On September 9, 2010: I have planned this climb for some time. We were to climb Mount Lincoln (14,286'/4,354 m), the highest peak in the Mosquito Range of Colorado Rockies and also 8th highest in Colorado. Early morning heavy clouds were somewhat threatening for a thunderstorm. I was nervously watching the slight darkness under the clouds at right as we were climbing grassy meadow in the eastern slope of Mount Lincoln at about 11,000 feet.
The gentle but huge mountain in front is the eastern slope of Mount Bross (14,172'/4,320 m) and it makes the western wall of the Bloss Amphitheater to the right side.



North to us is Mount Lincoln with it's awesome southern slope. The nipple-like summit cone is not visible from here. We continue to climb the slope that is gentle at least for a time being.



On our east is Colorado Highway 9 that connects Fairplay and Breckenridge through Hoosier Pass.
At right middle is the small town of Alma, Colorado with about 225 people.
We started from the town of Alma this morning.



On the gravel slope, there still are a lot of wildflowers. It should be freezing at times here during the night.
Most of flower petals have fallen as it is very late summer. They have only a few days left before snow covers them for a long winter.



A group of Dwarf Golden Asters with yellow flowers. A few alpine grasses that turn to reddish winter color.
Some of them are still full of vitality in this late summer.



As we climb higher, grasses get shorter and gradually disappears.
In front is the massif of Mount Bross with it's gentle summit very very far away as if we can never reach.
If the weather stays stable, we are to climb it as well after Lincoln.



Alpine Sunflower (Asteraceae-Old Man of the Mountain) with all petals gone with only seed-pad on the top of the short stalks. They live on rocky slopes, high meadows, and tundra. We just passed tundra area.



Now, we see the summit cone of Mount Lincoln in front of us. At least we can see our destination.
We are climbing in the upper eastern slope of the mountain.
Western Yellow Paintbrush in greenish yellow color just below the petaless alpine sunflowers.
Beyond the cloud shadow, there are grounds with no vegetation. We are at about 13, 500 feet high.



An Alpine Spring Beauty with thick leaves to adapt the rough weather of high altitude.
It still dare to bloom it's flowers while forming redish pepper-like seed pads underneath.



To our northeast is the Front Range of Colorado Rockies. Two highest peaks side by side are Grays (14,270'/4,349 m) and Torreys (14,267'/4,349 m) Peaks. Town of Breckenridge in the middle left. If you see carefully, you can see the ski slopes of Keystone at the mid-left upper area. The streaks are ski trails without snow.



A closed and collapsing old mine. In late 1800s, gold was found here and a lot of mine were established on this mountain. Therefore, most of the eastern slope belongs to private mining companies, and actually we are walking through their private properties. This area is not open to public but climbers come and climb quietly. Because of this, public organizations and Bureau of Land Management have not created formal climbing trails in this side of the mountain. We are just walking on gravel slope toward the summit without any guiding trails.
At times we see faint signs of old trails.



Montgomery Reservoir at left and Colorado Highway 9. Mount Silverheels (13,829 ft, 4,215 m)

Legend of Silverheels: The mountain was named for Silverheels, a dance hall girl in the nearby mining camp of Buckskin Joe. She was nicknamed "Silverheels" because of the silver shoes she wore in the dance halls.

Legend has it that in 1861 a smallpox epidemic hit the small camp. Most of the miners stayed for fear of claim jumpers. Most of the women and children fled to Denver; but Silverheels stayed. She nursed her friends and neighbors through the disease. Soon, she caught the disease and managed to struggle through. But the small pox scarred her beautiful face and she ran into her cabin located at the base of Mount Silverheels. Once the epidemic was over, the miners that survived raised money for her as thanks. They soon had raised $5,000. Upon taking it to her cabin, the miners discovered that she was no longer there. Her cabin appeared deserted. Many believed that she had hidden because the smallpox had left her so scarred. The money was returned to the miners, but many still wanted to show thanks, so the nearby mountain was named after her. Several years later when Buckskin Joe was run down and the gold rush over, someone claimed to have seen a black veiled woman placing flowers on the graves of those who died in the 1861 smallpox epidemic. Even today, people claim to see a black veiled woman wandering around Buckskin Joe cemetery.



