
After a short walk along a dirt road, we decided to start the bushwhack here. It seemed mostly clear and we could see the ridgeline above.

Mostly easy forest walking.

View back down one of the steeper sections along our ascent through the forest.

We made it to the ridge crest. View back down. We came up from the left in this photo.

The route to come! Peak 11555 visible on the right, just a little hump.

Peak 11555, view back.

A very well-worn animal trail leads along the ridge.

View back.

Ascending to Ohio Peak.

View back again.

Ohio Peak obscured by trees, but you can see Peak 12290 on the right.

View back along the ridgeline.

Approaching Ohio Peak.

Another shot back.

Ohio Peak ahead. Peak 12290 visible on the right.

Ohio Peak, view along the ridge to Peak 12290. We headed down the crest.

Close-up toward West Elk Peak and "The Castles".

View back up toward our descent from Ohio Peak, some light Class 2.

The crux of the hike. The ridge led to a cliff. To get down the cliff, we descended slowly along the rim and located a ramp. Note the gendarme. Our route would lead around the right side of it. Whiley went up a slope in the center of this photo (Class 3), but I wrapped all the way to the right in this photo and ascended the steep (Class 2/2+) slope on the right in this photo.

Our descent along the rim. the descent ramp visible center. Whiley on the left after getting down.

Traversing the base of the gendarme.

View back. You can see the ramp we came down in the center, and of course the gendarme we avoided. Whiley is currently ascending somewhere out of frame on the right in this photo. I wrapped around to the north side.

View down my ascent choice. It was definitely steep, and felt scary because the slope drops off below. However, the scrambling was Class 2/2+. Quite fun.

We made it to the ridge. This is a view back toward Ohio Peak.

Continuing to Peak 12290's summit.

Whiley on the similar-height second summit of Peak 12290. And yay, Anthracite Range High Point is visible in the center.

Descending from Peak 12290. The ridgeline was tundra and easy talus with a couple of short Class 2 sections. Anthracite Range HP visible top right.

View back toward Peak 12290.

Ascending light Class 2 to the summit.

Higher up on the way to Anthracite Range HP, view back toward Peak 12290.

View back at our progress.

Anthracite Range HP ahead.

Summit, view toward the Beckwith peaks and Mount Gunnison.

We backtracked a bit along the ridgeline. View toward Peak 12290 (top right). We descended the talus ahead down to the forest below. Rather than go back along the ridge crest, we decided to wrap around the north side of the range through the forest.

Heading down the tundra and into the trees.

Entering treeline.

View back toward Anthracite Range High Point.

Animal trails helped occasionally, but for the most part it was forest walking or easy bushwhacking.

Most of the remainder of the hike looked a lot like this.

And like this. It was a few miles of forest walking, but photos aren't particularly interesting.

At a point during our way back, we reached a high point where this old road was hiding. We didn't stay on the road because it would enter private property. This is a view toward the Anthracite Range.

Easy descent back down to the trailhead.
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