Mt Rhoda (13,402) & "Mountaineer Peak" (13,434) by Brian Schultz Thursday August 23, 2018

Roundtrip mileage: 7.4 miles from Cunningham Gulch trailhead (elev 10,870')
Elevation gain: 3,225'
Start to finish: 7 hours 20 minutes
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

From Silverton we drove to the east end of town and stayed to the right on CR 2, which is signed. At the townsite of Howardsville we turned right on FR 589, which is also signed for Stony Pass and Cunningham Gulch. We turned right again where the main road ahead continues up to Stony Pass, and followed this road to the trailhead. The trailhead is approached on a road to the left that descends to a parking area below. If you go past this as we did, you'll have to back up. You'll know it because the road ahead becomes rough (4x4) and heads steeply up.

We began on the excellent trail at 7:30 AM. We soon encountered a group of young backpackers taking a break as we continued up the trail (photo 1, photo 2) toward Highland Mary Lakes. The area near the lakes is quite scenic and at 12,100 feet, we departed the trail and began an ascent to the small ridge on our right.

A low cloud cover over the peaks obscured our sight line to Mt Rhoda so we set a bearing to it using GPS. There were several ups and downs as we made our way into the tundra basin, and as we got closer to Rhoda, the clouds finally parted and we made a beeline up its steep grassy slopes.

We arrived on the summit at 10:40 and stayed on top for twenty minutes. Rather than downclimb a cliff off the summit, we descended around it and headed over to Mountaineer Peak. It's a short distance to Mountaineer and it's easy. We arrived at 11:30 and during our half hour break on top, we saw climbers on the point between Mountaineer and Kendall Peak and thought they might be coming in our direction but they never did.

We departed at 12:00 and returned to the Rhoda/Mountaineer saddle. Our plan was to descend into the mostly grassy Spencer Basin, cross over the connecting ridge from Rhoda to Sugarloaf, and drop down into the basin on the other side. This worked out well and we avoided losing too much elevation before crossing the ridge.

The terrain on the other side of the ridge was steep nasty scree but we found a way down and just when we got into the willows below, an unexpected storm unleashed a furious barrage of hail on us. We hurriedly put on rain gear but within 15 short minutes the system moved through and the skies cleared. Oh well, at least we were prepared.

Once past the willows, we rejoined the trail and trudged back to the trailhead. We arrived at 2:50.