mt. sherman

I started at the Iowa Gulch Trailhead around 7AM. I had left Boulder at 5AM, so this was a pretty good time. Looking at the standard route up to the Sherman-Sheridan saddle, I decided to try and find another way up. I looked to the south and saw the nice looking climb to West Sheridan. I would describe it as the northeast corner of the ridge. It was pretty steep, but not quite class 3. The view from this ridge (it is the western ridge of sheridan right before it drops down towards leadville) is one of the best views of the sawatch i have seen. From here i hiked east towards sheridan over a rise, then down to a saddle and up to sheridan. I believe it was about 9:30 when i summited sheridan. I then hiked to the south over Peerless (pretty unexciting) and continued up to Horeshoe Mountain. I arrived here a little before 11:00. The views from Horeshoe are incredible. From the summit of Horshoe, I hiked back to the north avoing Peerless and Sheridan by hiking around their east sides and then regained the ridge at the Sheridan-Sherman saddle. From here I climbed the standard trail up Sherman and summited about 1:00. The high ridge of Sherman is a nice break from all the up and down climbing. From Sherman I hiked to Gemini and climbed the south side of the higher peak. This involves a bit of scrambling and looks a bit harder than the East side of Geminin. It is short either way. From Gemini, I hiked along the ridge to Dyer, but it was about 2:30 when I reached the power lines at the saddle, so I decided to descend the scree fields back to my car rather than finish up the traverse to climb Dyer. I'll have to head back some other time. This was a marvelous day; I couldn't have asked for better weather. The route I chose was a lot of fun and looked more entertaining than all the switchbacks from Iowa Gulch up to Sherman. Highly recommended.