French Mountain (13,940 ft), Frasco Benchmark (13,876 ft), & Casco Peak (13,908 ft) by Brian Schultz Thursday June 30, 2005
It was still dark when I drove from Leadville to the Halfmoon Creek trailhead. The road beyond the Mt Massive parking lot was a tedious drive but my low clearance Dodge Neon handled it fine and by the time I reached the trailhead, the morning was dawning beautifully- not a cloud in the sky. I parked and immediately encountered the first crux of the day, namely crossing the raging Halfmoon Creek. Walking the tightrope on a suspended wet log didn't appeal to me so I searched up and down for an easier place to ford but finding nothing suitable, I returned to the log. I scooted over its pointy branch nubs, a miracle that my pants didn't rip, and began at 5:20 on the other side of the creek for the first of today's trio of peaks, French Mountain, using the South Slopes route.
The four wheel drive road covers four miles to the Iron Mike Mine and as I started gaining elevation in the basin, I thought the preview ahead was that of French Mountain. Upon reaching a mine at 7:25 but not sure if it was the Iron Mike, I continued along the road until realizing the peak I'd been watching was actually Casco, that I'd already skirted past French, and yes that was the Iron Mike mine. I left the road and contoured the slopes back to French. It wasn't a total blunder because the additional elevation gain on the road allowed me to see a better line through the snow patches and set a course up the slopes. An hour and a half later, I reached the summit of French, arrival time 8:55.
Views from the top were quite exceptional, especially of the northerly peaks and their abundance of snow, and the sunny weather was welcome. But the winds were strong. After twenty minutes I headed to Frasco, postholing a few times in snow that couldn't be avoided, and reached its summit at 9:55. The snow cover wasn't anywhere near as bad as it looked from Lackawanna yesterday, but the ridge to Casco with all those rock towers looked intimidating and time consuming so I headed down after just five minutes.
The descent around the rock towers to the Fiascol saddle went surprisingly well, thanks to a handy use trail on the west side. At 10:40, I began the ascent to Casco, a steep grunt in its own right, and arrived at a discouraging false summit. The second crux of the day was just below the summit, where a large steep snowbank prevented a safe traverse across it. I stayed high on the ridge and climbed class 3 boulders to the blocky top, unexpected scrambling, but fun and exciting and definitely the highlight of the day.
At 11:23, weather conditions on Casco were clear and only a few puffy clouds lazily floated about, but just like on French, it was very windy. The view back toward Frasco and French was striking and as I sat eating lunch, a helicopter buzzed through the basin below and flew over the saddle of Casco's southeast ridge. It was a strange feeling to be higher than the helicopter and I wondered who or what it was looking for.
I departed after 20 minutes for the five mile return to the creek. The southeast ridge was an easy descent and I exited at 13,200 feet to glissade the slope. The first glissade was fun but the second went too fast and I hardly arrested before my feet plowed into a small pile of loose rocks. I bushwhacked to the road below the mine, enjoyed perfect weather the whole way out, and arrived at Halfmoon Creek at 2:08.
These peaks are easy but the route covers nearly 12 miles and the elevation gain is 4,600 feet. Neither of the two cruxes I encountered should be a problem later in the summer but an early start is advisable.
Halfmoon Creek to French- 3 hours 35 minutes
French to Frasco- 40 minutes
Frasco to Casco- 1 hour 23 minutes
Casco to Halfmoon Creek- 2 hours 25 minutes
Start to finish including all breaks- 8 hours 48 minutes