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June 12-19, 2026
Introduction
The Gore Range is a prominent group of primarily granitic mountains located in Central Colorado between the Sawatch and Front ranges. Unlike the friendly rounded summits of the Sawatch and Front, the average Gore peak appears jagged and serrated from most sides, projecting a certain degree of ruggedness that is absent in the surrounding areas. A scattering of trails feed into the range through its many east and west-facing valleys, but none of them cross over the main crest of range until the extreme southern few miles where the ruggedness abruptly mellows out. There is a feeling of remoteness and solitude in the Gore, one that is rarely found in other high mountainous regions of the state.
The Objective
Ridge traversing in the Gore seems to be a popular pastime, as evidenced by a plethora of known and named traverses throughout the range. A likely reason for this is the amazing rock quality of the range, mostly consisting of alpine granite that is unusually solid and stable for the Rockies. Many of these traverses run along the Gore Crest, a prominent line of ridges and peaks that make up the main spine of the Gore Range, running in a northwest to southeast direction (I'll use north to south for simplicity). Some of these named traverses include: the Eagles Nest to Powell Traverse, Ripsaw Ridge, The Saw, Jigsaw, Rockinghorse Ridge, Partner Traverse, The Spice Factory, Gore Grand Traverse, and the Zodiac Traverse.
The aforementioned traverses made up just a small portion of the entire Gore Crest, with many unknown sections between them. An idea lit up in my head to link every bit of Gore Crest into one giant traverse, connecting every known and unknown section of ridge. A traverse of this magnitude would require both a high level of cardio endurance and decent light-and-fast climbing experience, especially the ability to solo miles of low 5th class terrain with a pack. I had no idea how technical the overall ridge would be, but mentally prepared for the possibility of 5.10 climbing.
With an idea of the traverse in my mind, I turned to the next crucial decision: the direction. Should I traverse the crest north to south or south to north? After consulting a plethora of trip reports and route descriptions from others, I decided on north to south. This would put the more difficult known terrain in the uphill direction. This would also involve traversing the Zodiac Ridge backwards from its usual south to north direction, likely incurring harder climbing compared to the traditional route which utilized several rappels over the sheer northern sides of towers. I didn't have much information on a possible north to south traverse of the Zodiac, except one remark on Mountain Project that it "worked."
sunrise from East Eagles Nest, looking towards Ripsaw Ridge
The overall design of the route was simple: hop onto the crest at its northernmost peak (East Eagles Nest Peak) and continue south along it until it's southernmost peak (Sneva Peak).
In an effort to balance comfort and speed with safety, I made the decision to commit to soloing the entire northern Gore, without utilizing climbing gear until the Zodiac Ridge.
Stats
YDS Difficulty: VI 5.8
Total distance: 55.51 mi
Total elevation: 32,211 ft / 31,113 ft gain/loss
Total peaks climbed: 52
Weather (and water)
In a normal year, the Colorado high country snowpack lingers well into mid July, rendering technical ridge traversing significantly more difficult and dangerous until mid July into August when summer monsoons pummel the mountains with frequent violent thunderstorms. June is usually a drier month sandwiched between the winter storm season and summer monsoon season, with less days of rain in the high peaks compared to most other months. The issue with June was, of course, the aforementioned lingering snowpack.
The winter of 2025-6 was record breaking in heat and near record breaking in drought, with a statewide snowpack of less than 10% of average by early May of 2026. This created the conditions I was looking for: a dry winter and warm spring which would clear the high ridges of enough snow to make them workable by June. I decided on mid June, pushing the snowmelt as far as possible but right before the frequent July thunderstorms rolled in.
In the couple months leading up to the traverse, I studied the daily forecast and recorded weather patterns of the Gore. One particular pattern of note was the wind. While mornings were generally calm, the wind would rapidly pick up starting mid-morning and whip the ridges at 30-40mph well into the night, usually peaking between 4-8pm. This wind pattern was forecasted to continue through the days of my planned traverse.
Due to the wind forecast combined with the difficulty of finding water on the ridge without boiling snow, which in itself was a dubious process that I wanted to avoid, I planned to come down from the crest each night to camp at a water source that was also protected from the wind. I could descend wherever I wanted to for this, with the rule that I must regain the crest the following morning to the exact spot where I had left off the previous day. No sections of the crest were to be skipped.
