Ski the road or ski the trees, Sunset Peak is a great tour.
- December 11, 2010
- Team: Ralph
- Summit: 7869'
- Car to car: 2000' gain, 5 hours
Note: click images to see a larger version in a new window
Ralph likes to get moving early, so we are a good match. We left the car a little before 8, the only ones in the lot. Perfect. Except that NOAA was predicting rain/snow at 11. Warming trend. Yuk. But that wasn't enough to keep us at home. Ralph is like me: a little weather won't hurt you, and getting out is always worth the effort. This tour follows a road, and the road starts uphill quickly. It wasn't long and we had an excellent view of the other side of the highway where we often ski for turns: Freeman and Pilot peaks, show below. |
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As we got higher, the trees had a good sugar-coating. It was very scenic. Peaceful. And seasonal. |
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After an initial climb, the road flattens out and wanders a bit, even going downhill. Somewhere in here you get your first glimpse of the lookout on the summit. Enticingly close? |
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Out on the flats, there is a creek. And a small earthen dam. And a stamp mill. We had to do a little snow removal to make sure that is what we were looking at. Seems a little odd, but those early miners were an unpredictable bunch. And I love the local history, so this was a pretty cool find.
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| After the meandering section, you start climbing seriously. We shortcut some of the road here. Now the tower (it's there, look closely) really is quite close. On the way up, we followed the road to the top. It goes out of frame to the right, then crosses the hillside near to upper left shoulder. On the way down, we did turns in the burn area. The snow was really good here. |
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When we got to the lookout, we could see the predicted 11am storm moving in. After about two bites of lunch, Bogus disappeared in the clouds. Hmmmm. Maybe we should get going? |
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