Elevation: - Mount Sherman
14,036'; Mount Sheridan 13,748'
Location - West of Fairplay in
Colorado.
An easy 14er we climbed on June 24, 2000, made better by both Mike and me feeling especially fit that day. The following is a trip report written the same day. Photos follow.
Mike and I drove off to do Mt. Sherman, a 14,036' peak located directly E. of Leadville, and SW of Fairplay, leaving at 5:00AM (oof!). We arrived at the trailhead and were off shortly after 7:00AM, with extremely clear, beautiful weather. The starting elevation was just a little shy of 12,000', near where the road grew really rough (the road was gated approx. 200 yards past where we parked). The area around Mt. Sherman saw extensive mining in the past, so the first part of the journey was simply a walk up some old mining roads past mining buildings in various degrees of decay, including a mineshaft and headframe with railcar tracks between them intact - a real rarity. When we reached the Hilltop Mine area at 12,800', we decided not to take the "trade route", which goes up an easy slope to a saddle at 13,000', since the resulting path looked too easy and also longer. Instead, we took an "alternate route" up a very steep scree slope (calculations with topo map and ruler indicate 55 degree average - we spent a lot of it taking one step forward and half a step sliding backward). This was much harder, obviously, but also allowed us to very quickly gain 800' in elevation in about half an hour while bypassing at least a mile of the normal route.
Upon reaching the ridge at between 13,600' and 13,800', it then became a very simple ridge walk to the summit approx. 1/2 mile away, with the last 400 yards being relatively flat near the summit. We reached the summit cairn at 8:30AM. This means we did 2,000' of elevation gain in about two miles in an hour and a half (1,300+' of elevation gain an hour is not too bad for two old farts like us - not at that starting and ending elevation). The views from the top were terrific, due to the fine weather. We could see the Sawatch Range to the W. of us, across the Arkansas Valley, from the Mt. of the Holy Cross well down into the Collegiate Peaks by Buena Vista. We saw the Gore Range to the N., most of the Front Range including Bierstadt and Evans, and Pikes Peak across South Park to the SE. Most of the mountains are already pretty clear of snow, but Mt. Massive straight W. of us had an abnormal amount of snow pack still on it - it really stood out from its neighbors.
After admiring the views for 15 minutes and chatting with two other men who had summited just before us, we decided we were feeling good enough to try the neighboring Mt. Sheridan (a talus cone at 13,748'). So we descended a mile to the saddle, and then worked our way up the 40 degree slope for 750' of talus and scree, summiting Sheridan at a little after 10:00AM. We both still felt great, one of those days when everything just clicks, the muscles feel good, the aerobic system is working efficiently - a wonderful feeling. After hanging out for a bit, we descended back to the saddle, and returned via the normal route down to the Hilltop Mine, and then walked back down to the car, reaching it at about 11:00. I would estimate the entire day's mileage at a little under 4 miles. So in four hours we had done 2,750' of elevation gain, and the entire trip time included two breaks for food and water and two stops at the summits. By this time the normal route up Mt. Sherman was fairly busy, which was disturbing, because the afternoon thunderstorm clouds were building early and already looking pretty angry in places around the summit, and most people seemed to be moving really slowly, especially considering the ease of the trade route. I am glad we were off the peaks when we were - those people are braver (or stupider) than we were!
Mt. Sherman is rated as one of the easiest 14ers (if not the easiest), and now that we've done it, I would agree. The guidebook says to give it up to 6 hours roundtrip, but we summited in a quarter of that time, and if we had simply returned straight to the car, probably would have done the route in 2.5 hours. Of course, taking the harder route up the scree slope because we wanted the exercise helped shorten the time and route mileage immensely - we only saw one other person take that route the whole time we were there (most people don't like to work that hard :-). All in all, a great outing. Tomorrow we plan on doing Squaretop Mountain, a 13,794' peak about 1.5 miles W. of Guanella Pass. Hopefully the mountain gods will smile upon our endeavors two days in a row!
We didn't take a camera that day (we often don't), so the following photo is from Dawson's Guide to Colorado's Fourteeners; Volume 1.
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We followed the basic route shown, except we continued to the right where the trail switchbacks left at the Hilltop Mine, reconnecting with the main trail at about under the "3.1.2" mark on the ridge. We then simply came back down the ridge and went straight up Sheridan, and then back down the main route. |
Copyright © 2003 - James Lehmer - All Rights Reserved.
