Atlantic Peak- Winter Beta?

Colorado peak questions, condition requests and other info.
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jclark217
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Atlantic Peak- Winter Beta?

Post by jclark217 »

Hello all,
I am looking at a climb Atlantic Peak's West Ridge this week, and wondering if anyone has recent info on the ridge conditions or any gained experience from previous winter ascents. I climbed Atlantic's west ridge in October 2015, and am familiar with the route, and was up on Quandary on 1/5/16, and the conditions looked pretty good, but thought I'd check if anyone's been on that side of the ridge recently.
Thanks.
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screeman57
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Re: Atlantic Peak- Winter Beta?

Post by screeman57 »

I'm driving over the pass tomorrow and can take some pictures up mayflower gulch. It was looking pretty well windblown on saturday.
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jclark217
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Re: Atlantic Peak- Winter Beta?

Post by jclark217 »

That'd be swell. Thanks a ton.
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Re: Atlantic Peak- Winter Beta?

Post by archaicfrost »

@jclark217 did you make it out there? We were thinking about going this coming Sunday, wondering about the conditions and avvy risk.

@screeman57 Been up lately? How'd Mayflower Gulch look?
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Re: Atlantic Peak- Winter Beta?

Post by bmcqueen »

I haven't been up there this year, but have climbed it in winter several times before. Generally a relatively low risk climb from an avalanche danger perspective. Snowshoes often needed prior to attaining the ridge - especially once you leave the road and go across towards the base of the ridge.
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Re: Atlantic Peak- Winter Beta?

Post by Tim A »

Did this route last March and would repeat it again in a heartbeat. The ridgeline is very fun in winter.

Here's a TR I wrote up for that particular climb.

http://14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.ph ... m=tripmine" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


There was one slope, at 1:04 in the video, that caused my partner and I to stop and consider the possibilities regarding avalanches. The snowpack that particular day was consolidated enough to not present any problems, but we still ended up moving slightly to climbers right of it and trying to jump from one cluster of trees to another. On a high risk day we probably would have turned around there.
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Re: Atlantic Peak- Winter Beta?

Post by JtheChemE »

Tim: Think you and your partner used the booter myself and another 4 board members left to the top last year! That was a great time to hit it, true knife edge goodness. I'm timing this season's outing to Atlantic to coincide with another good (stable) dump.

To OP: There are a couple areas that would give me pause with a less than stable snowpack, depending on your approach. Once on the ridge proper, just be aware of cornices, but that is likely a non-issue at this point in the season.
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Re: Atlantic Peak- Winter Beta?

Post by High_On_Thin_Air »

JtheChemE wrote:Tim: Think you and your partner used the booter myself and another 4 board members left to the top last year!
I was the guy with Tim that day and I think you may be right! There was a nice although starting to be filled in booter on the ridge proper the day we were there. Looking forward to getting to the top of everything else in that area as well as Atlantic again.
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Re: Atlantic Peak- Winter Beta?

Post by AlexeyD »

Anyone been up there recently? Possibly looking into doing this on Sun.
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Re: Atlantic Peak- Winter Beta?

Post by bergsteigen »

AlexeyD wrote:Anyone been up there recently? Possibly looking into doing this on Sun.
Looks like typical winter conditions up there (from Copper). Wind storm last night probably moved a bunch of snow.
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Re: Atlantic Peak- Winter Beta?

Post by AlexeyD »

bergsteigen wrote:
AlexeyD wrote:Anyone been up there recently? Possibly looking into doing this on Sun.
Looks like typical winter conditions up there (from Copper). Wind storm last night probably moved a bunch of snow.

Yeah...a little concerned that such high winds out of the W-SW may have actually loaded the N side of the ridge, given its NW-SE orientation. Could make avoiding the S-side cornices a bit problematic. Oh well...will have to just see and turn around if it doesn't look good.
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