Uneva Peak (12,527 & Sneva Peak (12,259) by Brian Schultz Monday August 26, 2024

Roundtrip mileage: 8.65 miles
Elevation gain: ~3,100'
Start to finish: 6 hours 5 minutes
Participants: Mark Silas, Brian Schultz

I met Mark at Vail Pass a few minute before 7:00 AM. Despite lots of construction going on for the new rest area, parking wasn't an issue and at 7:05 we walked across the bridge over I-70 to the trailhead. The weather forecast for today was good. The excellent trail begins immediately on the other side of the bridge and the gentle trail goes all the way to Uneva's summit with a bit of talus near the top. We arrived on the summit (photo 1, photo 2, photo 3) at 9:10 and stayed for 20 minutes.

It's a long haul over to Sneva Peak but fortunately on mostly grassy terrain (photo 1, photo 2). We crossed over to the back side of Sneva but this wasn't necessary as we could've headed up the grassy slopes to the summit ridge. We arrived on Sneva's summit at 10:45 under threatening skies so we didn't stay long. We saw several climbers on Uneva's summit and Mark found out later it was a CMC group who recognized his name in the register and sent him a text.

We descended the west slopes of Sneva's ridge and light rain began sprinkling as we began the ascent back up to Uneva's ridge. It didn't last long but we kept our rain gear on just in case.

Once on the ridge we could see I-70 and the parking area. Below the ridge is a grassy cirque, which can be descended immediately but we crossed over to the right side before heading down. There's no trail but bushwhacking wasn't an issue and once at the bottom it didn't take long to rejoin the Uneva trail.

We were back to our vehicles at 1:10 and had lunch in Frisco before parting ways. It's always good to hike with Mark who's willing to slow his pace for me.