Which 14ers to Hike Near Summit County/Leadville?

Colorado peak questions, condition requests and other info.
Forum rules
  • This is a mountaineering forum, so please keep your posts on-topic. Posts do not all have to be related to the 14ers but should at least be mountaineering-related.
  • Personal attacks and confrontational behavior will result in removal from the forum at the discretion of the administrators.
  • Do not use this forum to advertise, sell photos or other products or promote a commercial website.
  • Posts will be removed at the discretion of the site administrator or moderator(s), including: Troll posts, posts pushing political views or religious beliefs, and posts with the purpose of instigating conflict within the forum.
    For more details, please see the Terms of Use you agreed to when joining the forum.
User avatar
Marmot72
Posts: 378
Joined: 9/2/2007
14ers: 58  2 
13ers: 570 16
Trip Reports (37)
 

Re: Which 14ers to Hike Near Summit County/Leadville?

Post by Marmot72 »

I second Wheeler (and neighbor North Star). I did them in early summer, dry conditions, walking the road to Wheeler Lake. That road would be a bit more interesting (and free of any danger) with snow cover; also, a road forks early to hit the eastern edge of the ridge that goes to North Star and then Wheeler. Only potential concern might be the section right E of Wheeler to get over to N Star. It’s a steep, narrow spot with a formidable drop on the north. But that spot could be bypassed to the south, if needed - a bit of a PITA, I imagine, but doable.
I have phenomenal route-finding abilities. Specifically, I have an uncanny knack for selecting the path of most resistance.
User avatar
Jorts
Posts: 1113
Joined: 4/12/2013
14ers: 58  4  2 
13ers: 102 11 5
Trip Reports (10)
 

Re: Which 14ers to Hike Near Summit County/Leadville?

Post by Jorts »

blazintoes wrote: Mon Nov 21, 2022 11:00 am
9patrickmurphy wrote: Mon Nov 21, 2022 10:34 am
blazintoes wrote: Mon Oct 31, 2022 5:59 am Wheeler Pk via Wheeler TH along the CT on the Copper Mtn side is a wonderful easy trail all the way up. ~9 miles r/t.
Are you talking about Peak 9? Wheeler Mountain is more easily accessed from the East, and it's chossy, complicated, and without a trail.
https://www.hikingproject.com/trail/703 ... eler-trail
That link is for hiking Wheeler Trail from Copper over the Tenmile Range over to the McCullough area. But most importantly, it is not for accessing Wheeler Peak. pmurph is right, you'll want to go from the east side, parking at the end of CR 4 at Montgomery Reservoir.

It's unnecessarily confusing around Summit, cause there's Wheeler Trail, Wheeler Peak, and even Wheeler Lakes next to Wheeler Junction over in the southern end of the Gore. None of which are related to each other, outside of being named after this Wheeler guy who I know nothing about... maybe that will be a future installment from gore galore.
Traveling light is the only way to fly.
IG: @colorado_invasive
Strava: Brent Herring
User avatar
blazintoes
Posts: 322
Joined: 9/4/2012
14ers: 58  58 
13ers: 327 3 73
Trip Reports (16)
 

Re: Which 14ers to Hike Near Summit County/Leadville?

Post by blazintoes »

Jorts wrote: Fri Dec 02, 2022 9:57 pm
blazintoes wrote: Mon Nov 21, 2022 11:00 am
9patrickmurphy wrote: Mon Nov 21, 2022 10:34 am

Are you talking about Peak 9? Wheeler Mountain is more easily accessed from the East, and it's chossy, complicated, and without a trail.
https://www.hikingproject.com/trail/703 ... eler-trail
That link is for hiking Wheeler Trail from Copper over the Tenmile Range over to the McCullough area. But most importantly, it is not for accessing Wheeler Peak. pmurph is right, you'll want to go from the east side, parking at the end of CR 4 at Montgomery Reservoir.

