Really beautiful peak. I've been working my way through the 13ers and saw that West Spanish Peak had an FKT route on it. Seemed like a good excuse to bag a new peak in a beautiful area. I drove down Friday night and camped in the very nice Cordova Pass Campground to get an early start.
Started moving around 6:20, temperatures were perfect and I was comfortable with just shorts and a t-shirt. I got a great sunrise on the peak ahead and enjoyed the first 2.5 miles of cruiser running, it eventually steepened but I kept a passing pace up to tree line. I've been recovering from a nasty cold and was really feeling the 2,000 foot grind to the summit above tree line. I was amazed by the views when I made it to the summit area, the dikes radiating off the peak are really remarkable.
After summiting around 7:10 I made good time on the descent through the steeps. A lot of Morrisons have given me good practice of hoofing it through that kind of junk. I also benefitted from rain the previous night which made for slightly more solid footing on the steep dirt parts of the slope. I got a bit off trail returning to the tree line, losing a bit of time. I was surprised by both the amount of uphill I had at the end and the quantity of cows on the trail. I had to stall for about a minute for a large herd of cows to leave the trail on the final pasture section. There was a bull among them so I approached the group very cautiously.
I got back to the car with a total time of 1:25:03, I was pleasantly surprised by the beauty of the mountains and the quality of the trail. The grind at the end felt like classic Colorado. Not a super strong day for me but I'm happy with the time. Though it is certainly beatable, especially with my few avoidable time losses.