Climbers: hobo and tortoise
Location: Mosquito Range, CO, USA
Trailhead: Horseshoe Basin
Summit Objectives: Horseshoe Mtn, with options on Sheridan, Peerless, and Finnback Knob
Summits: Mt. Sheridan at 13748 ft, Peerless Mountain at 13348 ft
Starting Ele: ~12000 ft
Ele. Gain: ~2500 ft
Distance: ~4.0 mile
We originally set out to ascend the Boudoir Couloir on Horseshoe Mtn in a "moderate" snow climb. This was one of the last weekends that it was expected to be available, as the snow would likely be melting out for the summer. Indeed, when we got into Horseshoe Basin, snow in the couloir was a very thin line, the temperature was warm, and as this was our first climb in quite sometime, we decided it wasn't the best idea to make an attempt on that particular route.
We were able to get the jeep all the way up into Horseshoe Basin at 12000 ft by four-wheeling it up the old mine access roads, This involved a couple sketchy, bouldery uphills, and several splashes through very large puddles of standing water in the road. It was a gorgeously scenic place to camp, and we were excited to be trying out our new winter mountaineering tent. The scene looked like an REI ad, or a Jeep ad, or both.
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| Boudoir Couloir is visible just above the right side of the tent. |
Unfortunately, even with our acclimitization to 7200ft (at our house), driving straight up to 12000ft after not having been up so long was problematic. We both had a really rough night of very little sleep and altitude sickness symptoms. When the alarm went off at 4am, I was like, "Thank God! I don't have to try to sleep anymore!"
We were feeling pretty nasty, which cemented our decision to forgo the Boudoir, but it is a well known fact that bad mornings on a mountain can turn into good days, so we began trudging up the mine roads towards the Horseshoe/Peerless saddle, figuring we'd decide which peaks to go for when we gained the ridge. By the time we got there, we felt much better, so we chose to begin with the long hike (over Peerless to Sheridan), and either grab Horseshoe at the end or save it for when we could climb the couloir.
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| Tortoise, on the ridge, approaching Peerless |
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| Peerless Summit |
From there, it was very easy to be enthusiastic about the beautiful day, and the prospect of bagging a bicentennial 13er. So we tromped on over across the ridge and up the steep side of Sheridan, with great views of Sherman (where apparently there was a rousing cornhole game going on), Silverheels (which we would climb two weeks later), and Dyer (our first mountain together).
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| Sheridan Summit |
Satisfied with the success of a short hike-and-summit to break us into the summer climbing season, and indeed back into climbing in general, we headed back down to the Jeep and home. A celebratory stop at the Dinky Dairy in Fairplay was thoroughly enjoyed.
