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Guyselman Mountain, Peak N, and Peak O are a group of peaks in the Northeastern Gore Range. I have been eyeing the traverse between these peaks all summer and finally set out to do it as a one day blitz.
I parked at the Grandview cemetery and got going at 4:45 am. I hiked 2.5 miles up the steep, rough Brush Creek Road to the upper trailhead. If you have a high-clearance four wheel drive you can save 5 miles roud trip on this route, but why would you want to miss out on the additional masochism? From the upper trailhead I hiked an additional 3.5 miles to pleasant Lost Lake. Lost Lake would be a nice place to camp if you were to split this trip into 2 days.
Lost Lake Trail
Pk N and Pk O from Lost Lake
From Lost Lake I did a delightful, Gore-style 2 mile bushwhack South to a small basin at the entrance of the Guyselman/Peak N cirque. I really enjoyed having a GPS for this, thanks for the awesome gift Mom and Dad!
Bushwhackin'
Basin below Guyselman cirque
From this basin I embarked on a boulder hop 0.7 mile West to a shallow talus gully that provided access to Guyselman's East ridge.
Peak N's East ridge looks awesome from here!
Boulder hopping towards Guyselman
Ascent gully
I hiked up the East ridge to the summit of Guyselman Mountain...
Hiking up Guyselman's East ridge
...and took in the views.
Peak L from Guyselman
View to the West
Peak N from Guyselman
From the summit of Guyselman I located a Southwest facing gully and steeply descended on third and fourth class rock for about 150 feet.
Southwest-facing descent gully
After descending I traversed around a large gendarme to the top of a deeply inset couloir and descended a short way towards a pinnacle on the left side of the couloir.
Heading towards the pinnacle
I then got on a ledge on the right side of the pinnacle and hugged the pinnacle as a I traversed around it.
Ledge next to pinnacle
After traversing around the pinnacle I scrambled down to the ridge. I then enjoyed a straightfoward, fun scramble on the ridge crest towards the false summit of Peak N.
Scrambling along the ridge crest
I climbed over the false summit and soon encountered a gendarme which I bypassed on the right.
Gendarme before final hike to Peak N's summit
After the gendarme I hiked up to the summit of Peak N and took a minute to have a snack and look around.
Pk C, Mt Powell, and Eagles Nest from Pk N
Guyselman Mtn from Pk N
I looked over to Peak O. So close, yet so far!
Pk O from Pk N
I took a deep breath and began steeply descending off of Peak N's summit.
Beginning the descent from Pk N's summit
I did a descending traverse towards the first huge gendarme
First gendarme
Once I reached the first gendarme I started traversing around its West side on a ledge. However, I eventually found myself cliffed out and had to backtrack. I descended further on the gendarme's West side to a notch between the gendarme and a pinnacle.
Notch between gendarme and pinnacle
I continued traversing around the first and then second massive gendarmes. This involved a lot of route-finding and third and fourth class climbing and was very time-consuming (but interesting).
Traversing on West side of gendarmes
Traversing
After traversing around the gendarmes, I scrambled up Peak O's Southwest face.
Southwest face of Pk O
Upon arriving at the summit of Peak O I allowed myself a 30 minute break and looked back towards Peak N. So close, yet so far!
Pk N from Pk O
Next to do was to descend back to Lost Lake.
Lost Lake from Peak O
I began descending talus and boulders on Peak O's North ridge.
Descending Peak O's North ridge
I noticed some interesting linear fall colors.
A line of fall foliage
Once off of the seemingly never-ending boulders I bushwacked back to the shores of Lost Lake.
Lost Lake
From here it was simply a matter of hiking 3.5 miles back to the upper trailhead and running 2.5 miles down the 4wd road to where my car was parked. When all was said and done the day's adventure came out to 19.0 miles round trip and 7400 vertical feet in 14.5 hours of hiking, boulder hopping, bushwhacking, scrambling and running. I drove home, pigged out and collapsed.
This was a punishing, yet very enjoyable day on some unknown peaks in a remarkable place.
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
Hell of a TR. I've been intrigued by this region and thought it could be done in a long day from Upper Slate, including a traverse from L. If there was a register on N, when was the last entry?
If you do enough bushwacking, it becomes nearly an addiction and more interesting than having a man made trail leading you to the summit with a mint on a pillow waiting your arrival. It makes climbing these things interesting and rewarding. Nice job doing this solo. I bet after 15 hours of hiking, you had quite the feast!
lordhelmut - There were no registers that I could find on any of these summits. That ridge connecting L and Guyselman looks super gnarly, sounds like a fun adventure!
I have been staring in awe at these peaks for the better part of a year wanting to summit them. Thank you for sharing your adventure. My feet are itching to get up there.
Very nice TR. Any chance you might be willing to share a GPX file of your route? I normally like route finding but this one looks like a lot of potential bushwacking and I am injured these days. Cheers
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