It's unnecessarily confusing around Summit, cause there's Wheeler Trail, Wheeler Peak, and even Wheeler Lakes next to Wheeler Junction over in the southern end of the Gore. None of which are related to each other, outside of being named after this Wheeler guy who I know nothing about... maybe that will be a future installment from gore galore.
Clever way to get GG involved Jorts. Also is Wheeler Peak truly where the Tenmile Range ends and Clinton where the Mosquito Range begins? And are the Sawatch and Elk ranges really just one big range? When you stand on any peak in the Sawatch and look west it appears they are all one range and vice versa. I never noticed until the centennial junkies brought it up on our GD to Pika scramble over the summer. And just because I did the TMT from north to south and fell in love with one of Colorado's best traverses means I should be more specific about the topic, "which 14ers to hike in Summit/Leadville" My main point was bigger is not better and there are way better climbs than the 14ers.

The trail link I posted one can see that there is a huge network of trails all along up and over TMT. The specific link I sent is actually segment 7 of the Colorado Trail that bisects the Continental Divide and there are pretty pictures. So to add to the confusion, shouldn't this trail named "Wheeler" actually be named CT-7? Probably not because of the terminus.

I definitely agree with you that Summit is confusing with names, accessibility and opportunities. My short summer there I barely scratched the surface of what is possible with hiking, biking and climbing. Listen to Jorts the Summit King and Murph who questioned my post; traversing Tenmile from the CT as I posted is doable and fun but tricky. If you want to get really crazy read the whole shebang here: https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... trip=18741

You can skip the gendarmes (pic I posted) because everyone who completes the TMT does including Peter and Justin. They are low hanging fruit.

One last suggestion. I've climbed Wheeler to Clinton from the east both in winter and summer and I personally didn't find it terrible but again, I sorta love/hate choss. There is a good route description here: https://www.14ers.com/route.php?route=whee1&type=13ers
Attachments
tmt.jpg
tmt.jpg (124 KiB) Viewed 691 times
gore galore
Posts: 91
Joined: 6/1/2012
Trip Reports (40)
 

Re: Which 14ers to Hike Near Summit County/Leadville?

Post by gore galore »

OK, I'll get involved. Wheeler Flats, Wheeler Junction, the town of Wheeler, Wheeler Lakes, Wheeler Trail, Wheeler Pass and Wheeler Mountain are all named for JUDGE JOHN S. WHEELER, 1834-1906, born in Massachusetts and arriving in Colorado in 1859 not for mining but for ranching.

Wheeler had grazing lands for his cattle at Wheeler Flats or Wheeler Junction at the confluence of Tenmile Creek and West Tenmile Creek. In 1878 he built a sawmill there supplying the Tenmile mining camps and the coming railroad. The sawmill eventually became the town of Wheeler in 1879 with a peak population of 225. Wheeler burned down in 1882 to be revived again. During the severe winter of 1898-1899 slides and drifts ceased travel in all directions. One report indicated there is enough food at Wheeler "to last 10 days with care." And I am not sure what happened after that other than the remains of the town were visible to some in 1956 at the present-day site of Copper Mountain resort.

The Wheeler Trail was Wheeler's old stock trail from the Flats to drive his cattle over the Tenmile Range through Wheeler Pass between Peak 8 and Peak 9 to the south end of Breckenridge and eventually South Park. The CDT trail follows the Wheeler Trail from Copper Mountain to high on the west side of the Tenmile Range where the Wheeler Trail turns south, and the CDT goes north. It is possible the CDT has superseded in name that portion of the Wheeler Trail from Copper Mountain to the trail junction.

All of the Wheeler names are in the vicinity of Wheeler Flats except Wheeler Mountain, and one may wonder at the connection. But Wheeler also had a sawmill at Carbonateville in the upper Tenmile Creek valley in 1878 to supply the mines in McNulty Gulch. And McNulty Gulch is just across the valley from Wheeler Mountain. Some sources erroneously attribute the Wheeler Mountain name to George M. Wheeler of the Wheeler Geographical Survey of the 1870's.

As to the question of where the Tenmile Range ends and the Mosquito Range begins I always like to refer to the Ormes "Guide to the Colorado Mountains" of yore. Ormes places the cluster of peaks of Traver Peak, McNamee Peak and Clinton Peak collectively on the ridge at the west end of the valley of the headwaters of the South Platte River an Atlantic drainage.

