August 17, 2022
Mount Flora (13,146 feet), Mount Eva (13,130 feet) & Witter Peak (12,884 feet)
11.4 miles; 3400 feet elevation gain
Total time: 6 hours 45 minutes
We started from the Berthoud Pass parking lot at 5:15am, we were the first cars there, with multiple peaks in mind but knew it would be up to the weather. The clouds came and went throughout the day starting with a 360 degree inversion at sunrise, my fourth one this year! We reached the top of the Mount Flora in 1.5 hours where we decided to continue on for more. While there were clouds, they weren't storm clouds. After Flora's summit the trail comes and goes for the remainder of the route, but you are on the ridge and the objectives and route are very clear. We started heading towards Mount Eva, where you descend about 700 feet before ascending 650 feet to the summit of Eva. We went in and out of the clouds all the way until the summit, which was completely in the clouds. We couldn't see any of the other peaks on the ridge line (Parry & Bancroft) so we decided that we wouldn't be going any further today. As we headed back towards Flora the clouds lifted and we checked the map and saw Witter Peak to our left. This added about 1 mile and 200 feet of elevation gain to the whole day. There is no trail to this summit but it is wide open tundra that is easy to navigate. The south face of Witter is a series of intense cliffs, so stay away from the edge and be careful if the cloud is low. After this we made our way back to the ridge line where we descended the saddle and re-ascended the 700 feet that we lost earlier. After this it is all downhill back to the car.
We had the entire ascent to ourselves. On the descent we ran into about 10 groups, all on the Mount Flora route. After Mount Flora we only saw one person all day! I often take front range peaks for granted but today was a reminder that we have some pretty spectular routes an hour from home. I will definitely be back for Parry & Bancroft or ideally the traverse as a point-to-point.
Thanks for sharing!!