Browns Peak (13,523), UN 13462, Middle Mountain (13,060), & Cross Mountain (12,889) by Brian Schultz Thursday July 24, 2014

Roundtrip mileage: 7.1 miles from South Fork Clear Creek road

Elevation gain: 3,800'

Start to finish: 6 hours

Participants: Mark Silas and Brian Schultz

The weather forecast was so poor for the Sangre range that Mark and I shelved the peaks we were planning to climb. It wasn't much better for the Sawatch range with a 50% chance of storms/showers but Mark came up with another plan that sounded interesting. All the peaks, one ranked and three unranked, were on the same ridge, most of the elevation gain would come on the first peak, and bailout options were plentiful. It sounded great to me. We met at the Winfield townsite last night and set up camp along the South Fork Clear Creek road.

We started hiking up the South Fork Clear Creek road at 6:00 AM under very dark skies, which I found unsettling so early in the morning. We turned up an old road on the west side of Lulu Gulch, followed it up to the basin below Browns Peak, and after the road ended we hiked up the steep slopes to Browns' west ridge (to our left). We followed the ridge to the unranked summit and arrived at 8:50. It was fairly straightforward and the bulk of our elevation gain, just as Mark said, was now behind us.

We stayed on top for twenty minutes and could see a number of people on Huron Peak, as well as a solo female climber on the Browns/Huron ridge below us heading to Huron. The dark clouds to the west were slowly drifting by and didn't seem to be posing any danger.

We departed Browns at 9:10 for UN 13462 and arrived on its summit fourteen minutes later. This was a very easy climb and the only ranked peak of the four. The weather was improving dramatically with skies turning sunny so we stayed 30 minutes on the summit before heading to Middle Mountain. The ridge to Middle traveled quickly and we arrived on top at 10:15, kept moving, and arrived on Cross Mountain at 10:25. It was a good feeling to claim the last summit that early in the morning.

After a short stay of five minutes we descended Cross' steep slopes to meet up with an old road below. The descent wasn't as smooth as we expected. It was steep and slow and we had to cross a sketchy gully with snow in it but we made it to the road without issue.

We must not have been paying attention or were talking too much, or both, because we ended up losing the old road in the woods. Instead of backtracking, we began a contour to our left to avoid some cliffy areas and then made a steep bushwhack to the South Fork Clear Creek road below. Again, very steep, and also loose in spots. It worked though, and once we reached the road it was just a short distance to our camp area. We pulled in at 12:00 noon under still sunny skies and parted company. Mark's backup plan turned out to be a good one- these peaks were a lot of fun and despite the descent being harder than the ascent, by our own doing, it was a short and efficient day.

-Back-