This report is for a very unloved mountain, point 13,374. I say unloved because it had a summit register from 2005, and on average about 6 people climbed it a year. My girlfriend and I were the 7th and 8th in 2018.

I figured this mountain needs some beta, as the directions and conditions of the road to it are basically nonexistent because other trip reports were done in winter. Hopefully someone wanting to climb this in the future will find this helpful.

We picked this mountain as it was an east approach, on a day with strong west winds forecasted. I enjoy having a mountain block the winds for me, and during the day it was very pleasant, with almost no wind until we reached the summit ridge. The mountain is also an orphan, and can't easily be combo-ed with anything else, except maybe Harvard if your a masochist. I figured we might as well get it checked off.

Total distance was 6.1 miles and 2,500 feet gain.

We started out driving up CR 386 which is north of Buena Vista. NOTE, this road is closed almost at the highway from December 1st through June 30th according to a forest service sign we passed. After about 1.5 miles, you turn right onto CR 387 and follow that for a few miles. The road comes to an unmarked T intersection. Turn left and go up the hill. In the last mile of the drive, the road gets rougher. There are two spots that are very steep inclines, that I think require 4WD to get up, especially if the road was muddy or icy. However, the rest of the road was actually pretty good, and I think a suburu type clearance could make it. However, it was extremely narrow, and passing someone would present problems on most of the road. After 5.9 miles total on the dirt roads, you get to an unmarked locked green gate. This is the entrance to the Leinhart mine. There is parking for a few vehicles, and a nice camping spot.

The Leinhart mine is about 100 yards up the road, behind the gate. The mine was active from 1906 to 1918 and again from 1935 to 1938. They mined silver, gold, copper, and lead. The mining site has a collapsed cabin and ore chute, and some old machinery and a very small bulldozer.

While we were getting ready for our hike, a horse trailer loaded with 4 mules made it up the road. We assumed he must be crazy to get a 20 foot trailer up that narrow steep road. Turns out to be an elk hunting guide, closing down his camp. He informed us of a trail that was above the mine, that went to the Colorado trail. So when we set out, we looked for it above the Leinhart mine. We found a very light trail that headed up the slope, and up we started. It quickly petered out (we weren't on the actual trail), and so we bushwhacked about 500 vertical feet until we hit the Colorado trail. Where we hit was an old mining site too, with another cabin in ruins, and a few prospect holes. We headed up the ridge from there. The bushwhacking through the forest was actually quite pleasant, as its not too thick, and deadfall was fairly minimal.

After a half mile, we broke out of treeline and continued upwards through knee high willows. They were spotty enough that finding a path wasn't too difficult. Eventually the ridge turned into blocky talus and grass. We reached a flat area and we continued upwards until we hit point 12,890. We finally had our objective in sight, and we walked across the tundra, contouring so we didn't walk extra distance. There was a few spots that were clearly ponds or creeks when there was more moisture, but for us they were dried up. We had excellent views of west and east buffalo peaks across the valley. We also had great views of Columbia and Harvard and the ridge connecting them. We also spotted several elk in the valley below us.

About 300 vertical feet below the summit, the terrain gets into blocky talus, but still very class 2. The summit was nice and open, and with a summit register that was placed in 2005. This mountain doesn't see much traffic for sure.

After enjoying the lonely summit, we headed back down. We decided to cut some distance off by contouring more aggressively, and staying below point 12890. It wasn't very pleasant, as large chutes of talus intersected our path, and who doesn't love sidehilling on talus? However, soon we made it back to the spine of the ridge we had taken up, and we headed back down through the forest.

Once we hit the Colorado trail, we noticed fresh mule tracks. We decided to do some detective work, and find where they had come from. The hunting guide had seemed very confident about the connecting trail, and we assumed he must have used it on the way up. So we followed the tracks back along the Colorado trail about 50 yards, and found the trail that leads down to the Leinhart mine. Its completely unmarked, but is about 50 yards SOUTH of the meadow with the prospect mines and old cabin. Its a surprisingly good trail, however it is much longer then the straight shot bushwhacking due to a couple huge switchbacks. We popped out at the Leinhart mine above where the collapsed tunnel is. We set up a cairn to mark where the trail starts.

We then descended the last 100 yards to the parking area. Heres our route.

In summation, if you want solitude and an easy hike with some routefinding, this is your peak