Mt Buckskin – Final CO Centennial Peak

On the summit

Oct 17, 2026

3 miles, 2kft gain

In summer 2020 I climbed what was at the time considered the Colorado Centennials list, the 100 highest peaks in Colarado based on the USGS quads. I finished in 33 days and set the self-supported Fastest Known Time (FKT), which is still unbeated as of 2026. However, by 2021 LiDAR data for the mountains got published and analyzed by Ben Loftin, John Kirk, Elijah Gendron, and others. This changed added some peaks and subtracted other peaks.

The route

In 2025 and 2026 I made a few trips to Colorado with professional surveying equipment and surveyed some remaining edge-case peaks with help from a bunch of friends, and by June 2026 we finalized the updated centennials list (link to report: updated centennials list) based on LiDAR and GNSS measurements. By then I’d climbed all the new peaks except one – Mt Buckskin. Based on LiDAR data the true summit of Buckskin was a point about 1000ft NW along a ridge from the summit location labeled on the USGS quads. In 2020 I’d gone to the quad-labeled location but not the true summit.

Snowy parking lot, looking up at Bross and Lincoln

The LiDAR data showed the true summit about 6ft taller than the USGS summit. That’s enough height difference that it didn’t need any more accurate surveys with GNSS equipment, so I had never measured it. Thus, Mt Buckskin had fallen through the cracks and I’d somehow managed to survey a bunch of edge case peaks and figure out the finalized Centennials list without actually completing the list.

I decided to finally rectify that situation. I flew to Colorado Friday evening, completed a few other higher-priority objectives that resulted in pulling two back-to-back all-nighters, but then managed to have enough time at the end to still squeeze in Buckskin.

The NE face of Buckskin

Sunday morning I rolled in to the Kite Lake trailhead by 10am. Interestingly the road was covered in fresh snow from a few days earlier, and it felt very wintery up at 12,000ft. I had a hard-core Jeep Rubicon so had no trouble reaching the trailhead. By 10:30am I started up. I hiked up towards Lake Emma, then when the terrain flattened at 12400ft I cut south across Buckskin Creek. I was breaking trail in snow up to my shin, but the climb was short enough that it wasn’t too concerning.

The view from the true summit looking back at the false summit

I slowly made progress up the NE face, and aimed first for the SE false summit since the slope was more mellow. Once at the SE summit I whipped out my sight level and verified that indeed the NW summit was taller. I then hiked along the melted-out-ridge and reached the NW summit 10minutes later. I back sighted and indeed the SE summit was shorter. So LiDAR data was correct that the NW summit was the true summit. So I finally officially completed the updated CO Centennials list.

I admired the snowy view for 30 minutes, then plunge-stepped back down to the trailhead. I made it back to the aiport early enough to catch a brief nap before my flight back to Seattle that night.