Gardner Butte (7,330), UN 9540, & UN 9335 by Brian Schultz Sunday August 23, 2015

Gardner Butte:

Roundtrip mileage: 0.4 miles from road (west side of the butte, elevation 6,975')

Elevation gain: 355'

Start to finish: 30 minutes

Gardner Butte, on my to-do list for years after reading a trip report by Luke Plumley, was first up on my itinerary this week. I departed Minnesota on Saturday, overnighted in Nebraska, and arrived at the trailhead late Sunday afternoon. The butte is east of the town of Gardner and just off highway 69. I parked on the west side of the butte, around the corner from private property, and saw no signage saying to stay off the land. I began at 5:00 PM under threatening skies, which I wasn't too worried about since this is a super short climb, and did a steep class 2 ascent around the right side of a tower straight ahead. At the base of the summit, it's a simple matter of gaining the ridge on the left side and climbing the class 4 ridge to the top. I stayed on the far left side of the ridge, exposed but super fun scrambling, and then walked a short distance to the summit. There are great views (photo 1, photo 2) from the top. I stayed only a few minutes and arrived back at my truck at 5:30.

UN 9540:

Roundtrip mileage: 0.45 miles

Elevation gain: ~340'

Start to finish: 25 minutes

From Gardner Butte it's a short drive to the Medano Pass road. There is so much private property signage along the Medano Pass road that I thought these two 9,000' peaks would be off limits but the road finally enters National Forest lands and the private property signs ended. I parked at a campsite below 9540 and headed up the slope at 6:20 PM. This was a very easy bushwhack and I arrived on top in 15 minutes. There isn't much to see from this summit so I turned around and made it back to my truck at 6:45.

UN 9335:

Roundtrip mileage: 2.25 miles

Elevation gain: ~975'

Start to finish: 1 hour 25 minutes

This one has more mileage to cover with unranked Point 9483 to hike around. I drove down the road a very short distance and parked at a large parking area. I started at 7:10, hoping to skirt the point ahead but somehow ended up going over it. It was a fairly steep grunt to the top and an unpleasant descent off the other side, then another steep ascent to 9335 with deadfall on the slopes. I immediately departed after arriving on top at 7:55. It was a race to get back before dark but this time I contoured around the unranked point and pulled in as darkness completely settled in at 8:35. I drove back up the road to the earlier campsite and set up for the night, satisfied with these three short warm-ups.

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