Mount Sheridan, Mount Sherman, Gemini Peak
From Leavick
This was my second climb of Mount Sherman and therefore the first fourteener that I’ve ever repeated. Ken needed to climb it in pursuit of climbing all the Colorado fourteeners so I decided to go along. We also were planning on climbing Mount Sheridan and Gemini Peak on either side of Mount Sherman. We were able to drive up the Leavick road quite a way. The scenery around this mountain is so much more bland than other places in Colorado. The only reason to climb here is to take care of Mount Sherman or to train in off-seasons for other peaks.
We started off by hiking towards Mount Sheridan. We hiked into a small basin between Sherman and Sheridan. The only colors present were an off-brown and white, very bland indeed. We started up the fairly gentle slopes of Mount Sheridan and then moved onto a snow slope that turned out to be moderately steep. But we made quick time and arrived on the top of Mount Sheridan. At the west end of the summit is a large cairn. We took a break here, ate a little bit, identified Sawatch mountains and then headed out to Mount Sherman.
I had been talking about how cool the ridge was on Mount Sherman, especially with snow. Well, it turned out that there was much less snow this year, and we were even 3 weeks before the time that I had done it a couple of years prior. So, the ridge wasn’t much of an exciting climb. It was mostly gravel. Still, it was enjoyable. We made it on top without any problems. I had decided that I wanted to go on to Gemini but Ken wasn’t really into it. I told him he could wait for me here and then he decided to go along. We decided to hike as fast as we could to Gemini. It only took us about 15-20 minutes to reach the summit. The summit is actually only about a 150 foot climb. Why this is a named peak, I have no idea. But, we bagged it and took our picture on the top. Then we headed back over Mount Sherman. Climbing Gemini so fast had apparently sapped us as the hike back over Sherman was grueling. We met some other climbers who were decked out as if they were climbing K2. They had on crampons, ice tools, protection, ropes, all sorts of stuff. Why they needed that gear on this mountain, I have no idea. They said they climbed White Ridge, but still! Talk about overkill.
After eating a short lunch, we hiked back down the Sherman/Sheridan saddle and decided to glissade. We discovered, however, that the eastern slopes were blocked by a cornice. That didn’t stop us though (although I was a bit scared). The cornices were in no danger of breaking off so we planted our ice axes in the base, and scooted over the edge, got secure, removed our ice axes and zipped down. It was a short fast glissade. Another good one after the awesome one on Castle Peak. We passed by a couple of old mines and then were outta there.
