Ellingwood Point

Route: Lake Como Approach
Posted On: 6/2/2025, By: dude4mountains
Info: Road and trail are dry to above Lake Como. Fast melting snowpack with frozen then later wet and muddy conditions to above the waterfall. Mixed snowpack from rotten corn to solid in the upper basin. No flotation just frustration. Some good climbable snow on Ellingwood proper. Spikes are fine, lightweight crampons work well. Ridge line to Summit was dry. 

Route: North Ridge via South Zapata Creek
Posted On: 5/27/2025, By: s_brummer
Info: I ventured to South Zapata Lake to check out C2 and C3 on 5/25. I unfortunately did not go past the lake as I did not feel good about snow conditions in the couloirs (more on that later) The route up to South Zapata Lake is nearly entirely melted, albeit about the last mile-ish (patchy snow starts at the last stream crossing area in the trees). And there was a surprising amount of people venturing up to the lake (I seen at least 10 to 15 other people on Sunday) so I'm sure that the additional foot traffic has made the few snowy sections even more negligible. I wore trail runners and felt comfortable, I was tempted to change into my boots but it never felt necessary, and the thought of cleaning all the mud off them pushed the thought out of my head further. Unfortunately, there was a large avalanche down one of the couloirs between C2 and C3. I decided to play it safe (since all the couloirs are essentially the same slope aspect) and just stay at the lake for a few hours. A few more weeks of freeze/thaw definitely seem best for a safer climb IMO. The upper ridge appeared to be very wintery still too! I'm attaching photos of the avy-path (and a few others) The plants and flowers along the way are starting to really bloom too. They are also doing a TON of new trail work, which I really just want to give a shout out and thank you to all the people doing this awesome work for the community. They are building a beautiful new bridge over the first large stream crossing, along with a ton of other trail-retention/anti-erosion improvements. 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 5/25/2025, By: Lubellski
Info: So I didn't want to deal with Lake Como road, for obvious reasons. I also wanted to tag Unnamed 13068 so I saw some "roads" north of Lake Como that accessed the ridge and decided to try them out. Well, long story short, not really roads. So I parked damn near the valley floor near a big gravel operation. Departing at 7am, it was a grind up to Unnamed 13068, it's a very long ridge but fairly smooth going. No real snow to speak of. Continuing along, the Lake Como approach to the SW ridge joins, and there is a bit more snow. No human footprints, I may have been the first this season on the route. Once at the headwall, I found the rocks super solid but the class 3 climbing was long and continuous. Took me six hours to reach the summit, and I'm no slouch. Tempting as Blanca was, I didn't have time as I wanted to descent the North ridge and traverse over Crossfire Ridge to Twin Peaks A north and South. The ridge direct off EP was freaking sketch, steep snow with nasty drops on both sides. Utilized my ice axe to plunge in, in case of a snow collapse. Plunge steps sufficed once I was lower. Traverse to Twin Peaks was long, complex, undulating, and very fun. Upon finally reaching my final summit I could see the gravel pit some 5,000 feet below. I took a nice gully down to Pioneer Creek, thinking that may be faster than the heavily forested ridge I had in front of me. Big mistake. The creek was a diabolical disaster which I eventually left to regain the ridge. 13.5 hours to go 15.5 miles. Did not see signs of a single other person. Epic, but exhausting and worth of a zero day at Hooper Hot Springs where I write this now. Party on. 

Route: Lake Como Approach
Posted On: 3/26/2025, By: AlpineSplit
Info: Ellingwood is barely skiable, but enjoyable nonetheless. Approach is mostly walking until you get about 1/4 mile from the lake. It is possible to skin a bit on the south side of the road before the river crossing but probably not worth it. We were able to drive to about 9800 before getting stopped by a nasty patch of ice that could send you down the hill if you aren't careful. Also for reference Blance North Face is completely dry and Little Bear looked pretty bare as well. Wouldn't recommend riding in the Sangres until they get A LOT more snow. 

Route: Lake Como Approach
Posted On: 1/17/2025, By: jacolc
Info: Jan 15: For E/B used flotation to 13330' (0-18in snow deep, average 4-6 where switch to crampons) and generally fallow bottom of drainage. Especially above Blue Lake do not fallow summer road/trail. Very windy. On my way down most of my trench was filled with snow. Jan 16: To LBear used flotation only below initial couloir, but deposit it above on the ridge. However after additional snow maybe useful on last part of traverse to bottom of hourglass. Traverse in little unconsolidated soft snow was slow moving with or without crampons. Maybe micro spikes will be better option. Hourglass was in great climbing condition. Very little avoidable ice, hard snow required technical crampons (long section of front pointing in excellent hard snow 50-65 deg)) and two ice tools. However I use one tool and tool/pole hybrid (BD Whippet). For every 10-30 feet I kicked rest steps, mainly for my climbing down. In this condition this is NO Error zone. 

Route: Lake Como Approach
Posted On: 10/3/2024, By: wildschut
Info: Summer conditions no ice or snow same for Blanca 

Route: North Ridge via South Zapata Creek
Posted On: 9/15/2024, By: pferrier
Info: Completely clear. Hiked up the afternoon before and camped just above South Zapata Lake. Headed up at 7am. C2 Couloir was clear. Very few 1-2 foot wide patches of snow. It is a bit of a rough route on the way back down and there is definitely high chance of rockfall. No snow or trouble route finding from the top of C2 to the summit. Be prepared for lots of hiking on scree/talus. Only saw one other person on the route the whole day. 

