La Plata Peak

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 6/16/2025, By: BillMiddlebrook
Info: Still some snow up high but can be used for efficiency if you have microspikes. The first large snowfield is after the boulder at 12,300'. Once you're on the NW Ridge, it's dry to and up the buttress to the flat spot at 13,500'. Then there's a lot of snow along the left side of the ridge where the trail is located. Hike the snow or follow the talus along the ridge, which is still Class 2. Above 13,800', you can stay mostly off snow to the summit. There's a bit of snow across the summit area. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 6/14/2025, By: jhills2
Info: camped ~ 2 miles in at 11k feet - left camp at 430am with my corgi. dont get greedy and go further as there wont be any spots. There are some snow fields but you can mostly get around them but still postholed through (even at 5/6am) - i'd highly recommend poles - crampons are nice if just drudging straight up/down the snowfield. snowshoes not needed (saw some people with them). 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 6/10/2025, By: MNHikerguy
Info: Great day on La Plata. Left TH at 5:30am for a somewhat early start. Beautiful day with basically perfect conditions. Some snow on the trail, but it really did not make a difference. The largest snow field is mainly avoidable by staying on the right and hiking on the trail that goes up through the boulder field. Submitted at 8:15am and hung out at the top for 15 mins before heading down. Reached the trailhead just after 10:30am. Good to see lots of other hikers out there today! 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 6/8/2025, By: Zhuoying Huang
Info: June 7 ,Started at 4Am, A few snowpacks above 11,300 feet , didn’t use spikes until 13,800 feet . Didn’t experience a lot of posh holing . Had a blast of glissading . 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 6/9/2025, By: kbuckland
Info: Crashed in the car at the trailhead. Started at 4:40am with board and boots on my back. Some snow on the trail before 13,400 but easy to avoid. Put yaks on for the snow field summit push. Some trap door crusts, would imagine those will transition to full on post hole corn with warming temps. Gators and water resistant shoes might be helpful for that section the next week or two. Wanted to drop the main couloir but went with a backup route after seeing that pretty much everything had avy debris in it from the previous warming cycle. Glorious weather on the summit. Stayed up there well over an hour to let my secondary route soften up a bit. Followed the northwest ridge down at then dropped into the La Plata basin around 13,480. Found one of the last entry points that hadn't slid out. Most excellent run but the exit was about 3hrs to where I met back up with the trail around 11K. Wet willows bush whacking then a combo of loose talus and snow field snowboard traversing, a little climb for good measure capped off with a steep descent through the woods with many downed trees. I'd estimate a solid 2K of snowboarding followed by 2 miles of technical bush whacking. Worth it. 10 miles, 4,500 vert and 12hrs total including lots of stops to take photos, talk to new friends and a wonderfully long summit hang. Working on plans for my next SKT (slowest known time) S/O to the fellow shredder Micky, my homie with the gushers at 13k, parking lot frands, the trail runner that looped all the way from Hope Pass and the Sol Paddle Board amigos. Crab deck FTW! Rode Iowa Gulch Sunday 6/08 on the way home and checked out the alt route up Sherman... think Basin 6/15 might be the last shred day of the season. Time to bag some more peaks and wait for the snow to start falling again! 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 6/2/2025, By: zackj99
Info: Started at 3:30 to avoid post holing. Brought snow shoes but didn’t use them. Would recommend bringing them if starting much later. Snow field at 12.3k and then from 13.4k up. Ridge is pretty much totally dry until 13.4k. Could feel the snow on the ridge getting softer even as I headed back down with the sun on it. Back to the car at 9:30. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 6/2/2025, By: rmcpherson
Info: Started from the trailhead at 6:00 AM, summited by 9:45. Snow was solid all the way up, softening on the descent but still no postholing. We glissaded the snowfield below the ridge on the descent. Only required microspikes and gaiters. With soft snow the route on the final ridge would be tough so an early-ish start is recommended. 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 5/31/2025, By: Ryan987
Info: Trailhead is dry all the way and the two water crossings are only 1-2 inches. Multiple snow drifts in the way to willows that requires some creative movements. A few steep snowfields requiring spikes going up and one requiring kick steps at 6-7 AM. Nothing of major to report from saddle to summit. Willows on the way back down at 10 AM was a total suck fest. Sinking everywhere and you'll end up stepping in a surprise creek. 10/10 views though, surprised at how beautiful the area is 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 5/25/2025, By: sehessler92
