Radial Mountain (11,248) & Mt Bross (9,260) by Brian Schultz Sunday August 25, 2024

Radial Mountain:
Roundtrip mileage: 5.30 miles
Elevation gain: 1,875'
Start to finish: 4 hours 45 minutes
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

We began at the Willow Creek Pass trailhead off Highway 125 at 7:45 AM. The trailhead is well marked and starts out following the Continental Divide trail. Radial Mountain has dikes (photo 1, photo 2) radiating from the peak, a feature that makes the climb more interesting. The trail winds along one of them on the ridge.

After the CD trail turned east we followed a hit and miss trail and found it necessary to cross over to both sides of the dike as well as stay on the top. There was a fair amount of deadfall on the southeast side of the dike, and a large burn area from the East Troublesome Fire in 2020. The other side of the dike wasn't burned at all.

When we reached 10,600', the burned area ended and the ridge opened up nicely to the summit. We topped out on the summit (photo 1, photo 2, photo 3) at 10:05 and enjoyed a stay of 40 minutes. We departed at 10:45 and whereas dark clouds to the west hadn't concerned us while on the summit, they were now moving in quickly.

Just before noon we stopped to put on rain gear as it began raining hard. Fortunately, we were back on the CD trail at this point so no worries with deadfall being wet and slippery. We got back to our vehicles at 12:25. Other than the rain, this was a super fun hike.

Mt Bross:

We continued on to Hot Sulphur Springs with the weather clearing and followed CR 20 to a junction where I parked my vehicle. This peak is a drive-up after June 1 when the gate opens, otherwise it's over 5 miles roundtrip with an elevation gain of 1,000' from the gate. We weren't sure how difficult the roads were from the gate to the summit so Tim drove his 4x4 truck while I navigated.

The roads weren't difficult but would be a nightmare if wet and greasy. There are a couple highpoint areas on the large flat summit that we covered but with the weather threatening again, we didn't stay long. We made it back to Hot Sulphur Springs before the storm unleashed its fury.