Route: North Ridge via South Zapata Creek
Posted On: 9/3/2024, By: chelsluckb2
Info: Hiked on 9/2. I decided to go the Zapata Falls route to knock off a bit of distance and avoid the labor day Lake Como crowds. The approach hike is gorgeous. I have seen a lot of high alpine lakes, and I thought South Zapata Lake was stunning. I went up C2. The hike up wasn't bad. As others have said, I would stick to the right mostly as there are decent holds and more solid rock. I was a little demoralized when I got to the top of C2 and saw the length of the talus section to the summit, but knocked it out without too much trouble. Lots of fun class 3 climbing near the summit! I traversed over to Blanca and tried to stay high on the traverse as much as possible. The rock is pretty loose at times but overall nothing too bad and the traverse is fairly short. With having to re-summit Ellingwood to get back to the TH, the elevation gain on this is no joke - I came in just over 6500 ft in 15 miles. The downclimb of the talus field and C2 was the lowlight of the day. Pretty much everything moves on the talus field, including huge boulders, so I went slowly. C2 is very loose and a slog of a downclimb, but I stuck to the more solid rock as much as possible. Overall, it was an awesome hike and I recommend this approach if you want fewer crowds on these peaks! 

Route: North Ridge via South Zapata Creek
Posted On: 9/3/2024, By: FinnishFlicka
Info: Beautiful weekend for Ellingwood! The approach from Zapata Falls is absolutely gorgeous and only saw a couple other parties, even on a holiday weekend. We ascended via the C2 couloir, which was as loose as it looks as others have mentioned. When it's dry like this, I recommend going up the middle for the lower section of the couloir, which has some slightly more stable larger rocks, and then heading to the right side of the couloir for the good handholds in the upper section. The talus section after C2 is a bit soul sucking, but the class 3 scramble to the summit is worth it! After doing the Lake Como approach for Little Bear - Blanca years ago (and getting turned away from Ellingwood due to weather), I wanted to try another approach and I'm glad I did! 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 8/26/2024, By: MtnMann
Info: Description of route on this site is spot on, pictures were very helpful. The rock was loose, but there was plenty of solid rock to pull on, as long as you are patient. No snow on this route, and no water or even exceptionally slick rock, even though it rained in the evening and late at night. Foggy when we were on the SW ridge, but started to burn off as the sun got higher, while we were on the summit of Ellingwood point. Pleasantly surprised by the wind, expected gnarly gusts and sustained wind, but OpenSnow was a bit off. 3:08 to the summit of Ellingwood point, from Lake Como. 1:16 to cross the traverse and ridge over to Blanca. The route finding on the ridge felt a bit trickier, but we were able to make it through with only a couple of more difficult moves. 2:07 from Blanca summit down to our camp, and then another 1:51 down to where we parked the car, at 8,814ft. 9:35 total, from Lake Como, up, and then all the way back to the car. 

Route: Blanca and Ellingwood
Posted On: 8/19/2024, By: two lunches
Info: most people stayed ridge proper on this day, but because the standard route to Ellingwood was visible from the saddle (and the high traverse was not), we elected to drop back down to the trail split and go from there. there are an abundance of cairns marking the standard route to Ellingwood, which is a testament to their accuracy, as my GPX recording indicates we managed to hug Bill's/NatGeo 14ers line pretty closely. the difference to drop down versus stay ridge proper was about 15-20 minutes: additional 300' vert, distance negligible. 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 8/21/2024, By: badgerhiker
Info: Fantastic day for Roachs *classic* loop of Tour de Ellingwood plus the high traverse to Blanca! We turned off the trail and headed up immediately before lower Crater Lake. We gained the ridge using the ledge system next to/before the Y couloir. It was cairned in several places. After gaining the ridge, the remaining route is straight forward and the descriptions here are accurate. We stayed high on the ridge and went directly over all obstacles. There are a few fun knife edge sections and some airy slab moves! The .7 mile scramble took us a little over 2 hours to reach the summit. I was looking for practice to prepare for longer traverses and this was perfect! Highly recommend! 

Route: North Ridge via South Zapata Creek
Posted On: 7/29/2024, By: blonde_dinosaur
Info: Not much to add from last conditions update for this route. Lots of dead trees to avoid on the trail up to Zapata Lake. We camped there Saturday night and had the entire area to ourselves - was very beautiful. We ascended and descended C2 couloir and it has to be top 3 worst gullys I've been on. Very, very loose, and the rocks are just waiting to fall down the couloir if you're not very careful. We hugged the right side where there is more stable rock. The scramble on the ridge is extremely fun - we stayed high on the ridge for most of it. 

Route: North Ridge via South Zapata Creek
Posted On: 7/30/2024, By: ReedFagan
Info: Echo what others have said, particularly about the difficulty and instability of the C2 Couloir. I'm getting more comfortable with such routes but unintentionally starting 5 mini rockslides was a bit nervy. So glad I was the only person on the moutain that whole morning best I could tell (Tu-Th = best hiking days)! One thing to add that could prevent a total peak/trip-ruiner: Watch your feet/ankles once you emerge into the alpine meadows! Either some mammals or erosion has made short sections of that trail riddled with sudden, ankle-breakingly deep cavities that hide under the long alpine grass! You have been warned! 

Route: Blanca and Ellingwood
Posted On: 7/17/2024, By: wahpaha
Info: Summer conditions! Route finding was easier on Blanca and I took different routes (higher towards ridges on way up and only slightly lower off the ridge on the way down and worked out well.