Sometimes it’s seems that it’s hard to follow up something like the Tour of the Highest Hundred with the next project. It took years to get myself physically and mentally ready to take something like that on – save nothing for the financial burden of taking so much time off work and the burden of that food bill!

Still, in the heartbeat, I’d do it all again. But the world is a big place, and there’s so many fun and challenging things to do – even so close to where I live. I don’t necessarily like to repeat myself, but I do like to progress in what it is I do, and in doing so: explore different facets of the talents I’ve taken a life to develop.

Anyways, the future! What’s on my mind to do this summer (or next)? Here’s two projects I’d like to try (more coming, later…)

The Complete Mosquito Tenmile Traverse Traverse (Fastpack)

Update: Completed! Read the long form essay; watch the video diary.

The Mosquito Tenmile Traverse is a beautiful ridgeline of mountains that start north near Frisco, Colorado, and end at Weston Pass, 38 miles later. 38 peaks are within this one line including two 14ers, 24 13ers, and eight 12ers – and the meat of the traverse doesn’t dip below 13,000 feet for about 26 of those miles – most likely the longest ridgeline above 13,000 feet anywhere in the lower 48 states. See Peter Bakwin’s stories on his attempts (one, two). It’s only been completed once and Jeff Rome’s trip report about it is curiously bare.

I can’t think of a most perfect challenge for someone like me! To sprinkle a little of my own style into the challenge, I plan to attempt my Mosquito Traverse at Trout Creek Pass, where the range actually starts/terminates in the south and do a little bit of a prologue by hiking up East and West Buffalo Peak, before tackling the rest of the range, starting at Weston Pass, all the way to Frisco, CO. The peaks before Weston Pass are of a different geological makeup than the rest of the range – volcanic in nature, rather than gneiss, so the peaks don’t line up as much in a ridgeline as they do for everything north of them.

I plan to do this as a completely unsupported fastpack, taking around three or so days. Hopefully, I can do the challenge when there’s still a bit of snow on the ridge, and just bring a small stove to melt water for drinking. Finishing in Frisco will be intentionally convenient, as I can grab food any hour of the day, and catch the bus back to the front range if work requires!

A lot of this terrain will be familiar to me, as I’ve done the Tenmile Traverse: Mt. Royal/Mt. Victoria/Peak 1 – 10), from Frisco to Breckenridge (then I ran the Peaks Trail back!). I’ve also traversed Buckskin/Democrat/McNamee/Traver/Clinton on the Tour of the Highest Hundred as well as Fletcher/Atlantic/Pacific/Crystal on that same tour. The unknowns will be the crux bits: Drift/Fletcher/Atlantic. That may need a recon trip to check out what the cruxes are – maybe I can get Peter Bakwin to tag along with me! And maybe I can time my attempt just right, so the cruxes are snow traverses, rather than rock climbs.

The timing of hitting these peaks seems important. The vast majority of this traverse seems to be doable at any time of the day, but I’d like to have that Drift/Fletcher/Atlantic dashed off with plenty of daylight, and perhaps after a few winks of sleep. Doing the first part, Trout Creek Pass to Weston Pass leisurely with an early quitting time, followed by a very early wakeup call to start up from Weston Pass should deliver me to the col before Fletcher before I completely lose my mind. Then, giving myself plenty of time to get through Drift/Fletcher/Atlantic in the early morning on firm snow should set me up for the rest of the traverse that is in front me.

Sangre de Cristo Range Traverse

Another unsupported Fastpack, it makes the previous one look like a mere warmup. I… I have no idea how many named peaks this one traverses over (a lot – at least 83 peaks over 11,000 feet), but the line from the beginning of Lake Como Road outside of Blanca, CO (the southernmost public access point)  to the TH for Methodist Mountain outside of Salida Colorado is a little more than 103 miles. It’s quite incredible that there is a line of mountains with such a well-defined ridgeline that goes on for so far.

Some highlights of this trip: there are no paved routes intersecting the range for the entire 103 miles. The traverse of the entire range also includes doing two of the four great 14er traverses: Little Bear to Blanca (and right afterwards Ellingwood Point –  another 14er, to California Peak, a Centennial) and Crestone Needle to Crestone Peak – right to Mt. Adams, another Centennial.

From what I can tell in my research, this route has only been tried once by Brendan Leonard and Jim Harris (see The High Lonesome, Backpacker Magazine and beta). Leonard and Harris, starting in Salida, weren’t able to reach Lake Como, and finished off at the Lake Zapata trailhead, as the 100 year flood of 2013 was just starting to rage.

Cruxes here will definitely be the two 14er traverses – neither of which Leonard/Harris took on. I’ve done both traverses twice, so I’m not too concerned about them – can’t wait to revisit! I’ll start from the southern terminus to get the business out of the way, before continuing my way south toward Salida (and guaranteed burritos).

I can only guess how long something like this would take, but I would wager a solid week. The first part of the trip would be the slowest, and after Mt. Adams, it would be time to put on the afterburners to cruise (albeit relatively speaking). Little Bear would be the first peak I’d get on, so that makes timing the traverse a bit easy – if the weather holds to complete the traverse all the way to California, I could really put in some extra miles before stopping. It’s very hard to estimate when I’d be in the area for the Crestone Traverse, but I would first need to summit both Milwaukee and Broken Hand Peak before reaching them. I’m guessing I’ll be bivvying on Broken Hand Pass between Broken Hand Peak and Crestone Needle, to get an extra super early start for the day.