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As a novice 14er hiker, I decided the tenmile/mosquito peaks would be good peaks to get practice on. My Dad was in town so he and I decided to attempt the 4 peak combo.
The NOAA forecast warned us of 20-40 MPH winds with up to 60 MPH gusts with a temperature high of 55F.
We were concerned about the road conditions as we were in a long 2WD buick passenger car. There was no snow but the road was rocky and bumpy so we proceeded slowly. We made it to about a half block from the trailhead. A passenger car can make it near the trailhead, but make sure you pick a good route and go slowly. If you can go in a 4WD or a 2WD with some good clearance you will be happy you did.
We started up the trail to Democrat at about 8:30, and made good time to the Democrat-Cameron saddle.
Around 500' below the summit, Dad put on the microspikes and took out the poles (I opted for no poles and forgot my microspikes at the car) There was some loose rock and wet snow at this point and it was moderately steep but we survived.
We stayed on the summit for 10 minutes or so and went back to the saddle. At this point we discussed how we were doing physically, (Dad had broken his leg earlier this year, and I have impaired lung capacity) we both felt good so we decided to move on.
Moving up to Cameron was pretty simple, although we noticed the wind starting to pick up pretty quickly. After hitting Cameron we ventured over to Lincoln, but after we descended a 50' snowbank, the wind started to really pick up. There were points where we had to just crouch down and let the wind pass. We were careful on our ascent and decent of Lincoln to remain stable in the midst of the winds and stayed on the summit for only long enough to snap some photos of the surrounding peaks.
We then headed over to Bross using a shortcut trail that meant we didn't have to ascent Cameron again. We made it to Bross by 12:40 and were both impressed with our time. We snapped a few photos and headed down.
We decided to decend the southwest ridge of Bross to complete the loop. The wind was still blowing strong, and the route had some annoying loose scree. These made for a rather lousy combination and we had to take our time with this decent and we were happy to get to a point where the wind wasn't as strong and the rocks weren't as loose.
We both agreed this was a fantastic hike. While the wind was a bit irritating at times, I'm glad we didn't let the weather report scare us away from an otherwise great day in the mountains.
This puts me up to 9 peaks. I'll hit Sherman in 2 days, and Massive next week. My plans for the rest of the season are to knock out some Sawatch peaks and hopefully Long's this fall.
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
We did see a sign that said ”No public access to Bross”. There weren't any fences so we were able to get up, snap a few photos, and come back down.
There's also some sort of ”public summit” southeast of the actual summit. I'm not sure if this is related to the all the buzz in the forums or not.
I am planning to do this route in about a week and a half but I may have to skip Bross for now. Maybe I'll just hit the ”public” summit and plan a return trip some time in the future. I don't want to somehow compromise the work that is being done to open this peak up to the public. Maybe with some luck, there will be a change in the access before I head up. I would love to knock the entire mosquito range off of my list early in the season.
We got back around 2pm if I remember correctly. It's a pretty fun hike that will keep you well at high altitude for a while.
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