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Trip dates: Aug 31- Sept 02, 2019 Caltopo map here: https://caltopo.com/m/UGU0 The Never Summer Range is on hittthe northwest boundary of Rocky Mountain National Park and sees few visitors. It is one long continuous ridge of crumbling volcanic rock, in stark contrast to the granite in the rest of the park. Due to the dramatic relief there are few areas covered by tundra once you are on the ridge crest. This trip was an attempt to traverse the entire range while staying on the crest. I took three days, one for the approach, one for the ridge, and one for descent. In the end lack of water pushed me off the ridge just before Howard Mt on Day 2. On Day 3 I spent some time wandering among the beautiful west side of the Never Summers, hitting Parika Peak and Parika Lake.  I started at the Bowen/Baker TH as I had done on my previous visit to the area. This TH services both NPS and USFS trails. All of my camps just west of the park boundary, and they recommended I start here so I could leave a car without a NPS permit. Day 1I left my car at the Bowen/Baker TH and started the ~4.8 mi road walk to the Colorado River TH.    Handsome bridge   I took an indirect route to get to the Thunder Pass trail, so I could walk along the Grand Ditch. The trees are cleared off over a fairly wide area to make good views of the Kawuneeche Valley.  I took Grand Ditch because even though it's an eyesore, the cleared trees make for better views to the east.  The Grand Ditch  The Ditch Camp  Day 2    East Face of Static Peak. The standard route runs along the ridge on the upper right (and technically starts down at Snow Lake).    Static Peak's imposing east wall above Snow Lake.   Looking down towards Michigan Lakes. I camped on the right side somewhere.  Finally, at 12,000 feet I reach the ridge which began at 11,560' at Snow Lake.   The knife edge. The rock is good quality (or else it couldn't support a knife edge like this). Summit of Static Peak (12,570') on the right.  The crux of the route is a short class 3 slab at 12,289'. In 300 feet the technical difficulties relent and a cairn marks the transition to talus. It's almost walkable. The very final stretch is class 2.   Looking ahead to Richtofen Peak (right).  Mahler Peak (center left) above Lake Agnes (lower right).  Looking back towards Static Peak from the ridge between Static and Richtofen Peak. About 750 feet from the summit of Static Peak you reach something special: about 100 feet of easy walking. Savor it: there are only 2-3 short sections like this on the entire ridge. You can see it in the lower left of this photo.  Looking north back towards Static Peak, then Nokhu Crags and finally the Rawah Range in the far distance.  Looking south from the summit of Mt. Richtofen.  Descending along the west ridge of Richtofen en route to Teepee Mt. Take the first ridge south before reach Mahler Peak (background). Old snowfields like the one marked here are your only water sources along the route.  Another view of Nokhu Crags and the Rawah Range. The western, wide open expanse (left) is North Park.  Looking back at Mt. Richtofen. Teepee Mt. Ominous beginnings en route to Teepee Mt.  The South Face of Mahler Peak.  Looking back towards Richtofen. You can see the snowfield in the center. The summit block of Teepee Mt. gave me fits. Both Roach and Foster have this as Class 3 and offer very few details. I reached a gully just before the summit that had an imposing southern wall. I tried every one of these chutes over 1-2 hours. None of the options felt like Class 3 to me and the rock is crumbly. I suspect something significant has fallen off over the decades since Roach and Foster climbed this route. Ultimately I descended to 12,260' on the western face and tagged the summit from behind.
  This is a joke right? (Looking back towards Teepee Mt.) Lead Mt.The crux of the whole ridge (even if you go farther than I got) is the North Ridge of Lead Mt.  Looking south towards Lead Mt. from Teepee Mt. The North Ridge of Lead Mt. is the crux of the whole route (see below).
 Both Lisa Foster and Gerry Roach recommend staying on the west side of the ridge. The sketched yellow line is my approximate route. I followed their advice but was probably farther west in some parts than they intended.   Looking back towards Mr. Richtofen from the summit of Lead Mt. Hart Ridge Looking south towards Mt. Cirrus from Lead Mt. Hart Ridge in the middle connecting them.  Looking back north towards Lead Mt., Teepee Mt and Mt. Richtofen from Hart Ridge  Looking back north towards Lead Mt from the approach up Hart Ridge.  Mt. Cirrus Another very special section of brief easy walking on Hart Ridge. Mt. Cirrus in the background.  Descending from Mt. Cirrus. This was by far the quickest descent. It's all scree and you can drop about 4 feet with every step very rapidly. There's even some tundra at the saddle.  I only got 130 feet up Howard Mt. before I decided to bail due to lack of water. Flowing water sources are nonexistent along the crest of the Never Summers. In the morning I drank 1.5 liters and collected another 2.5 liters from some streams near my camp. There were a handful of old snowfields that remained even into early September (primarily on the north facing gullies). All day I'd been playing a game where I'd fill a half-full water bottle with snow and shake up the bottle. The sun was bright and temps were in the 60's. After an hour or so I'd have another couple cups of water. By late afternoon, when I was starting the climb to Mt. Howard, it appeared that my luck was running out. The temperatures were dropping enough that the snow wasn't melting anymore. I was down to my last bit of slush and couldn't be sure I'd encounter more snowfields between Howard Mt/Cumulus/Nimbus and Stratus. I decided it was time to descend.  One of the hardest parts about this route- aside from the continuous loose talus and scree- is the lack of water. If I were to attempt this again I'd do it earlier in the season so there would be more snowfields (but hopefully still bluebird skies) and take a small canister stove to melt snow for water.  Descending from the SW. Ridge of Mt. Cirrus. to the unnamed saddle at 11,690'. I was really tired of talus by this point. The slopes are always more unstable than the ridges.  Looking back up towards Mt. Cirrus.  THere's another one of these if you want a different one farther up the hill for the header.
Day 3 Looking west from behind the Never Summer Range just north of Baker Pass    Howard Mt.  Hoodoos on the NW face of Mt. Cumulus
 An old mine near Baker Pass I'd travelled the valley south of Baker Pass before, so I opted to follow the ridge along the Continental Divide which extends to Paprika Peak.     The ridge extending to Paprika Peak (left) and Parika Peak (right).  Mt. Cumulus, Mt. Nimbus, Mt. Stratus and Baker Mt. from the summit of Paprika Peak.     Amazing. I made it back to the car while the sun was still up. 
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