Handies Peak

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 6/7/2021, By: moistman_99
Info: Pretty similar conditions to kcovingt1's report on 05-30. After tree line, couldn't really predict whether we were entering post-hole city or going to find a suburb of solid snow/ice only minutes after sunrise. Had to switch between snowshoes and spikes an annoying amount of times and it was never the perfect decision. Route-finding is considerable due to sections of the trial being buried under snowfields. At 13-4 snowshoeing straight up to gain the penultimate ridge is the move. Final push to the summit is better with spikes or poles. We shaved off 2 hours on the descent by glissading a few times, just have to find steep enough lines to overcome that butt sinkage in the snow's flaccidity. Definitely recommend waiting a few weeks if you don't like intimate snow encounters. Otherwise get your squirm on and don't wait until the end to find your sunglasses that you had all along in your coat pocket. 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 5/30/2021, By: kcovingt1
Info: Dry until you hit about tree line then floatation is needed. Sun was hitting early so the snow was soft even at 7 am in spots. Final summit push Can be done in just boots. Reached the summit at 9:30 and on the way down we post holed even with snow shoes. Lots of water running under the snow and could hear very large sections of crust collapsing underneath us as we snow shoed across the basin. Hurried out of there! 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 5/23/2021, By: VeraUndertow
Info: I started the morning off climbing whitecross and skiing over to the handies east trail, I met up with it around 12,500 ft but I'm sure the skin from 11,5-12,500 was mostly just a long steady climb in the am. From where I started skinning up the basin the snow was soft enough to be grippy but still supportive as I made my way up to meet the east ridge at 13,600. Once on the ridge it was mostly soft snow with some wind skin forming in places. I was able to skin up the steep section due to soft fresh snow and a thin wind skin in spots. Took me 8 kick turns to climb to the final summit ridge where I was easily able to skin to the true summit despite being blasted by snow and ice carried by the wind. From the summit there is a great band of snow back to the east face and a northwest gully dropped off back to American basin from the summit as well. I skied as close to my ascent path as possible since I was solo and trying to avoid avy terrain. The turns off the summit were nice and soft cold snow till 13600 where I dropped off the ridge into 1000 feet of corn before the brown snow turned into mashed potatoes due to solar warming. The white snow was much more supportive so it was interesting variable conditions. I was able to ski back to the bottom of avy gully of whitecross at 11,400 before putting skins on for a mile and finally booting out the last .8 miles to the TH. Overall a beautiful day on a 14er with super fun climbing and skiing 

Route: Southwest Slopes
Posted On: 5/15/2021, By: fsun71
Info: Road leading into American Basin open just before stream crossing (around 0.75 miles before the summer trailhead). Significant amounts of snow in American Basin with sporadic dry patches. We were able to summit with only microspikes ascending just after sunrise - however having an ice axe may be a good idea. Night start recommended to prevent post holing on descent. 

Route: Southwest Slopes
Posted On: 5/4/2021, By: AlexeyD
Info: Went up American Basin side with the potential goal of a ski descent of the east face. American Basin has continuous snow coverage starting a couple hundred feet from the Cinnamon Pass junction, with generally stable isothermal spring snowpack. Skinned to about 12,800' in the basin below the SW slopes, then booted directly up a narrow snow finger on lookers left side of the bowl to connect with the upper SW slopes (the traversing line of the summer trail had some avy debris across it so we decided to avoid it). From there, continued booting on mostly snow, with occasional melted out patches, rejoining the summer trail to the summit. Upon scoping out the line for the east slopes, one of our party members broke through a slab layer into some type of crevasse-like feature near the east side cornice...the person was OK, but the inadvertent snow pit he created revealed a weak sugary layer about 1 foot beneath the surface of the obviously not very strong slab. Therefore decided against skiing the east face. Direct west slopes route looked thin and rocky, so we descended back the way we came, which was still (barely) continuous from the summit, but not for much longer. Lower down in American Basin had some great skiing conditions. Beautiful day all in all. 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 4/17/2021, By: artemavovk
Info: I was promised horrible wind and a foot of snow, but it was a balmy slightly cloudy day. Road closed ~4 miles from Grizzly creek trailhead - basically no snow on the road. Put on snowshoes from there on - first mile has melted patches, but snow is deep. There's some ancient ski tracks, but nothing is skiable now until near treeline (I'd go American basin for that). Above treeline is all good snow coverage until the ridge. Ice axe recommended for the final ascent. After 11AM all of the snow turned into a sliding or postholing nightmare. So, on a warmer day it'd be harder to get down than up. 

