false summits due to the poor visibility (not prominent ones by any means). The GPS altimeter was good to check from time to time to make sure I didn't miss the summit. Arriving at the summit at 8:20, the register was smashed and empty, though a large herbivore's leg bone was undisturbed. The hole in the rear of my pants from a sharp rock encounter on Thunder Pyramid I had up to now ignored provided more than adequate ventilation and as a bonus I had fully inflated legs for the duration of the descent on the ridge.
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The southern Sawatch seems to like hiding from me as my hike of Mount Ouray had poor visibility/views as well. Back in the trees, things warmed up again and I made better routefinding decisions based on the ascent's minor mistakes. I was back at the TH just in time to see hunters getting ready at 9:50 - round trip was 5.4 miles.
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