Clinton, Traver, and McNamee

Dates of Trip: 18 July 2010
Climbers: hobo, tortoise, Karen, and Beaker
Location: Mosquito Range, CO, USA
Trailhead: Montgomery Reservoir
Summit Objectives: Clinton, Traver, and McNamee
Summits: Clinton Peak at 13857 ft, McNamee Peak at 13780 ft, Traver Peak at 13852 ft
Starting Ele: 10920 ft
Ele. Gain: 3250 ft
Distance: 10.0 mile

We had attempted this moderate day hike back in October, only to be denied by snowy slogging, and the one-two punch of a late start and short daylight.  Assuming that the snow would be now a non-issue, we decided to take advantage of aligning schedules and enjoy a day in the mountains with our friend Karen, who brought along her super-dog, Beaker.  Beaker had an extremely impressive showing, maintaining incredibly high energy throughout the expedition, and apparently not suffering from sore paws.

We made our way up to Wheeler Lake via the mostly-flat-and-very-long Platte Gulch.  After stopping for food at the lake, we began the ascent from the lower basin into the upper basin(s) ringed by the three peaks.  Slightly suspicious clouds drifted in and out of the local sky, but none seemed to do anything about it, so we continued.

Tortoise with Traver.

Tortoise and Karen taking a break.  (Beaker never really took a break.)

Tortoise and Karen ascending the talus.

Beaker waits for her master.

We all four reached the summit of Clinton, where it was warm and calm.  After requisite summit photos and summit register signings, Karen and Beaker decided to drop back down into the basin.  After assessing the weather (fine, but changeable), Hobo and I struck out on the ridge for McNamee, knowing that we could bail before Traver if necessary.  In no time at all we were on top of McNamee, which only has 80' of prominence from the connecting saddle to Clinton, so even though it's named, it technically "doesn't count." as separate.  Bah, I say to that.  On top of McNamee, we commented on how the weather had cleared up nicely, so we headed on over to Traver, (which also "doesn't count" btw - it's only 40' shy of counting, though!).

Clinton's summit.

On McNamee (2nd summit of the day).

Starting up Traver.

Traver has a blockier, crazier summit block and requires some class 2+ scrambling with just enough hairy exposure to give you some butterflies in your stomach.  We knocked that down pretty quickly, and less than an hour since leaving the Clinton summit, we stood on top of Traver.

Clinging to a boulder on Traver's summit block.

On Traver's summit with a plaque to prove it.

Looking back at Clinton from Traver

And not a moment too soon.  Sometime while we were solving the summit block, a great dark cloud had approached from the west.  After snapping our summit photo, we started to hightail it down the ridge.  We'd gotten about 2/3 of the way down from the top to the high basin when we heard the first roll of thunder.  If we hadn't been running with no regard to ankle rolling before, we sure were now.  And roll ankles we did, as well as put feet into creeks and slide uncontrollably down snowfields.  As we dropped down into the "middle" basin, it started to spit rain.  We looked up to check the look of the cloud behind us.... and there was nothing but blue sky.  The storm had passed as quickly as it had come up.

It was pretty much my wildest "getting stormed off a peak" experience to date.  I think it narrowly surpassed the thrill of California Peak, due to the fact that that time, we made it to treeline before the storm broke.

After the rush of adrenaline subsided, we picked our way back down to Wheeler Lake where we filtered some water for the walk out.  The Platte Gulch road is long, hot, and dusty.  We passed three or four 4wd vehicles grinding up the rocks, but alas, none were going down to give us a ride.

Pretty waterfall below Wheeler Lake.

A stop at the Dinky Dairy in Fairplay made my life complete on the way home.