Kuss Peak

We set off at 6:30am, drove to Alma, Colorado and turned off on a gravel road toward Mosquito Pass.  There was only one other car at the pull off point (not really a trailhead).  We geared up and hiked up the rough 4wd road toward North London Mill, enjoying great views to the south and what I believe to be Pikes Peak in the center of the photo. We also had a perfect bluebird day, nothing but blue skies as far as the eye could see.

 

The old mine building.  It was one of the biggest gold strikes in Colorado and closed during WWII, after 70 years of operation.

After the mine, we went up a short distance to the saddle between London Mountain and Kuss Peak (our destination).  We left the trail and headed straight up talus to Kuss Peak.  Pictures below - Tom on the way up a steep section and then the view of Continental Divide summits, an impressive lineup for sure.

From the top!

After summitting Kuss at 13,548ft, we decided to take the south ridge off the peak, dodge more than a few large snowfields and head over to the South London Mine, which we spotted on the way up Kuss, and Tom really wanted to check out.  It had to be about 2 miles across a wide open basin to the mine, but it was a beautiful hike.

Lots of water to cross in the Mosquito basin.

 It is wildflower season in the high country!

  Very cool snow formations.

Tom with Kuss Peak behind.  We approached on the right side and descended on the left side.

We reached the mine and poked around the old dilapidated buildings for quite a while.  Very cool, tons of old equipment around there as well.  I know it was a very hard life for those miners, but damn, they had great views!

The nicest house around the mine.  Kuss Peak is in far back left (where we came from).

Inside what we believe to be the managers home - it was very nice and paneled.  The workers quarters were much more modest.

So, after we visited the mine, we had 2 choices.  We could either backtrack the way we came or try to skirt around London Mountain - the behemoth that laid between us and the car.  Well, of course, we opted to explore and started around the edge of London Mtn.

Tom heading for the ridge ahead, so we could get the lay of the land.  If it was a steep talus or scree traverse between us and the car, we'd have to make a call.

We eventually made our way around the front side and this is the very steep view we were treated to, the road we came in on is very visible. 

We kept heading toward the car and came across multiple avalanche chutes.  In this one you can see the broken trees sticking up out of the snow.  At least the avys had cleared the vegetation out somewhat and it created areas that we could traverse easily.

We made it down to the creek and bushwhacked through trees and willows for probably another 45 minutes before we hopped a roaring Mosquito Creek and hoofed it up about a 1/2 mile to the car.

 

I'd say our general route is below.  The red X at the top is the start/end point, the one at the bottom is the South London Mine camp.  We may have been a bit higher up on London Mtn coming around the front.  We ultimately met the road back at the London Mill.  It's a great loop and if you like to explore old mines and bag some peaks, this area is well worth exploring!

 

All in all, a great hike.  Kuss Peak isn't anything fantastic on it's own.  It's a relatively "easy" 13er, but with the fantastic views and history of the area with the old buildings and mines, it's a wonderful day spent at elevation.  We hiked for 7 hours and covered probably 10-11 miles in total, at least 8 of that was off trail.  Get out and explore!  There's nothing quite like standing on the side of a mountain and knowing that it's likely no person has been in that same spot for a very long time.  :)

Hello Hiking Season.

Well, hiking season is here - summer hiking season, that is.  It's getting very close to snow-free in some places!  We had a snowy winter here, which made for great skiing for a long spring, but now it's time to switch to summer adventures.

Tom and a friend went camping last weekend, so the wives headed out to *try* to bag a 12,000 peak near Frisco.  We failed.  However, it was a great up-up-up trail, hiking about 8 miles roundtrip and gaining probably 3000 feet of elevation. We were shooting for Eccles Pass or maybe even Eccles Peak, but the snowfields (and our lack of snow equipment) turned us back.  But not before we had a great hike with the dogs.

Near where we were forced back by snow, we had a river crossing - we spent a good 20 minutes walking up and downstream, off trail, looking for a good crossing point - through very wet willows, swampy ground and bushwhacking a bit.  But in the end, the picture below was the "best" spot to tackle it.  One of Andi's dogs is a bit terrified of crossings like this (pictured below, looking very trepidatious), and in his defense, this stream was kicking, very deep and moving very fast - we searched the area and came up with an old dead log and reinforced the crossing area - anything for the dogs!  Ez and Beanie made it across and we continued on up the trail.

Past this crossing, we were forced off the trail and into the trees again and again by snow.  We really REALLY tried to push through the trees, and after a lot of post-holing and dodging snowbanks, we came to this view of Eccles peak.  We considered going straight up this side and avoiding the snow covered pass, but decided against it.

Some of the snow we were going through and around.

View heading back down the trail.

The aspens are slowing greening up!

Lake Dillon as we were almost back to the car.  The views out here are incredible. 

All in all, a great day for a hike.  We got some elevation, fantastic views and a nice workout - oh, and of course, 2 tired dogs.

This weekend we hope to tackle 2 13ers south of Fairplay - look for that trip report soon.  Hopefully we make it to the top (and back down) safely and successfully!