Brown Mountain (11,522) & Silver Plume Mountain (12,477) by Brian Schultz Thursday July 21, 2016

Roundtrip mileage: 8.3 miles from town of Silver Plume
Elevation gain: 3,320'
Start to finish: 6 hours 35 minutes
Participants: Brian Schultz and grandson Tyler

Silver Plume Mountain has piqued my interest for several years and the opportunity to climb it finally arrived. It has a class 5 finish on its summit blocks and is often climbed with nearby thirteeners, but since I'd already climbed them, I was looking for a reasonable route to do it on its own. John Kirk steered me to one that worked out well. His suggestion was to drive to the town of Silver Plume and park at the east end of main street and follow an old mining road to its end.

At 7:15 AM we headed up an old road with a sign saying "Road Closed". Unfortunately, this road wasn't the correct one and ended at a mine so we bushwhacked about 50 feet up a steep scree slope to find the road above. The easiest way to begin the day is to head east on main street (but not to the end of main street) and turn left at the intersection with a small stop sign (Silver Street). Follow this street for two blocks. It's the beginning of the mines road and it's signed.

The condition of the road is excellent and becomes a trail eventually, ending just past the Griffin Monument. There are lots of mine entrances along the road and most have been secured with metal grates. Tyler enjoyed looking into them and even found a hidden mine entrance that wasn't sealed. He poked into it slightly and wondered how far in it went. I wasn't about to let him find out and prodded him to come back out.

When the trail ended at Brown Gulch, we crossed the fast flowing creek and began our bushwhack up the west side. The bushwhack through the trees was brutally steep and gained lots of elevation in a short time. It led us to unranked Brown Peak, where we arrived at 9:50 and took a short break to catch our breath and refuel. The steepness relented as we headed up further and once above timberline, the travel was easy and fast.

Silver Plume's summit area is large and relatively flat and it was neat to see the summit blocks from a distance. They look like a mini Stonehenge of sorts and I was excited as we approached at 11:00. I cupped my hands together to give Tyler a step up and he pulled himself up onto the higher tower. After his descent, I tied some webbing to a rock on the opposite side because I wasn't sure Tyler could support my weight with his hands on my descent. I walked back and whipped the loose end over the tower.

The ascent was easy, thanks to a small but handy hold that I could grab with the fingers of my right hand and pull up. It was neat to see a benchmark on top.

For the descent, I grabbed the webbing with my left hand, grabbed the upper hold with my right hand and lowered myself. Easy enough.

We left the summit area at 11:35 and decided to see how the descent would be by staying closer to the creek in Brown Gulch. It actually went well and though we were never right next to the creek, we were usually within earshot and even found some faint trails. Once we crossed back over the creek below and reached the trail, we went over to take a look at the Griffin Monument.

From the monument, we hiked out mostly non-stop and just as we neared the end of the mines road, it started raining lightly. We reached the truck five minutes later, at 1:50, and it began pouring rain. Good timing for us.