Mt Buckskin (13,865 ft) from Kite Lake by Brian Schultz Wednesday October 2, 2002
After our attempt on Ice and North Apostle on Monday, I told Tim I wasn't climbing Mt Meeker, our scheduled peak for today. Unwilling to chance snow problems turning us around again, especially on a long mileage climb, I talked him into an easier one and we picked Dyer or Buckskin, to be determined when we met up.
I stayed in Frisco last night where it rained and turned cold. In the morning the sky was clear even though the forecast called for snow, and it gave me hope for the last climb of my trip. I was to meet Tim in Fairplay at 7:00. I stopped in Breckenridge for a quick bite to eat but after passing through town I drove into a raging snowstorm that already had dumped lots of snow and was still coming down hard. It continued nearly all the way to Fairplay. Tim was waiting when I pulled into the gas station and we quickly concurred- if we were going to climb, it would be Buckskin.
The manager let me park my car at the station and we headed up to Kite Lake. My car would've never made it to the lake because Tim's truck was spinning to get traction on the slippery road and the snow got deeper the further up we drove. A fellow who spent the night in his truck at the parking lot was waiting to see if the weather would break. He gave us an funny look when we told him we were climbing Buckskin.
It was snowing and the visibility was poor when we departed at 7:42 on the Emma Lake trail, already covered in six inches of snow and barely defined. The fogged-in conditions presented a formidable challenge and we relied on Roach's directions, a topo map, GPS, altimeter, and compass to find our way to Buckskin's slope, which we couldn't even see. A break came when the fog lifted slightly, but only briefly, to reveal some power lines ahead. They were marked on the topo map and gave us a good compass bearing to follow- south, then southwest up the slope.
Tim had the worst of it because he was leading through eight to twelve inches of snow and sometimes plunged in well over his knees. And the slope was quite steep. Occasionally we'd stop to check our elevation with both GPS and altimeter just to get an idea how high we were getting. We finally saw the ridge line about 100 feet above us and when we gained it, we weren't sure which way to turn even though it continued upward to the right. It could've been one of those up and down ridges where a descent was necessary to the left but we kept to the right and a few minutes later reached the top. A pile of rocks suggested it was the summit and we each took GPS readings. Both confirmed the elevation high enough to be the summit, as did my altimeter. The time was 10:01, interestingly, the same time I summited Mt Ouray yesterday.
It was extremely windy and cold and still snowing. But rather than claim the summit and descend right away, we decided to hike the ridge to Buckskin's second summit a quarter mile away. A cornice was already building along the ridge so we carefully picked our way over to the other peak. We got there at 10:27 and stayed 15 minutes, having a quick bite to eat and a drink of water before heading back to the main summit.
We didn't stay long there either because it was simply too cold. My camera froze up- I love the camera but hate those CR2 batteries. I had to take them out and roll them in my hands to warm them, then put them back in to retract the lens. My hands were nearly frozen after doing that. We left at 11:02 with the wind driving the snow so hard it frosted my right eyebrow but once we got below the ridge the wind let up and the remaining descent was fast and fun on the soft snow.
When we reached the bottom of the slope the cloud cover lifted high enough to reveal the summit. It only lasted 30 seconds but we could see our tracks all the way up to the ridge and it showed how well we did with our routefinding. We followed our fading footsteps from earlier to reach the truck at 11:48. This rewarding hike will probably be as close to a winter climb as I'll ever do and I was glad to have Tim's company and his excellent routefinding skills. I would not have ventured alone on this one. Mt Buckskin wrapped up a great year of climbing.
Total hiking time- 4 hours 6 minutes including breaks