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Mount BuckskinOctober 17, 2009 - Ascent of NE Slopes & SE Ridge Descent
Given work commitments and an unusually cold and snowy stretch through later September and early October, I had not been climbing since my trip to the South Maroon Bell and Cathedral Peak, almost four weeks earlier. The weather forecast for Saturday promised a bluebird day and there was no way that I was not going to get in a day of climbing. While G and I do not normally do much climbing in the fall of the year, this year is different as prepping for a mid January trip to Argentina is the name of our game. The option of coasting along until there is enough snow for back country skiing is simply not an option this year.
We were off and across the relative flats and aiming for the power line right of way as our first turning point, after which I figured we would cut left to a ridge that would most likely give us a talus hopping route to the summit ridge. The snow en route to the power poles ranged from a few inches to a foot, the deeper stuff piled up where the willows formed a natural snow fence. We made a relatively gentle ascent across and to a lower pole We arrived on the ridge and turned right to head for the first and higher Buckskin summit. The guide by Gerry Roach notes that the first summit is five feet higher than the second but it really did not matter as we were planning to tread across both for sure. The hike to the first summit took but a few undulating minutes of ridge walking and then we were off for the second summit, about a quarter mile distant. The terrain between the summits changes and the route takes on much more of a ridge walk with some class 2 terrain as compared to the almost smooth class 1 course to that point. We crossed over one shorter intermediate point and then climbed on up to the second summit proper. This second summit looks out onto the valley that rises from the hairpin turn on the Leadville side of Fremont Pass below the Climax Mine.
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