Middle Mountain (13,100) & UN 13460 by Brian Schultz Friday July 15, 2016

Roundtrip mileage: 5.85 miles
Elevation gain: ~2,800'
Start to finish: 7 hours

My overnight last night was at the trailhead at the end of the South Fork Lake Creek road (elev. ~11,300'). This is a slow road with lots of dips so I'm glad I didn't wait until morning to drive it. I began at 6:25 AM from the small parking area by heading straight up through willows toward Middle Mountain. This was a steep bushwhack and I could tell my body was going to have trouble today, not from the willows but because I slept (tried to anyway) at such a high elevation after driving in from the flatlands. I didn't sleep much at all. I stopped often to catch my breath and take some pictures of the flowers, which was a great excuse to stop, and managed to make Middle's summit (photo 1, photo 2) at 8:35. It was nice to rest on top for twenty minutes while enjoying the views.

For the descent, I took a cue from Ryan Kowalski's trip report and dropped down over 500' from Middle's summit to the small lakes in the basin west of Middle because of the difficulties of the connecting ridge to UN 13460. Once in the basin, the slopes on the right side of 13460 didn't look all that easy to ascend yet Ryan said the approach was easy. When I looked to the left, at first a ridge seemingly blocked access but it had to be the way to go. So I contoured over there and sure enough, the slopes opened up. It's a straightforward push to the top but the altitude was really affecting me.

When I reached the top at 11:20, I signed in and still held out the possibility of continuing on to Prize Benchmark and "Booby Prize" but when I departed, I didn't have the energy. I'd seen two climbers descending "Booby Prize" on my ascent to 13460 but that was the last I saw of them. I descended into the basin to catch up with the trail leading back to the trailhead and got back to my truck at 1:25.