Partners
With a very short list of people I knew who would even consider attempting such an objective, I asked Toshi who readily agreed after being given the OK from his wife. Toshi had joined me for Colvoluted Bliss in 2017, so I knew he had the physical skills and endurance to back up his psyche for this route.
Caching
To bolster the comfort of lighter packs and resulting increased chances of success for the technical sections, I set two caches in one third and two thirds increments of the crest in terms of projected time and effort. I arrived one week prior to starting the traverse, setting both caches over a period of two days, completing two separate hikes of 12 and 14 miles. This was my first time ever in the Gore Range.
Cache 1 was placed at an elevation of 11,500 ft in the upper Pitkin Lake drainage. I was able to locate a great campsite here with a partially built wind shelter and some excellent rock "benches." This cache contained food for 2-3 days and a change of underwear and socks.
Cache 2 was placed at an elevation of 11,600 ft in an alpine meadow directly west of the Zodiac Ridge. This cache contained food for 2-3 days, changes of clothes, and climbing gear. After coming down to this cache, we would grab the gear and use it to traverse the Zodiac Ridge.
The climbing gear at cache 2 consisted of a 40m rope, a single rack of cams from 0.2"-2", a selection of small to medium nuts, 8 slings, and 30 ft of webbing.
Timing
In order to allow for adequate time to complete the route as well as a few buffer days for weather, I sectioned off 10 days from June 12-21. We ended up completing the route in an elapsed time of 6 days 23 hours and 24 minutes, spanning 8 calendar days from June 12 at 3:48pm MST to June 19 at 3:12pm MST.
Pacing
I divided each day into a manageable bite-sized chunk. With the exceptions of days 2 and 8, we generally kept our moving time to under 10 hours per day. This ensured that we had enough time to descend off the ridge, establish camp, and adequately recover for the following day. This eventually allowed us to reach an equilibrium point where we ended each day no more tired than the previous day, with no increase in net fatigue by the day. I felt pretty fresh on a lot of the subsequent mornings, even towards the end.
day-by-day pacing
| Date | Calendar Day | Mileage | Gain (ft) | Loss (ft) | Moving Time (hh:mm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6/12/2026 | 1 | 6.4 | 2,436 | -267 | 03:14 |
| 6/13/2026 | 2 | 9.57 | 7,626 | -6,346 | 14:09 |
| 6/14/2026 | 3 | 4.75 | 3,301 | -3,825 | 08:35 |
| 6/15/2026 | 4 | 2.29 | 1,821 | -1,803 | 03:02 |
| 6/16/2026 | 5 | 6.81 | 4,755 | -4,548 | 08:42 |
| 6/17/2026 | 6 | 5.24 | 3,627 | -3,646 | 07:02 |
| 6/18/2026 | 7 | 2.21 | 2,139 | -2,144 | 06:26 |
| 6/19/2026 | 8 | 18.24 | 6,506 | -8,534 | 10:35 |
Full Route Report
Peaks/Towers Climbed
| Peak | Elevation | Topographic Prominence | Summit Coordinates (lat/lon) |
|---|---|---|---|
| East Eagles Nest | 13,113 ft | 226 ft | 39.77851, -106.33732 |
| Eagles Nest | 13,417 ft | 664 ft | 39.77559, -106.35027 |
| Mt. Powell | 13,555 ft | 2,964 ft | 39.76004, -106.34070 |
| Peak C | 13,224 ft | 532 ft | 39.74991, -106.33639 |
| Peak C Prime | 13,133 ft | 144 ft | 39.74819, -106.33460 |
