Mt Evans B (13,577) & London Mountain (13,194) by Brian Schultz Friday July 21, 2017

Roundtrip mileage: 11.3 miles from pull-out on Mosquito Pass road (~11,600')
Elevation gain: 2,930'
Start to finish: 7 hours 20 minutes

From the Fairplay side, I drove and parked at the last pull-out on the Mosquito Pass road before the road got rougher. This is a nice area to set up a tent, or truckcamp, which I did, and it's where I began in the morning at 5:30 AM. The monsoon weather pattern called for 70% chance of showers/storms, which was worrisome, but the morning dawned with clear skies as I started up the road.

I passed the London mine, continued through a large snow patch blocking the road past London Mountain's northwest ridge, and arrived at Mosquito Pass at 7:00. The road was easy to hike. Leaving the road, the terrain to the summit of Evans was mostly grassy with some small talus and was also easy to hike. I made the summit at 8:20 and took a ten minute break. The views to the west are impressive from the top.

The return brought me to London Mountain's northwest ridge again and I started up at 10:10. The initial part of the ridge had super fun scrambling and I stayed mostly on top of the ridge. A lower contour to the right side is probably easier but the top is not that hard. There are cairns here and there. The ridge leveled out to a flat area and I was surprised to come across three young women descending. They were from the greater Denver area and excited to be climbing thirteeners after finishing the fourteeners.

After several discouraging false summits I finally reached the summit at 11:10 and took another ten minute break. The weather was holding remarkably well but I wanted to get down in order to meet friend Tim Briese in time for dinner in Leadville. I was back on the road at 12:00 and back to my truck at 12:50. It was pouring rain by the time I reached Fairplay so I was pretty happy to make the summits. This was the front end of my trip to Colorado and a definite monsoon weather pattern was in the works. It would alter my climbing plans for the remainder of my trip.