Virginia Peak (13,088), "West Virginia" (13,140), & "Sheep Rock Mountain" (13,255)  by Brian Schultz  Wednesday August 22, 2012

Roundtrip mileage: 10.4 miles from camp area along South Fork Clear Creek Rd

Elevation gain: 3,800'

Start to finish: 7 hours 5 minutes

Participants: Pete Krzanowsky & Brian Schultz

Pete and I met in Buena Vista last night and had a great meal at the Eddyline Brewery before driving up to Winfield. From the townsite, we drove a short distance along the South Fork Clear Creek Rd and pulled off at a nice flat area to set up our tents.

We began walking up the South Fork Clear Creek Road at 6:05 AM, mulling over how many thirteeners we should attempt today with the weather forecast calling for thunderstorms. After we crossed Clear Creek, we headed in the direction of unranked Winfield Peak. Pete led a great route up the slopes but as we gained the Winfield ridge, at 8:20, we had second thoughts about continuing on to Winfield's summit. We decided to skip it and focus on the three closest ranked peaks, and keep the option open of climbing two other ranked thirteeners if the weather held. We dropped down to the Virginia/Winfield saddle and headed up to Virginia Peak, which was fast and easy, and summited at 8:45.

The .8 mile ridge to "West Virginia" traveled slower and we didn't summit until 9:35. We stayed for fifteen minutes before departing for "Sheep Rock Mountain". The connecting ridge looked somewhat menacing but "Sheep Rock" was only .6 miles away and it actually traveled well and reasonably fast. We summited at 10:30.

Pete was content to call it a day and get back to US 24 to watch the USA Pro Challenge bike race. I didn't mind as the mileage to the other thirteeners was considerable and the weather outlook was uncertain. After a short break we descended back to the "Sheep Rock/West Virginia" saddle and headed down the slopes, and picked up the Silver Basin Trail on the lower part of the slopes. This led back to the road we came up earlier and Pete and I split up so he could push ahead and get to Highway 24 before the bikers rode by.

It started raining just as I reached my car at 1:10. I actually made it to the highway in time to watch the bikers race by too and when I was finally able to sneak into the long procession of semi-trucks and vehicles driving north from Buena Vista, it was slow going until getting past Highway 82. There were tons of spectators on both sides of the US 24/82 junction who'd been cheering on the bikers.

These were fun easy peaks and it was good to climb with Pete, our first climb together since we were on Aconcagua earlier in the year.