Prospect Mountain (12,614) by Brian Schultz Thursday July 14, 2016

Roundtrip mileage: 4.1 miles
Elevation gain: 1,200'
Start to finish: 2 hours 45 minutes

It was a beautiful day as I headed up the Mosquito Pass road (CR 3) from Leadville and parked off the road at 11,430'. I set a bearing for the peak and began at 4:10 PM, a late start but that's when I arrived from Ogallala, Nebraska.

There isn't a trail up the slopes but the bushwhack is easy. Flowers were numerous and pretty as I made my way up to a false summit and from there it was a short jaunt to the actual summit. It was as straightforward as could be and I arrived on the spacious summit at 5:25. After walking around to several candidate highpoints, I began my descent toward Lake Isabelle but didn't go all the way to the lake.

I stayed in the trees until nearing a road, which I paid no attention to, and crossed it not realizing it was the road I parked on. It's an easy mistake to make with all the mining roads in the area but I turned around after descending just a short distance and made it back to the truck at 6:55.

I drove to Leadville for a meal and struck up a conversation with a woman from Boulder who guides climbing groups on Aconcagua. She knew the owner of the company I used as well as several of the guides from his company. It was fun to talk before driving on to my overnight along the South Fork Clear Creek road.