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We ended up leaving Denver at 10:30 on Saturday morning instead of the planned time 3pm because I skipped my long run that morning due to a injury to my ankle on Thursday trailrunning, it was good sprain and was still really sore. We arrived around 12:30 at the end of the road that had a snow drift across it where we set up camp at 11,200 by the first mine on the road. I spent the afternoon practicing repelling skills and roping skills on a near by slope while Dan was taking pictures.
The next morning we left camp at 6:15 am and started hiking up the road.
The snow as fairly hard from the cooler night of about 30 degrees but you would still break through and post hole into the stream running underneath the snow. There was basically a river running down the middle of the road.
We hit the Hilltop mine around 13,000 feet where we could see the target. The Hilltop mine is a very neat place, with buildings all over the area to look through. We stayed out of the mines of course but did look through the houses and other buildings. There are many mines along the route, Hilltop is the last mine you come to before having to climb the ridge.
From the Hilltop mine, in "Getting in Shape with Shad" fashion as some of my friends say, we ditched the trail and took a direct route to the right of the middle of the saddle, straight up the ridge toward the summit. The snow was still hard and wind packed so I had to kick in steps all the way up, this took about 45min to an hour to reach the top of the ridge.
Once on the ridge it was a nice little jetty to the summit.
When we arrived at the summit at 10ish it was clear blue skies but clouds were building in the west over LaPlata Peak and Mount Massive across the valley.
After spending about an hour on top we decided instead of going across the saddle to Gemini Peak (13,900 I think) to the northeast we were going to head down before the storm arrived.
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Coming down was a wet mess, the snow was soft and wet, it was like quick sand, it would just suck your foot up. The moisture would go into your gaiters and down your boots. By the time we got back to the Hilltop mine we had little lakes in our boots. At this point it started with a very light hail/snow mixture that would come down for 5 mins then stop for 10. This cycle went on all the way back to the truck. It was a great day to do a 14er. Here is the link for all the photos... enjoy
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