Colosseum is on the Sierra Crest just north of Sawmill Pass and south of Armstrong Col. It has a beautiful view and it is an SPS list peak. It's easy class 2 from the southwest.

Which Summit?

Left of "C", NOT "X"

The correct summit is the western one - it has the summit register, while the eastern summit shows a vertical control point (X) on the USGS topo labeled 3794.9 (meters). The USGS maps in this area seem to have a practice of placing the name of a peak to the left or right of the peak, while the name Colosseum Mtn is placed immediately to the right of the western summit, and straddles the eastern summit from above, indicating the name belongs to the western summit. I climbed the "wrong" summit first (because I had download a waypoint placed there), and then the right one. Pictures I took of each summit from the other one seem to indicate that the western summit is higher. I assume that the eastern summit, having a better view of the Owens Valley, served the purposes of the surveyors better, so it got the vertical control point and the "X". The 2 summits are only about 10 minutes apart, so climb both! I saw an old 15' topo for this area which labels the western summit as Colosseum, and gives a higher elevation, but I forget what it said.

What Elevation?

The SPS peaks list shows the elevation as 12,451 ft., or 3795 meters - obviously derived from the eastern summit elevation. I think the western summit is visibly higher, so I call it 12,455', but I suppose it's really a few feet higher than that. SPS also calls it a class 1 peak - I suppose it's as 'class 1' as Mt. Langley is - pick you route, walk slowly, and you could keep your hands in your pockets the whole way.

Getting There

Most quickly approached from the east via Sawmill Pass or Armstrong Canyon. Drive in on US 395 between Independence and Big Pine. For driving instructions to Sawmill Pass or Armstrong Canyon, see http://www.climber.org/DrivingDirections/sawmill.html

From Sawmill or Armstrong, go to "Colosseum Col" west of the summit for a class 1 ascent up Colosseum's west ridge. There are several class 2-3 shortcuts up from the valleys north and south of Colosseum Col.

The north ridge (from Armstrong Col) is variously described as class 3 by Secor, class 4 "generally chosen in error" by Voge-Smatko, class 4 by Roper, class 3-4 by Matthew, and "nasty" or "really nasty" by Nile. See Nile's detailed report at climber.org

Sawmill Pass is one of the best kept secrets of the Eastern Sierra. We met a guy named Don camped at the beautiful Sawmill Meadow who said it was his 45th year in a row coming there(!!!) and he almost never saw anybody there in May. Sawmill Lake is a magnificent place to camp and fish. Then, just over the pass you can see the lovely Woods Lake. What keeps the secret so well is the first 4 miles of trail. It starts out going through dry brush and cactus at about 4500 ft. elevation. We had no trouble starting out at 1030 am on an unusually cold Memorial Day weekend, but Kathy says starting at 5 am in June was too late to avoid the heat and misery of going uphill on a sandy trail with no water for so long. After that, it's glorious ( at least it is in a wet spring season). Some places, grass is growing in the middle of the trail, which to me, is a rare and treasured sign of the peace and solitude to be found there. I hope it stays that way.

Red Tape

A wilderness permit is required for overnight travel in this area.
There may be restrictions due to the Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep. Dogs are not allowed. Info on permits is given at
http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/inyo/recreation/wild/otheravail.shtml. Trail quota is 10 per day at Sawmill Pass Trail, see JOHN MUIR WILDERNESS at the Trailhead Quotas page.

Armstrong Canyon has no quota (and no trail), but you still need a permit for overnight trips starting there. If you take a large group, they might suddenly tell you there's a quota.

Approved bear-resistant containers are required for camping in Kings Canyon National Park, but not in the National Forest in Sawmill Canyon or Armstrong Canyon, but you are still required to protect bears from access to your food, by counterbalancing it or using a bear-resistant container, etc. Check with the rangers in advance to get the current requirements.

Car Camping Nearby

They say it's nice to camp near Scotty Springs on the road between Sawmill pass trailhead and Armstrong Canyon - some info on the road to Armstrong Canyon and camping in the area is given at http://www.gbr.4wdtrips.net/4x4/division-armstrong.html

See http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/inyo/recreation/campgrounds.shtml for car camping.

There's a "Sawmill Creek Campground" shown on the USGS Topo where Tinemaha Road (old 395) crosses Sawmill Creek, but I don't recall seeing it as I drove by - I believe it's defunct. The Goodale Creek Campground is listed as the nearest campground by http://sierranevadawild.gov/modules/html/trailheads/sawmill_pass.htm

External Links

Sierra Nevada Wilderness Federal Government web site page for Sawmill Pass at http://sierranevadawild.gov/modules/html/trailheads/sawmill_pass.htm

All the pictures in my camera that weren't fuzzy are at http://www.langenbacher.org/Sawmill/Pictures/thumbnails.html - lots of redundancy, but lots of pictures.

Some of my better pictures appear at http://community.webshots.com/user/langenbacher in the Colosseum Mtn. 2006 album.

See an artificial aerial view of Sawmill Pass and Colosseum Mtn., etc., at http://geogdata.csun.edu/sierraweb/sierra_nevada-Pages/Image84.html

A little kit of information for my trip to Colosseum is at http://www.langenbacher.org/Sawmill

See also http://www.langenbacher.org/Armstrong

California Bighorn Sheep

"The wild sheep ranks highest among the animal mountaineers... Their feeding grounds are among the most beautiful of the wild gardens, bright with wild daisies and gentians and mats of purple bryanthus.� Here they feast all summer, the happy wanderers, perhaps relishing the beauty as well as the taste of the lovely flora on which they feed."

John Muir "The Wild Sheep" 1881

Colosseum Mountain is in a "California Bighorn Sheep Zoological Area"

I have read that "Sierra Nevada Bighorn are rarer than the Florida Panther or the California Condor. They are clearly one of the most endangered mammals of North America."

You can read something about them at http://www.yosemite.org/naturenotes/BighornSheep.htm or at http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Publications/ZooGoer/1999/3/sierrabighornsheep.cfm , http://www.dfg.ca.gov/region6/snbsrp/index.html, or at http://www.sierrabighorn.org/ .

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