South Chipeta Mountain (unranked 12,850), Chipeta Mountain (13,472), & UN 10928 by Brian Schultz Friday June 28, 2013
South Chipeta Mountain & Chipeta Mountain:
Roundtrip mileage: 8.5 miles- from the parking area east of Marshall Pass
Elevation gain: ~2,900'
Start to finish: 6 hours 5 minutes
I drove the Marshall Pass road from Hwy 285 (south of Poncha Springs) to the parking area just below the pass. The parking area is easy to spot as it has an information board and restrooms. I crossed the road at 8:00 AM and began a bushwhack northeast through the trees. There is an alternative route you can take to avoid most of the bushwhacking by hiking a road straight across from the parking area on the other side of the Marshall Pass road. It parallels the Marshall Pass road briefly before turning north. I found it on my return from the peaks and it's a good road that goes for 1.25 miles to its end. An excellent trail (Continental Divide Trail) then continues to wherever you choose to conveniently exit it and cut up to Chipeta.
Anyway, I set a bearing for unranked South Chipeta's south ridge and as I pushed through the trees I was reminded of how similar the bushwhacking was to some Minnesota peaks, that is until I started gaining elevation and the huffing and puffing began. Once on the ridge, I followed the ups and downs on mostly grassy terrain, and reached South Chipeta at 10:25. There is a fair amount of talus on the ridge to Chipeta from the south peak, but nothing difficult, and I stepped on top at 11:25.
After descending Chipeta and regaining South Chipeta, I hiked to a white gravel area on the south side of South Chipeta and began sidehilling rather than regaining the ups and downs of the ridge. While sitting down on a short break I checked the map on my GPS and noticed a trail not too far below where I was. This was the Continental Divide Trail and the decision to hike it back to the parking lot vs. my ascent route was a no-brainer. I reached the trail in short order and it wasn't long before two youngsters on dirt bikes came roaring along the trail soon followed by two more on mountain bikes. I got back to the parking lot at 2:05 and drove up to the other side of Marshall Pass for the short climb of UN 10928.
UN 10928:
Roundtrip mileage: .8 miles
Elevation gain: 200-250'
Start to finish: 20 minutes
This easy ranked peak is reached from an old road on the west side of Marshall Pass. I parked as soon as I turned onto the road, hiked the road a short distance, and then bushwhacked to the top as soon as my GPS showed a straight bearing to the summit. There isn't a "defined" summit so I walked around to 3 candidate high points before descending. They don't get much easier than this!
