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Peak(s):  "Every Mountain"  -  13,698 feet
"Cooper Creek Peak"  -  13,694 feet
Date Posted:  10/01/2019
Date Climbed:   09/28/2019
Author:  bergsteigen
Additional Members:   Tornadoman, Missy_Goat, Trailrunner, TaylorHolt, Reg0928
 Climb Every Mountain   

Every Mountain, Cooper Creek Peak

  • mileage: 9.69
  • elevation gain: +3,732' -3,806'
  • trailheads: Cooper Creek (start), Grizzly Gulch (end)
  • partners: Taylor, Andrew, Jess, Missy, Tyler, Bowser (dog), Mark

Fall Gathering time is always special. More special when I can actually inspire partners to tackle the 13ers in the region! It was a beautiful drive in and a pleasant Friday night around the fire hanging with friends new and old.

One of these is not like the other

After a night too short and weird dreams inspired by Fantastical Beasts we drove up in 2 trucks for the car shuttle. Andrew thought we could all get cozy in the Oklahoma truck up to the upper trailhead, so we piled 7 into it! At the upper trailhead, we met Mark, who was doing the 3 peaks to the west, but would share the hike up Cooper Creek valley with us.

The hike started out with headlamps, but as soon as we left the trees, we could start to see a bit better.

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Cooper creek valley

We had some fun at the stream crossing that was still a bit chilly as the logs and rocks were covered in frosty verglace.

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Old vehicle
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There will be crawling

Higher into the valley, we were treated to sunrise. We chose to ascend the trail to the ridge, versus going further up the valley to a very gentle tundra ramp. If the wind was any worse, we likely would have elected to stay lower for longer. But thankfully the wind was holding off, for now.

19894_04
Handies and Whitecross with morning sun
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Ascending the trail to the ridge


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Where Mark left us to go up Gudy Peak
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F-f-f-frosty


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Looking down Cooper Creek
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Looking up Cooper Creek

We chose to go up to the right on the ridge versus the left, but both sides seem to have "trails".

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Going up the steep traill
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Gudy Peak from the ridge

When we got up to the ridge, we took a break in the wind and got ready for the final push to the summit of Every Mountain.

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Every Mountain from the start of the ridge
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Looking down the ridge


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Wetterhorn and Uncompahgre
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On the ridge bump, looking at Every Mountain


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Good Boi - Photo: Andrew
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Missy, Tyler and Bowser

After the breezy ridge walk, we were soon on the summit of Every Mountain.

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Cooper Creek Peak
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San Luis color


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Every Mountain group


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Every pano north


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Every pano south


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Wetterhorn and Uncompahgre with fall colors

After a short rocky descent, we were at the saddle with just an easy stroll to the summit of Cooper Creek Peak. Missy and Tyler decided to descend at this point with their 6mo old pup Bowser. He had done a wonderful job, but the talus was getting to be too rough for him, and the remainder of the route, till we got to the Redcloud trail, would be very rough on his young paws.

19894_24
Easy route up to Cooper Creek Peak
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Looking back on Every Mountain


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Final stretch to the summit
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Me approaching my final Lake City 13er! - Photo: Jess/Andrew

Another nice 13er summit with friends on a pleasant day!

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Unnamed Centennials
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San Luis and color


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Every Mountain
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Handies and friends
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Sneffels group


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Wetterhorn
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Uncompahgre


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Cooper Creek pano east


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Cooper Creek pano west

We descended down the SE ridge for a bit, until we just descended into the drainage and down to the trail.

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Heading down the SE ridge
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Redcloud has its red dress on!

We took a nice break when we reached the trail, to let our talus heated feet rest a bit.

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Pretty valley from when we reached the trail
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Hiking down the fall colored trail

As we got lower into the valley, more and more avalanche damage became visible. It seemed like every path ran this winter! There was only one path in the Cooper Creek drainage.

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Approaching the first avy snow
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Creek tunnel through avy snow
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Walking on thick snow in September


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Flowers and fall leaves
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Taylor telling a story on the snow


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Almost prime!
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Avalanche debris everywhere

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After a fairly distracting hike down through the fall foliage, we arrived at the Grizzly Gulch trailhead, where Missy and Taylor were hanging out. Bowser was dead asleep!

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Trailhead views

A short drive back to the campsite for another evening of campfire fun! Thanks everyone for hiking my last 2 peaks in the Lake City area with me! It was a fun day!

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Windy Point fall foliage



My GPS Tracks on Google Maps (made from a .GPX file upload):




Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50


Comments or Questions
Dolt
Nice Trip Report
10/1/2019 2:53pm
Great report and gorgeous pictures.


Hoot
User
Enjoyed the photos
10/1/2019 7:03pm
I really enjoyed those peaks, the ridge running, and the Copper Creek drainage a couple of years ago. I think I was the only one in the whole drainage that day but it's always fun to have good hiking partners!


Tornadoman
User
7 on Every
10/11/2019 10:02am
Did we set a record? LOL. That view of Unc from Every with the foliage was on point!


bergsteigen
User
Thanks!
10/13/2019 2:17pm
Dolt & Hoot - Hurray for fall colors making everything prettier!

Andrew - Well if Every only has 92 recorded summits on 14ers and 76 on LOJ, I think it's safe to say it is likely a record!



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