We are getting close to the summit. This is a giant summit cone that looks like a nipple from far away.
We see a few climbers on the summit. In clear mountain air, it looks very close but it really isn't.



Dwarf Golden Aster: They only grow at high elevations near the top of mountains, in sunny, high meadows, tundras, along roads or trails, and near large rocks.  They seem to enjoy the warm morning sun.

At 11:40 AM, we reach the summit of Mount Lincoln (14,291 ft / 4,356 m).
Left to me is Shang-Yul Rhee*65 who is also first time here.

....

At the summit, two large survey marks (brass buttons) were placed in the rock.
One by U.S. Coast and Geodetics Survey (in 1951), the other by U.S. Geological Survey (This one says no date but warns $250 fine for disturbing it).



A few people appears to the west, climbing up toward us. They are coming from Mount Cameron.



To our north: Wheeler Lake (left front), Wheeler Mountain (13690'/4173 m, just above the lake),  Fletcher Mountain (13951'/ 4252m, right midle), and Quandary Peak (14,265', right edge). These mountains belong to the Ten Mile Range while this side is Mosquito Range.
The northern end of the Ten Mile Range is Breckenridge Ski Resort and I-70.



We join one climber from Wisconsin at the summit. Then came another 61-year-old from Texas, and a little later, five young men from Columbus, Ohio. We are all happy that we reached the summit. Except us, they all came through Mount Democrat and Cameron from the west starting from Kite Lake Trailhead.



The morning clouds dissipates and we have blue autumn sky all over us.
Since the weather looked very favorable, we decided to climb Mount Bross and started coming down Mount Lincoln on her west ridge. Behind our group, you can see the last steep pitch to the western side of the summit cone of Mount Lincoln.



To our west, Buckskin Gulch with Kite Lake. Buckskin Mountain (13865'/4226 m) in front right.



Two people are walking in front of us, toward Mount Bross on the trail on Cameron-Bross Saddle.



Under 50 mile-per-hour westerly wind, Shang is getting close to the Bross summit.
A pile of rock is the summit.



Shang writes his and my names in the summit register. To protect from the westerly wind, some one put up a rock pile wind-breaker at the summit.
Just above him is Mount Cameron (14,238 ft / 4,340 m) and Mount Lincoln is at the right end far away from which we just came. This summit is a private property. It's not yet officially open to climbers.
For the climbers who are coming down from either Mounts Lincoln or Cameron, this legitimate fourteener is just too much of an attraction to bypass without stepping on. With all due repects to the private ownership of the summit ground, we quietly tresspass, especially after having climbed 14,000 feet already.



A brown envelope with the summit register inside says Mount Bross 14172 feet (14,177 ft / 4,321 m).



View from the Bross summit: To north, looking back our foot trail from Mount Lincoln to Bross. The far summit at right is Lincoln, and Mount Cameron at left nearby. Between them is a broad shallow Cameron-Lincoln Saddle. On the left edge of the picture, there's another wide but deeper Cameron-Bross Saddle.
 


View from the Bross summit: To northwest, Mount Democrat (14,152 ft / 4,314 m) rises from the Democrat-Cameron Saddle.
I climbed this part on July 30, 2010. The webpage for that climbing journal is in our website.



The trail junction on Cameron-Bross saddle. The marker says, "The trail to Bross summit is closed".
It does not say "not to enter" or that it's "forbidden to climb".
If we go west (right side), we will be bypassing the Bross summit and go down straight to Kite Lake. You can see the faint trail at the northern slope of Mount Bross. We are going to the east (left) instead in reverse direction.



Looking down the Bross Amphitheater: We are to go down to the right in this picture. A huge natural amphitheater formed by southern/western slopes of Mount Lincoln and eastern slopes of mount Cameron and Bross. One more look at the awesome beauty of Mount Lincoln and then we head down the western slope of the amphitheater. Again there's no trail here. It's a long way over the slippery gravel slope.
Thanks for the weather, we bagged two fouteeners toay.

