| Peak: | Little Bear Peak |
| Route: | West Ridge and Hourglass |
| Range: | Sangre de Cristo |
| Posted By: | turbocat |
| Date of Info: | 3/28/2015 |
| Date Posted: | 3/29/2015 |
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Took a trip up to Lake Como to give Little Bear an early Spring shot. Packed in on Friday morning 3/27. Parked @ pullout @ 9,300'. Road is in good shape with only a few short shallow snow sections until the right turn into the trees (downslope/rolling traverse to cabins). Beginning there snowshoes can be worn all the way to Como Lake with only a few short sections melted out (near the 4x4 monument/plaque). Snow was consolidated and solid in the AM and mostly walkable without snowshoes, expect to post hole in the PM. Still deep in sections 3'-4' deep. We had some time Friday afternoon to size up the West Ridge gulley and it was loaded with snow. Particularly a big patch high left (east) of gulley which looked fractured and settled, something we have not seen in early Spring attempts in previous years. When we approached on Saturday morning, the more concerning section was at the top of the gulley. The approach to 12,000' from the lake to the bottom of the gulley was crusty with lots of unconsolidated snow (6-8") underneath. When we got to the bottom of the gulley no one was all too happy with what we just walked through, seemed very unstable. The amount of fractured and settled areas on the upper gulley looked doable but not worth the risk. There seemed to be a small cornice still at the top of the gully with some drifting that looked cracked and settled. Having been up on the West Ridge 2x in similar time frames over the last few years, our group decided to abort and not take the risk. Consensus was it would probably hold well in the AM for the trip up, but the return once it soften up in the afternoon would be a high danger of some slab sliding. Consensus was that given a few more days of this weather this route is going to settle and be perfect, we probably missed ideal conditions by a few days. If they get no significant snow this week, I would definitely say this route will be fully in next weekend. Not sure how long it will stay that way. Lower melting is happening fast, and we stopped by Medano Creek in Sand Dunes on the way back and it is flowing strongly which is really early. |
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