Ruby Mountain (13,277) & Cooper Mountain (12,792) by Brian Schultz  Monday August 27, 2018

Roundtrip mileage: 4.3 miles from Peru Creek road (elev 11,130)
Elevation gain: 2,590'
Start to finish: 4 hours 25 minutes
Participants: Brian Schultz and grandson Tyler

We drove Hwy 6 from Keystone, turned left on the signed road to Montezuma, then took another left turn on the Peru Creek road. The Peru Creek road is a good dirt road (2 wheel drive) and we drove it 4.7 miles to a parking area on the left side, just before the Shoe Basin Mine.

We started under cool weather with a brisk wind at 8:30 AM. The crux of the whole day was the immediate task of bashing through the willows until we got higher. The slope was steep and the willows were tightly packed but once above them the grassy terrain was much easier. We made our way to Ruby's southeast ridge and continued up to the summit. We arrived at 10:50 and stayed all of 6 minutes because it was so cold and windy. Which was a shame because Ruby was my 300th ranked thirteener and I wanted to celebrate it longer with Tyler. Oh well, on to unranked Cooper Mountain.

The route over to Cooper Mountain was short and easy and we arrived on the summit at 11:30. We departed at 11:40 because it was still cold. Instead of returning over Ruby Mountain, we dropped into the basin from the Ruby/Cooper saddle and were able to stay on grassy terrain all the way to the road. I would strongly recommend this as an ascent route for both Ruby and Cooper because the willows in the basin are easy to negotiate. Once on the road, we walked a mile back to the parking area and arrived at 12:55.