9월 9일 11:40 AM에 Mount Lincoln 정상에 섰다. 미리 오래전에 계획한대로, 正午전에 정상도착을 시도했는데,  다행히도 시간을 제대로 맞추었다.
왜냐하면 70년전 바로 이날 이 아침에 강원도 산골 인제군 원통면 서화리에서 내가 이 세상을 처음으로 맞이했기 때문이다. 어쩌다가 70년후 그날 아침에, 자라면서 상상도 못했던 까마득한 Colorado의 한 정상에 도달했는지 알것 같기도하면서 모를 일이다.
그 동안 일어났던 70년간의 어렵던 일, 쉬웠던 일, 기뻤던 일, 슬펐던 일들이 맘속에 주마등처럼 지나가지만, 무슨 이유로 그런 일들이 생겼고, 그 결과 왜 다음일이 계속 일어났는지 알수없다.
내가 여기 정상까지 온길은 하나 하나 기억하지만 왜 그런 길이 택해졌나는 알수없는 일이다.
70년을 바라보기가 어렵다하지만, 다행히도 이날 Mount Lincoln 정상에서 맞이했다.


The summit of Mount Lincoln at noon, September 9, 2010.

누님이 보내주신 생일 축하 card에 "70" 라는 숫자가 적혀있었다. 그거 마침 잘되었구나하고, 오늘 산행 배낭에 넣고 왔다. Mount Lincoln정상에서 처음 만나는 몇 사람과 같이 70세 생일 기념 사진찍어본다.
높은 산위에서 古稀를 축하 할수있으니 나는 누구못지 않게 운이 좋은 사람이라 생각한다.
70년이면 긴 세월인데 이제 뒤로 보내고, 앞으로 과연 어떻게 운명이 퍼져나갈지 기대해본다.


At the summit of Mount Bross.

그 옛날 어디에선가 두보라는 사람이 일하기 싫어서 맨날 호숫가에 앉어서 술이나 먹으며 세월을 보냈다는 얘기가 생각난다. 그의 시를 읽어 보면서, 하긴 나도 그 사람과 별 다를것이 없구나 생각된다. 단지 하는짓과 무대가  좀 다를뿐이지, 그게 다 똑같은 얘기가 아닌가?
나한테도 古稀가 와야될건 무언가?  무슨짓을 하던 나이 먹기는 다 마찬가지겠지.
혹은 그것을 마지했다는것만도 다행일가?

人生七十古稀來, 傳語風光共流轉, 暫時相賞莫相違 (세줄만 추림. 해석은 밑에있음)

나에게 새 생명을 주고, 건강한 체질을 나누어주시고, 애지중지 키워준 부모님에게 우선 감사드리고,
내 주변에서 먼길을 잠시래도 같이 밟어준 가족들, 친구들, 아는 분들, 그리고 이름조차 모르면서 만나고 헤어진 분들에게 감사합니다.

Colorado의 Mount Lincoln에서 7순을 맞이했음은 아마 오래 오래 기억될것 같군요.
언제고 Fourteener에 못 올라갈날이 오겠지만, 이건 오래동안 맘속에 간직할려합니다.

두보(杜甫) 곡강(曲江)詩


朝回日日典春衣(조회일일전춘의) : 조정에서 물러나면서 춘의를 저당 잡혀

每到江頭盡醉歸(매도강두진취귀) : 매일처럼 강변에서 만취하여 돌아간다.

酒債尋常行處有(주채심상행처유) : 술빚은 늘 가는 곳마다 있는 것이니

人生七十古稀來(인생칠십고희래) : 인생 칠십은 예부터 드물었네.

穿花蛺蝶深深見(첨화협점심심견) ; 꽃사이를 뚫고 벌 나비는 분분히 날아들고

點水蜻蜓款款飛(점수청정관관비) ; 물가에는 잠자리 떼 하염없이 나는구나.

傳語風光共流轉(전어풍광곡류전) : 듣자니 좋은 경치는 함께 다닌다 했으니

暫時相賞莫相違(잠시상상막상위) : 잠시라도 서로 즐겨 어긋남이 없자구나.