TWINING PEAK
(13,711')September 5, 2008
By Tim Briese
4 1/2 miles, 1700' elevation gain, 2:50 roundtrip time
I left Colorado Springs at 1 p.m. on Friday afternoon and drove to Independence Pass to climb Twining Peak. It was cloudy and chilly in the Springs when I left but warm sunshine greeted me in the mountains. I arrived at the pass at 3:45 and found the large parking area filled with vehicles of tourists who had stopped to look around. I left my truck at 4 p.m. and hiked across the highway and around the east side of the small lake on the north side of the road with my lab Allie. There was a strong trail through the willows to the northeast that I followed as it climbed the gentle slopes north of the pass. After a while I began to suspect that this trail led to the point visible to the north from the highway, which was not my objective, so I left the trail at about 12,500 feet and began to contour across the slopes around to the left. This turned out to work fine, although I could have avoided a little sidehilling if I had left the trail a little lower, at around 12,300 feet, or avoided the trail entirely. After contouring around the left side of the unnamed point I soon found myself in a grassy basin with Twining Peak now visible for the first time about a mile ahead. I struck off cross country toward a saddle on the ridge south of the peak. I rapidly climbed up the mostly grassy slopes to the 13,140 foot saddle and turned left and walked up the gentle ridge northwest, and then north, toward the summit. After climbing over a false summit and through a fun rocky section just before the true summit, I stepped on top at 5:30.
The late day sunshine bathed the surrounding landscape in a golden glow. I couldn=t remember being on a high peak so late in the day, so this was a special treat to be enjoyed. After 15 minutes I left and retraced my steps down to my truck waiting at the pass, all the way reveling in the enchanting evening light as sunset approached. I returned to the parking area at 6:50, an hour and five minutes after leaving the summit. The parking area was now almost empty. I spotted a solitary person sauntering slowly up the hill north of the highway, perhaps on a stroll to enjoy the imminent sunset. I drove back down Highway 82 a few miles and camped in my truck that night in the woods along North Fork Lake Creek.
This brief outing was short, sweet, and scenic. Twining Peak is one of the easiest high peaks I have ever climbed.
