My older son (Randy) and I decided to head to the Mosquito Range for a day-and-a-half peakbagging trip. Monday's forecast called for only a 30% chance of snow, but a 60% chance of snow was predicted for Tuesday, along with 15 - 20 mph winds. We made it a point to be prepared for Tuesday's snow and wind.

Monday, Oct. 24, 2016
Randy is mostly targeting centennials and bicentennials, while my primary goal is tricentennials and repeats of centennials. Randy had already climbed Horseshoe Mountain but not Mt. Sheridan, while I wanted to repeat Horseshoe Mountain but not Mt. Sheridan. We devised a plan to reach our respective goals today.

Randy and I left our home a little after 6:00 AM and drove toward Fairplay and up the Fourmile Creek Road to Leavick. After turning onto the road to the Peerless Mine, we parked below where snow covered the road. We hiked up the road past the Peerless Mine to the 13,180' saddle just above the mine. I turned left (south) and followed the ridge toward Horseshoe Mountain, while Randy turned right (north) and headed up Peerless Mountain.

I had an easy hike with minimal snow on the ridge to the summit of Horseshoe Mountain (13,898'). Meanwhile, Randy had a similarly easy, but much shorter, stroll to the summit of Peerless Mountain (13,348'). From there, Randy had a longer stroll along the ridge to Mt. Sheridan (13,748'), although any snow along the way was easy to bypass. Someone had built a sizable windbreak out of rocks on Mt. Sheridan's summit, but today it seemed to function more as a snow fence than a windbreak. After about 15 minutes on the summit of Mt. Sheridan, Randy headed back toward Peerless Mountain.

I returned to the Horseshoe - Peerless saddle and continued to the summit of Peerless Mountain. I could see an easy descent route from just north of Peerless Mountain to the Peerless Mine road, so I descended the north ridge of Peerless Mountain and met Randy there. We compared notes and concluded that none of today's peaks had summit registers.

We headed across the tundra to Randy's 4Runner, drove a bit below Leavick, and cooked grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch before finding a nice campsite at 2 PM on the Mosquito Pass Road between American Mill and North London Mill. We spent several hours relaxing at our campsite before dinner.

Tomorrow's goals: Mt. Tweto and Mt. Arkansas.

Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2016
After breakfast, we left the Mosquito Pass Road at about 11,520' and followed a rough road another half mile NNW to an intersection at 11,800'. From here, a side road heads north into the basin below (south of) the Mt. Buckskin - Mt. Tweto ridge. In 2010, we climbed Mt. Buckskin from this basin, although the route is not described in the Roaches' thirteeners book or Garratt & Martin's thirteeners book.

We climbed northwest up fairly stable rocky slopes and intersected the Buckskin - Tweto ridge east of Mt. Tweto. Light snow fell as we headed west up the ridge, bypassing occasional minor obstacles to the left (south). Snow would continue off and on all day, and the strong wind on the ridge made us glad we'd brought ski masks and balaclavas.

The fog became thicker and thicker as we ascended. Soon, we found ourselves on the summit of Mt. Tweto (13,672'). Unfortunately, we had no views to enjoy. Also, no summit register...

The snow was very powdery and wasn't falling hard enough to create traction issues, so we continued north toward Mt. Arkansas. Unfortunately, the thick fog prevented any decent photos along the way. After enduring the disappointment of two false summits, we reached the summit of Mt. Arkansas (13,795') but did not find a summit register.

After about a half hour on the summit, we headed back toward Mt. Tweto.

Rather than reclimb Mt. Tweto, we contoured west of it at about 13,250' and then descended SE into the broad basin south of the Mt. Buckskin - Mt. Tweto ridge. In hindsight, our descent route into the basin would have been a better ascent route than the one we'd taken.

The snow had stopped, and some blue sky was now visible. We couldn't resist investigating the ruins of an aerial tram and an old mine building before heading home.