From a map one can also see the Continental Divide running in an even line west from Hoosier Pass on the ridge to just south of the summit of Wheeler Mountain before curving southwest to Clinton Peak. Wheeler Mountain is then in the Tenmile Range of a Pacific drainage. The division of the ranges is of the Continental Divide south of the summit of Wheeler Mountain.
gore galore
Posts: 91
Joined: 6/1/2012
Trip Reports (40)
 

Re: Which 14ers to Hike Near Summit County/Leadville?

Post by gore galore »

The gendarmes in blazintoes picture have a lot of historic and climbing interest. They are of the rock fountains of the Rock Fountain Ridge between Atlantic Peak on the right and Fletcher Mountain on the left from the McCullough Gulch direction. They were named by Bob Ormes for the Fountain Valley School Mountain Club of which Ormes was a teacher at one time. Ormes and a group of five schoolboys who were learning rock climbing made the probable first ascent of the five main points. According to Ormes "the major difficulty proved to be the car, an ancient Pierce Arrow donated by the Broadmoor Hotel Company, in which we made charge after charge upon the steep, slippery corduroy road in Mayflower Gulch."

The rock fountain on the left with the horizontal quartzite band was thought to be the original Mountain of the Holy Cross as reported by an 1830's explorer. The vertical quartzite band is not visible in the picture but there is an outstanding view of this cross from Highway 9 looking up McCullough Gulch.

Summits such as these are often dismissed as "low hanging fruit" but often have historic and climbing interest for me. In addition to traversing the rock fountain summits from the Atlantic saddle to Fletcher from the Mayflower Gulch side I have climbed the Holy Cross fountain as an objective by its east face from McCullough Gulch to high on the ridge to the right and then circling around to the west side and summit. My film cannister summit record is probably still there unsigned but by me as I doubt anybody would stop to consider this a summit unless they knew of its historic nature.
User avatar
blazintoes
Posts: 322
Joined: 9/4/2012
14ers: 58  58 
13ers: 327 3 73
Trip Reports (16)
 

Re: Which 14ers to Hike Near Summit County/Leadville?

Post by blazintoes »

gore galore wrote: Sat Dec 03, 2022 3:36 pm The gendarmes in blazintoes picture have a lot of historic and climbing interest. They are of the rock fountains of the Rock Fountain Ridge between Atlantic Peak on the right and Fletcher Mountain on the left from the McCullough Gulch direction. They were named by Bob Ormes for the Fountain Valley School Mountain Club of which Ormes was a teacher at one time. Ormes and a group of five schoolboys who were learning rock climbing made the probable first ascent of the five main points. According to Ormes "the major difficulty proved to be the car, an ancient Pierce Arrow donated by the Broadmoor Hotel Company, in which we made charge after charge upon the steep, slippery corduroy road in Mayflower Gulch."

The rock fountain on the left with the horizontal quartzite band was thought to be the original Mountain of the Holy Cross as reported by an 1830's explorer. The vertical quartzite band is not visible in the picture but there is an outstanding view of this cross from Highway 9 looking up McCullough Gulch.

Summits such as these are often dismissed as "low hanging fruit" but often have historic and climbing interest for me. In addition to traversing the rock fountain summits from the Atlantic saddle to Fletcher from the Mayflower Gulch side I have climbed the Holy Cross fountain as an objective by its east face from McCullough Gulch to high on the ridge to the right and then circling around to the west side and summit. My film cannister summit record is probably still there unsigned but by me as I doubt anybody would stop to consider this a summit unless they knew of its historic nature.
Thank you for responding! History need not be a mystery and the knowledge you have and share is one of the few things on here that I read and come back to.

The Low hanging fruit comment comes from someone who is clearly spoiled and likes going light and fast. Stop and smell the flowers, you’ll live longer. With the right partner I’d definitely climb it and now I’m also interested in the Holy Cross fountain. Seems like a fun hunt for a register!
Thank you GG. Is this how you sign registers so I know in the future?
User avatar
Jorts
Posts: 1113
Joined: 4/12/2013
14ers: 58  4  2 
13ers: 102 11 5
Trip Reports (10)
 

Re: Which 14ers to Hike Near Summit County/Leadville?

Post by Jorts »

gore galore wrote: Sat Dec 03, 2022 1:46 pm OK, I'll get involved.
Thanks for the history lesson, Joe.
Traveling light is the only way to fly.
IG: @colorado_invasive
Strava: Brent Herring
Post Reply