Neato Tweto!

29 May 2005 - by T Colorado

Mt. Tweto (13672 ) is located along the ridge between Mosquito Peak/Treasurevault Mtn. and Mt. Arkansas, and also Buckskin Mtn. and Loveland Mtn. The official name is USLM Divide, but the peak was recently re-named in honor of a geologist by the name of Ogden Tweto (very nice plaque on top of the peak). We had a beautiful camp about 1 mile before the 4WD Mosquito Pass road crosses the creek ... under the bulk of London Mtn. Our plan was to climb Tweto Peak (one of the few peaks over 13,000' that we have left to do in this range) today and do London Mtn. (13,164') tomorrow.

We left camp and hiked up the road about a mile and then branched off onto tundra aiming for Mt. Tweto at the head of the basin. We were able to avoid all snow (pretty much) and arrived at the base of the peak. Michael picked a beautiful rock rib to scramble up and intersect the rocky ridge connecting Mt. Tweto and Buckskin Mtn. (very cool ridge). After intersecting the ridge, we scrambled to the left to the summit.

There is a summit register, though the space is limited. The views were great before the weather moved in. We could see Lincoln, Democrat and Bross; to the west, the Maroon Bells, Pyramid, Snowmass, Capitol and Sopris were visible. Nearer were Massive, Elbert, Mt. Hope, Quail Mtn., La Plata (and that elegant Ellingwood Ridge). To the south were Gemini Peaks, Sherman, Sheridan, Horseshoe, etc.

After a quick sign-in, we were on our way down as the storms were quickly approaching. We followed the pedestrian ridge down to the saddle. Two glissades and a bit of hiking brought us to the jeep trail we had followed and back to our truck. We had to scrap London Mtn. on Monday as we awoke to clouds down by our ankles (haha) and fresh snow on the peaks. We'll be back. Please note: This climb via the descent route would be a Class 1 on the ascent route; the difficulty on this ascent increased only due to the choice of the direct approach on the rib. Happy Trails!


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