Info: Peak is in good shape. Microspikes were all that was needed. Started at 3:30 and back to car by 12. Get started early to avoid postholing 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 5/19/2025, By: Suley888
Info: Summited sunday, may 18th. There were two other parties who also summited. As thr avalanche forecast was low for all aspects, and we had read the trip report from the 12th we took thr summer route. I fear conditions will be quite different after the snow that was predicted for last night, but here goes: Started at 6 am and made it to the summit around noon. It was dry for the first mile and a half, patchy through the tree line and up to the ridge, then solid from gaining the ridge to the summit. Didn't post hole hardly at all on the way up. We made jt with just spike and poles, though i admit crampons would have made that last mile and other parts easier. Started breaking the crust on the way down, but that actually helped gain purchase. Below thr ridge snow turned pretty slushy through the end. 27 down, 31 to go! 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 5/12/2025, By: Mario Correa V
Info: Like the last guy to update this peak, I had the mountain to myself. I was planning on taking the winter route, but I took the standard route because it was somewhat dry. The trailhead is dry, and snow doesn’t show up till about a mile in. I started at 6:30am, summited by 11:10am, and was back to the car at 2:30pm. The snow on the approach is mostly consolidated, I didn’t posthole on the way up, and was able to follow a mix of dry trail and clearly trenched snow patches. Once above tree line the snow is much more consistent, but again, very consolidated. I would definitely recommend an ice axe and spikes for that part. There are a couple boot trails above tree line to follow, so the navigation should be easy. The snow stayed surprisingly stable the whole way down, I was able to slide down most of the decent above tree line. Once I was back to the approach trail, the snowy sections were very inconsistent when it comes to postholing. Some sections were completely stable, and others I had to step into the knee deep holes that were made previous to me being there. Definitely tolerable, not very excessive. As you can see from the pictures, the approach trail’s conditions vary a lot, per usual for this time of year. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 4/28/2025, By: notidealbutfine
Info: Had La Plata all to myself today! Started at 5:30AM from the La Plata TH just off of Highway 82 and took the "winter route" directly up the NW ridge. Snow was mostly consolidated on the way up; only had to use snowshoes on the ascent for a short distance before exiting tree line. Micro spikes, boots and gaiters were a good choice. Skiing would have been good above tree line, but probably pretty bad below. The north face is very much in and is holding a lot of snow though. Summited at 9:45AM. Snow was still decent down low surprisingly, though not continuous. Kept my snowshoes on for most of the descent and it went pretty darn well. 9.1 miles / 4,760' gain / 6 hours, 42 minutes 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 3/11/2025, By: spen_c_boy
Info: No summit. Didn't make it very far. There was somewhat a semblance of a trench, but it was obvious no one had broken trail since the last spat of snow. We broke trail with the use of flotation for a couple miles with no problem, but then the remnants of any sort of trench vanished and we were quickly up to our bellies in snow. Must've spend an hour fighting the deep snow, only moving perhaps a 1/4 to 1/2 mile, till we turned around at 11,400'. In total, did 4.7 miles in 5 hours. Most of that distance was covered just fine, it was the deep snow on steep terrain in the trees that proved to be slow moving. We reckon that if we had made it to the headwall that we would have been okay to summit, but getting the headwall was ostensibly the tallest task of the day. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 2/4/2025, By: mpaskiewicz
Info: Trench set by others before was in great shape until 11,300, where wind drifts made it difficult to find in sections. Somewhat reset it or at least made it easier to follow until the headwall. Crampons and ax were needed up the headwall. Ridge itself was a mix of dry and mostly supportive snow. Spikes were helpful up and down back to the headwall, when I went back to crampons. Took same path down as the way up to follow my steps in the dark, but it appeared to have slightly melted during the warm day. Gusty up top and long day for sixth new 'flake of the season. (View to the south of Belford and Oxford looks fairly windswept up top - tough to get a real read on Missouri or Harvard) 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 2/1/2025, By: MattMenchaca
Info: Trail is broken up to the ridge, snowshoes or skis are definitely preferrable for that. Getting on the ridge via the headwall requires crampons and an axe. Once on the ridge crampons will work well, a mix of hard packed crust and soft powder causing post-holing up to about knee to waist. My party made it up to 13.4k before turning around due to the melting snow freezing our feet. Also, left an ice-axe, two pairs of snowshoes and a pair of crampons in the parking lot. If anyone sees them, please PM.