Six Summit Day

With dates and a partner nailed down for trying the Wonderland again, I needed some conditioning to get my body prepared for what's ahead. I chose a cluster of peaks in the Tenmile/Mosquito Range, about two hours from Denver.

After 4am I couldn't sleep, so I finished packing some food and hit the road. My first target for the day was Mt. Sherman, one of Colorado's easier 14ers. It was my second after climbing Torrey's the week before. At

The hike in was on a dirt road, which, after passing the 4WD parking lot, turns into a meandering trail. There was only a little scrambling required to reach the South Ridge and eventually Sherman's broad, flat summit.

After summiting Sherman, I went 0.7 miles further and scrambled up Gemini, a 13er and one of Colorado's 100 highest peaks.

To descend back to the car I had to reclimb Sherman. When I summited it the first time I was alone, but now it was swarming with people. I made it back to the car in just under three hours. Here is what my gps provided me with:

After descending to the car, I drove to Kite Lake, at 12,000 feet, just a few miles north. From there I did a four mountain loop. Bross, Lincoln, Cameron and Democrat all rise to more than 14,000 feet. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to capture their splendor on my camera because I had forgotten it in the car. Here is a map and elevation profile though:

Total: 5,000+ feet of net elevation gain and 16 miles.