"Every Mountain (13,691) & "Cooper Creek Peak" (13,688) by Brian Schultz Wednesday September 29, 2010
Total mileage: 10.8 miles from Cooper Creek trailhead
Elevation gain: 3,800'
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz
Another warm, sunny day was on tap again as Tim and I drove the Lake San Cristobal road for the third day in a row, this time turning up the Cinnamon Pass road to the Cooper Creek trailhead. Many thanks to Beth Dwyer for specifically describing the easiest way to the trailhead. Her description is as follows: "Go 3/4 mile from the Silver/Grizzly Gulch t/h's, just past Cooper Creek, and park on the left in a parking area just at the top of a short rise in the road. Cross to the north of the road and bushwhack (minimally) due north parallel to the trees on the west of the creek. You will run into the jeep road referred to in G & M, to a sign-in box."
We began at 7:45 AM from the parking area using Beth's directions and followed the road as it turned into a fine trail. It led through the woods and all the way to the lower slopes of Every Mountain's west ridge, where we stopped for a breakfast break and to ponder the route up to the ridge. We decided to shortcut the steep slopes as the trail headed west and reached the high ridge at 10:30. The views of Coxcomb, Wetterhorn, Matterhorn, & Uncompahgre were quite impressive from the ridge as we continued along and tagged the 13,484 point on easier terrain. The remaining ridge to Every Mountain was a bit rougher but not difficult and we arrived on top at 11:45.
After an enjoyable stay of thirty minutes we dropped down the southeast ridge toward Cooper Creek Peak. A good trail bypasses the towers along the ridge and made for an easy ridge-run to its summit. We arrived at 1:10, another fun summit to sit on and gaze at other peaks, especially with the nice weather and clear skies. We stayed until 1:45 before descending back to the Every/Cooper saddle, and from there we boot-skied lots of scree and dirt to the valley floor. This was easy and fast and at the bottom we found a trail that intersected the Cooper Creek trail. We made it back to the parking area at 4:05 under still clear skies and couldn't resist stopping along the Lake San Cristobal road for a few photos. Amazing weather for late September!
Parking area to UN13691- 4 hours
UN13691 to UN13688- 55 minutes
UN13688 to parking area- 2 hours 20 minutes
Start to finish- 8 hours 20 minutes