Route: Southwest Slopes
Posted On: 3/3/2021, By: RWSchaffer
Info: See my trailhead condition report for a discussion of the unpleasantness of walking the road to the trailhead. American Basin is well blanketed with snow (picture 1). Snowshoe travel was easy, and angles were low enough that heel lifts were not required until the final climb to the summit ridge (picture 2). I arrived at the trailhead wearing snowshoes and kept them on until a hundred feet below the summit ridge. The little bit of snow on the summit ridge did not require floatation (picture 3). An ice axe was useful for glissading the slopes in picture 2 on the descent. I carried but did not use traction. Avalanche Danger: East facing slopes just south of the junction with the Cinnamon Pass road had avalanched somewhat recently, with debris being covered by just a few inches of snow from the latest storm. In some areas, cracks from below the snow surface indicate that some natural settling has occurred in the not too distant past. I did not observe any collapsing snow or other indicators of current instability, but that doesn't meant there isn't any. 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 11/4/2020, By: bkcheck
Info: Mostly continuous but thin snow on the route. Some sporadic drifts up to 9" above 12k, maybe 12" above 13k. I didn't bring snowshoes and ultimately didn't feel that they were necessary. I found spikes and gaiters to be very helpful, especially on the summit block. Road to the TH is almost entirely dry. 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 10/18/2020, By: supranihilest
Info: Trail is in great shape. Since the last time I did this route several years ago dozens of log steps have been installed on the steep sections, excluding the summit push, which is steep and loose dirt and/or scree. Still, it's an easy route and easily one of the most gorgeous of any 14er routes. 

Route: Southwest Slopes
Posted On: 10/18/2020, By: ballardwf04
Info: We hiked Handies Peak on October 17, starting at 6AM. We camped at Mill Creek and drove Cinnamon Pass to get to the trailhead. I you plan to do this make sure you have a high clearance 4WD vehicle. Roads are dry but rocky and narrow along cliff edges at some points. We summited around 8, despite very high winds. Not a challenging route (for a 14er) but windy conditions made it less enjoyable than I would like. Otherwise the route was in summer conditions- no snow yet. We saw a lake on the way down and stopped; well worth the detour. Overall, the hike took us about 5 hours and was a great time. Would recommend getting this in before the season ends. 

Route: Southwest Slopes
Posted On: 10/11/2020, By: durkan
Info: Drove up to American Basin for an evening summit. Dry. Straight-forward. Sloan Lake is worth the very tiny detour. 6 miles round trip form where I parked. Wasn't sure if I could drive to the upper TH as there was a small sign saying closure, but that meant nothing as there were vehicles at the top. Chalking that up to lack of oxygen after doing Redcloud and Sunshine. 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 10/4/2020, By: Lowell_Googins
Info: Road to Grizzly Gulch TH from Lake City was bone dry, rough in spots but passable even with 2 wheel drive with some clearance. Trail to Handies was excellent and dry to the top. Total bluebird day with just a slight breeze on summit. Left TH at 7:05 and back at 12:05. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 9/29/2020, By: Marshall
Info: Up the East Ridge from Grizzly Gultch and down the East Slopes. The trailhead is easy enough to get to, and there was almost no snow on the route. The trail going up to the “rubber ducky' lake is in fine shape (look for a trail angling up into the basin from the right). I would not recommend doing this past the lake, though. The path beyond is loose talus and scree worse than almost anything I've been on. We stayed left after the lake, which might have been our mistake. I think the better route is staying right until you get into the miniature basin above then continuing right along the ridge line. After that is a undulating jaunt over to Handies. This route may be a lot more feasible in the winter, but it sucked today. East Slopes route is good minus a tiny bit of looseness near the top. Beautiful day! Picture is the unnamed “rubber ducky' lake. 

Route: Southwest Slopes
Posted On: 9/25/2020, By: Piotr
Info: Perfect summer conditions, no trace of previous day's thunderstorms, totally dry. 

Route: Southwest Slopes
Posted On: 9/17/2020, By: Guabell
Info: Road conditions to the American Basin trailhead were fine. No mud or snow. Amazingly, someone in a Chrysler 300 made it all the way to the trailhead (the car appeared to suffer some decent damage to the undercarriage as she fearlessly passed us on the way down). The trail was clear and mostly dry. Some small patches of snow remain in the upper portions of the trail - but they are rapidly melting. A few muddy spots in the afternoon as the snow and muddy ice melted. Hiking shoes are fine. Poles help in navigating the snowy parts. Summit was dry and almost completely clear of snow. Lake water is still warm enough for a swim by the brave. Awesome day.