by Steve Knapp » Mon Jun 03, 2013 9:54 am
Thanks Luke and Teresa, and congrats Brian and thank you for joining me on many of these. It was a tough project, with lots of brutal bushwhacking. Only 25 peaks are above 10k, so 85% of the list is below 10k. And it does get hot, this is why we climbed the vast majority of peaks below 10k in the winter months. It is a great winter area, deep snow does generally not fall here. I love snow as much as anyone but postholing is not my favorite thing. We did climb three of the lower peaks in July following a Sangres hike, this was the hottest hike I've ever done at 95-100 degrees.
Many of the hikes were enjoyable though, probably only 10-20% of the list was truly awful. The ten peak traverse of the northern Sangre crest we did in June 2011 was one of the best days I've enjoyed in the mountains. Thank you Brian and Mike R for making that happen with the shuttle to Hayden Pass. I didn't climb my first Fremont peak until 2010, so a little over three years to finish. 19 in 2010, 51 in 2011, 43 in 2012, 52 in the push to finish this year.
Our final day in the county first started with that new peak, 6660. Tough little peak to get from the west, and a good reminder of what the majority of Fremont peaks are like. Then up to the cool environs of Hayden pass. We were blocked by a snow drift on the east side less than a mile before the pass, started from there. Nice hike of about ten miles to finish the list on Nipple mountain. It was a great day.
There is no class 4 or 5 that I can think of, but some nice scrambling on a few peaks. Hindman Dome was especially nice.
Last edited by
Steve Knapp on Mon Jun 03, 2013 11:52 am, edited 1 time in total.