| Ref: 14ers.com
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Following an
off-road vehicle's track on the Mosquito Pass Road.
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RT 8.75 (includes Mosquito Peak, Treasurevault Mountain, Mounts Tweto
and Arkansas); 2.5 up. With a great day
finally in the forecast, I decided to visit Mosquito Pass and traverse
5 main peaks of the northern Mosquito Range. This trek wasn't
technically difficult but there was an element of uncertainty, I wasn't
sure if I would be able to traverse to Mount Arkansas given the current
snow
conditions and I didn't know if it would be possible to beeline off
that summit's west face down to the highway to catch a ride back to
Leadville. It was clear to me that if I reached Mount Tweto and
couldn't proceed, I would have to backtrack and go up and over
Treasurevault, Mosquito and Kuss again; that seemed like a daunting
task but I was up for the challenge. I got an early start for this one.
Familiar with the approach on the mining road, I reached the
saddle east of Prospect Mountain by 6 AM just in time to watch the
alpenglow on the
tall mountains of the Sawatch Range. From here, I could see most of the
upcoming traverse. I continued to Mosquito Pass where I took a small
break,
it's then that I realized my satellite phone was in roaming mode
rendering it useless and I didn't know how to reset it. I was slightly
apprehensive about continuing but honestly, I didn't want to waste this
fabulous day so I gambled on my luck. I pressed on to Kuss Peak
thinking
about the fact that I hadn't told Tim about my intention of
traversing all the way to Mount Arkansas, I was also hoping he wouldn't
worry because of my lack of correspondence. Given the obvious lure of
the
mountains, I carried on. Kuss Peak is a short
distance away from the pass with a slight height gain, it didn't
require much effort to reach it. This unranked 13er, also known as
Repeater Peak is equipped with numerous solar panels and telemetry
mounted on a nice stone building. I
walked around it and took pics before resuming my traverse to
peak #2, Mosquito Peak.
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Looking
past Evans Gulch towards the Sawatch Range.
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Alpenglow
on Mount Hope (left), LaPlata Peak (middle) and Mount Elbert (right).
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On
my way to Mosquito Pass with Kuss Peak (middle), Mosquito Peak (left
center) and Treasurevault Mountain (left).
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Mount
Evans B (left), Dyer Mountain and West Dyer Mountain.
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On
the Mosquito Pass Road.
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Mosquito
Pass.
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London
and Loveland Mountains on the east side of the pass.
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Kuss
Peak aka Repeater Peak.
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Glancing
south at a section of the Mosquito Range with Mount Evans B, Dyer
Mountain, Gemini Peaks and Mount Sherman.
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Almost
too easy!
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Nice
stone building on Kuss Peak.
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View
east over London Mountain with Loveland (left) and Pennsylvania
Mountains on either sides.
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Mount
Massive beyond Prospect Mountain.
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My
second objective is Mosquito Peak.
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Continue
on to Mosquito Peak
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