We Do Stuff: French, Frasco, Casco

July 17, 2022

French Mountain 13,940'

Frasco Benchmark 13,876'

Casco Peak 13,908'

We're back on the Colorado centennial peaks list and have been working our way to the end. Laura and I have, for the most part, gone where weather looked dry since we've returned from Denali and today that meant Leadville area again.

Justin crossing the logs at the second creek crossing of the day

We're down to our last 10 peaks to have climbed all of Colorado's highest 100. French, Frasco, Casco is a nice loop hike with a ridge traverse connecting the three peaks. We parked at roughly 10,000' on halfmoon road, just before crossing halfmoon creek. Starting at 7:30 am, we put on sunscreen and before putting on shoes, we crossed the creek. The water was cold but only calf height. The next 4 miles is an easy hike up a 4 wheel drive road to over 11,500'.

Hiking up the grassy sloped on the south side of French Mountain

We'd reached the Iron Mike Mine by 9 am and cut directly toward French Mountain from there. I followed a rocky drainage straight up while Laura chose to stay on the grassy areas a short distance away from me.

Summit of French Mountain

As we reached the saddle, we passed two hikers who would turn out to be the only others we would see today. 2:15 to the top of French and we were off to Frasco, reaching it within 30 minutes.

Justin and me on the summit of Frasco

Geological survey marker on Frasco Benchmark

Justin adding our names to the summit register on Frasco

We took a short break and then continued onto Casco, reaching the summit at 11:30 am. The scrambling along the ridge was fun and rock was mostly solid. We had clear views of the surrounding mountains and really enjoyed these mountains.

Somewhere along the ridge between Frasco and Casco

On the ridge between French and Frasco

From the summit of Casco, we descended a short distance along the south ridge then cut straight down the grassy slopes, directly back to the mine and the 4wd road. For the first time since the broken ankle, Laura was able to jog some on the way out. This was a big victory and it really helped speed our descent. We again took off our shoes and crossed the creek, getting back to the car at 2:15 pm.