| Peak D | 13,050 ft | 245 ft | 39.74241, -106.33126 |
| Peak E | 13,213 ft | 207 ft | 39.73762, -106.32813 |
| Peak F | 13,230 ft | 243 ft | 39.73312, -106.32545 |
| Peak G | 13,305 ft | 1,027 ft | 39.73255, -106.32207 |
| Black Benchmark | 13,129 ft | 30 ft | 39.72878, -106.31875 |
| Peak H | 13,099 ft | 163 ft | 39.72677, -106.31503 |
| Peak J | 12,963 ft | 136 ft | 39.72051, -106.29822 |
| Peak P | 12,980 ft | 388 ft | 39.71647, -106.29511 |
| Rockinghorse | 12,720 ft | 148 ft | 39.71050, -106.29403 |
| West Partner Peak | 13,056 ft | 567 ft | 39.70578, -106.29172 |
| Graduation Peak | 12,639 ft | 120 ft | 39.70168, -106.28437 |
| East Partner Peak | 13,056 ft | 547 ft | 39.69935, -106.27722 |
| Peak W | 12,771 ft | 214 ft | 39.70435, -106.27198 |
| Peak X Prime | 12,696 ft | 107 ft | 39.70128, -106.26391 |
| Vista Peak | 13,055 ft | 184 ft | 39.69007, -106.26524 |
| Mt. Solitude | 13,085 ft | 700 ft | 39.68590, -106.26114 |
| Climbers Point | 13,021 ft | 150 ft | 39.67978, -106.25818 |
| Jackknife Tower | 13,000 ft | 120 ft | 39.67986, -106.25483 |
| "Noskip Tower" | 12,811 ft | 100 ft | 39.68028, -106.24988 |
| South Keller | 13,053 ft | 221 ft | 39.68425, -106.23674 |
| North Traverse Peak | 13,085 ft | 651 ft | 39.67101, -106.23919 |
| Grand Traverse Peak | 13,062 ft | 323 ft | 39.66222, -106.23451 |
| Palomino Point | 13,099 ft | 115 ft | 39.66306, -106.21967 |
| Mt. Valhalla | 13,201 ft | 767 ft | 39.66140, -106.21825 |
| Rainstorm Peak | 12,835 ft | 119 ft | 39.65510, -106.21779 |
| Sleet Peak | 12,857 ft | 145 ft | 39.65459, -106.20955 |
| Messy Ridge | 12,820 ft | 133 ft | 39.65535, -106.20784 |
| Hail Peak | 12,921 ft | 396 ft | 39.65385, -106.20125 |
| Mt. Silverthorne | 13,361 ft | 1,093 ft | 39.65409, -106.18932 |
| Aires | 12,661 ft | 144 ft | 39.64948, -106.18376 |
| Sagittarius | 12,675 ft | 150 ft | 39.64839, -106.18363 |
| Libra Prime | 12,484 ft | 25 ft | 39.64769, -106.18255 |
| Libra | 12,514 ft | 80 ft | 39.64729, -106.18201 |
| Scorpio | 12,425 ft | 40 ft | 39.64688, -106.18189 |
| Taurus | 12,416 ft | 122 ft | 39.64601, -106.18138 |
| Gemini Twins North | 12,254 ft | 100 ft | 39.64524, -106.18117 |
| Gemini Twins South | 12,281 ft | 100 ft | 39.64488, -106.18094 |
| Capricorn | 12,499 ft | 182 ft | 39.64452, -106.18053 |
| Cancer | 12,538 ft | 193 ft | 39.64275, -106.17944 |
| Red Peak | 13,185 ft | 933 ft | 39.63646, -106.17104 |
| Deming Mountain | 12,911 ft | 1,193 ft | 39.60213, -106.18494 |
| Deming Prime | 12,578 ft | 200 ft | 39.60649, -106.20055 |
| West Deming | 12,741 ft | 700 ft | 39.60382, -106.20604 |
| "Polk Hill" | 11,885 ft | 217 ft | 39.58161, -106.21395 |
| Uneva Peak | 12,527 ft | 1,014 ft | 39.55698, -106.19610 |
| "Lost Peak" | 12,363 ft | 223 ft | 39.54314, -106.18915 |
| Sneva Peak | 12,258 ft | 341 ft | 39.54484, -106.17743 |
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Alex Henes and Brandon Chalk for their excellent detailed trip reports for sections of the Gore Crest. These reports greatly influenced my decision making throughout the route.
I would also like to thank Mike Dits for car shuttling us back across the range after we had completed the traverse.
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