TRICO PEAK (13,321’)

August 24, 2018

By Tim Briese

13510B: 2.3 miles, 1000’ elevation gain, 2:20 roundtrip time

Trico: 1.1 miles, 500’ elevation gain, 1:10 roundtrip time

I needed some easy peaks to climb today, as I was feeling quite ill, and these two were a perfect choice. Brian and I left Ridgway a little before 7 am and drove up to Red Mountain Pass and proceeded up the 4WD Black Bear Pass Road. Two years ago when we climbed T10 we drove my truck part way up this road and parked at a rough spot at 11,800’ and walked the rest of the way, but this time we drove all the way up to the 12,840’ pass. This popular 4WD road is steep, narrow, and rough in spots. I’m sure many 4WD enthusiasts love the adrenaline rush from driving this road, but not me. I found it nerve-racking and harrowing to drive, partly because there are long narrow stretches where it is problematic to meet other vehicles, since someone would have to back up quite a ways. From the pass we could have hiked right up to Trico a short distance to the north and continued north along the ridge to 13510B. We weren’t sure about the difficulty of Trico’s north ridge though, having read mixed information about it online, and decided it would just be easier to climb the peaks separately anyway. We decided to climb 13510B first. From the pass we drove a half mile down the road on the other side and parked at 12,600’. At 840 we embarked on foot up the remnants of a gated old mine road to the east that took us neatly up to the ridge near the Trico/13510B saddle.

we parked here and hiked up the old road at the right. 13510b is beyond at the left. (photo taken on our return.)

looking back up the road to black bear pass

This old mine road provided a nice route, except for a short sketchy spot where the road had deteriorated on a steep talus slope.

a rough spot on the old mine road that we took up to the ridge. (photo taken on our descent.)

view of trico's rough north ridge from near the saddle.  we were liking our choice to not take that route.

From the saddle we made an easy stroll up grassy slopes to the summit of 13510B.

nice grassy slopes most of the way up to 13510b

looking back at trico from 13510b's south slopes.  t10 lies beyond, and the black bear pass road is to the right.

We arrived on top just before 930 and spent a half hour resting and enjoying the fine San Juan views. It was great to be here this morning, great to be alive. There was a bird’s eye view down to Telluride to the west, nearly 6000 feet below. A smoky haze filled the skies, which was common during the summer of 2018 in Colorado.

me on the summit of 13510b

a nice view of trico and the black bear pass road.  my truck is the white dot along the road at right center.

telluride in the valley below to the west

rugged and colorful san juans

We left and hiked back down to the truck in 45 minutes. We loaded up and drove back up to the pass and parked to climb Trico, a half mile away and 500 feet above. 13ers don’t get much easier than this. A portion of the ascent looked steep and loose as we approached but there is a rather nice trail up through this section on surprisingly solid footing.

the route to trico from near the pass

It took us just under half an hour to hike from the truck to the summit.

brian on trico's summit

looking down at black bear pass from the summit.  t10 is at the upper right.

13510b, at the upper left, from trico

All morning there were numerous jeeps and other 4WD vehicles grinding along on the Black Bear Pass Road below. After 20 minutes on top we left just before noon and hiked back down to the truck in about 20 minutes. The adventure wasn’t quite over yet though because we had to drive back down the steep, narrow road to the highway.

driving down a section of the black bear pass road

It seemed a little easier going down and we arrived without incident back at US 550 and pulled over to enjoy a celebratory Coke on the tailgate of my truck.