Prelude

As I was sitting in my living room last night watching the NFL opener while icing my right foot that I hurt earlier this week, I got a text that my hiking partner for today needed to cancel. My pack was already in the car; the alarm was already set for 3:25 AM and the coffee maker was ready to go with the flip of a switch. Well bummer.

I tweaked my foot earlier this week doing the 13ers and 12ers above Berthoud Pass and had already ruled out my original plan of heading down to Lake Como Saturday for the Blanca group in summer (odd that this is the last season in which I need those three peaks). I was pretty sure my foot could handle a hike today, but wasn't positive.

It was almost halftime in the game - generally when I turn off the TV and head upstairs to get ready for bed. I changed my alarm to 4:00 AM instead of 3:25 since I was no longer expecting a knock on my door at 4:00. I figured I'd get up at 4:00, see how I felt, do a little research on peaks (not having an interest in doing the 14er we had planned which would have been new for my partner) and see where the day took me.

A Plan Comes Together

Having just finished the Centennials, I guess I'm sort of working on the Bi-Centennials now. Racing on the Centennials to try to catch Ryan in time for a joint Jagged Finisher was a blast, but I am relieved to not be "on the clock" anymore. I have so many Bi-Centennials to do that I'm not even thinking about when I might finish those. But I'm still going to try to do them when they make sense.

My quick research in the wee hours of the morning yielded Twining and UN13,500 as a pretty short day from Independence Pass (which will close sometime in the next month or so). A new Bi- and a new Tri- without much risk of aggravating my foot with a long day out. Sold. I headed out from the house about 5:00 AM.

I started walking from Independence Pass at over 12,000' at 7:37 AM and headed up the south ridge of UN13,500, taking it super easy on my foot. I even brought two trekking poles with me today (my regular partners have almost NEVER seen me with two trekking poles!). In 1:09, I was on top of 13,500 - an easy stroll.

I felt my foot much more on the descent to the saddle with Twining - 2nd trekking pole comes out of the pack. Ah good! With the 2nd pole, I am able to take it super easy downhill and not feel the twinge of pain that got me a number of times earlier in the week. I am optimistic that I'll get up Twining and back down without doing more damage. The walk down to the saddle is easy Class 2 and before long, I am heading up Twining. Going uphill doesn't seem to bother my foot in the least, but I still take it a bit slower than normal. At 2:03 elapsed time, I am on top of a new Bi-Centennial!

Decision time. I was intrigued this morning by the fact that East and West Geissler are also right here and both are ranked. Otina did both of them, plus 13,001 and Twining from a switchback on CO 82 on the west side of the pass. I didn't see any trip reports where they were done with UN13,500 and Twining from the Pass. Otina described a few Class 3 parts of the traverse between the Geisslers and Twining, so I know it goes. The ridge going north off of Twining looks fairly icky though.

I decide that I have to descend regardless and might as well at least go down to the Twining/UN13,545 saddle where it looks like I can bail if I have to. The descent is fairly easy down to the saddle before the fun begins. I look at my bail option and decide it doesn't look that great. It's time to go uphill again and my foot likes that better anyway. I decide to keep going to the north towards the icky looking part of the ridge.

This is definitely a case of "it's way easier than it looks". I bypassed an initial tower on the left (west) side, then I stayed ridge proper for the vast majority of the rest of the way to UN13,545 (with the one exception being on the right, east, side of the middle tower on a grassy ledge system about 15 feet below the ridge crest). Before long, I am standing on UN13,545 (unranked), thinking maybe I'll manage to get the Geisslers today after all.

The descent off of UN13,545 was the trickiest part, but still easy Class 3. I just stayed on the ridge crest and worked my way down a few slabs.

Soon I was on easier ground and cruised over to the saddle with East Geissler.

It was a tiny bit loose, but really no problem to climb to the summit (4:06 elapsed time to here). The descent to the west down to the saddle with West Geissler was equally straightforward and I began climbing my last bit of up for the day to West Geissler. I chose to stay ridge proper instead of the loose gully to the left. I would rather have things be a little steeper, but more solid any day of the week. I topped out on West Geissler at 4:52 elapsed time, then returned back down to the saddle between the two.

Now I just had to figure out how to get back to Independence Pass...

There is a trail that goes to Independence Lake from the lower switchback on CO 82 that Otina used, and it wasn't terribly far below me. I could see the cars down at that parking area. My car wasn't one of them of course. Walking up the road wouldn't be the end of the world, so I thought about just heading down that way. The whole ascent route though, I had noticed a pretty nice broad shelf running just below Twining and UN13,500. If I could get around the corner and back to that, I thought I would be in great shape to get back to my car without losing extra elevation. It worked out beautifully!

I descended from the Geissler saddle and crossed one quick and only mildly unpleasant talus slope to get to Independence Lake. From there, I followed the trail south through the basin until it took a hard right turn and started to descend down to Highway 82. I opted to keep going south across the broad shelf, keeping my altitude at about 12,450 +/-30 feet. I knew the Pass was at almost 12,100', so I was still above my car. I worked my way through a couple of easy rock bands, keeping my elevation relatively constant until I finally got around the final corner and could see the Pass and my car.

From there, I returned to my ascent trail of UN13,500 and dropped the rest of the way to my car.

Stats
Solo
Mileage - 7.5 RT
Vertical ~3,150'
Elapsed Times to: UN13,500 (1:09), Twining (2:03), UN13,545 (didn't look - sorry); East Geissler (4:06), West Geissler (4:52), Car to Car RT (6:42).

Thanks for reading and hopefully this is helpful to someone else wanting to do all of these from Indy Pass.