Mt. Flora

Route: Berthoud Pass
Posted On: 6/25/2023, By: CountOfSngreDeCristo
Info: Hiked Colorado Mines, Flora and Eva from Berthoud Pass today. The road up to Mines still has lots of snow drifts on it but all but a few could be avoided and are melting quickly. Only had to cross one small snowfield below the summit of Flora and another while descending off of Flora to the saddle with Eva. Both were doable without spikes. All remaining snow over to Eva was avoidable. On the return I opted to stay high at the trail junction on the Mines/Flora saddle as it looked like the lower route still had significant snow coverage. 

Route: Berthoud Pass
Posted On: 6/20/2023, By: JJProwe
Info: Started the hike to Flora (and eventually Eva) at 9am. Snow is melting quickly but still significant amount from Berthoud Pass to tree line, so may want to be prepared for some postholing. Went up Colorado Mines to avoid snowfield that covers the summer Flora route; added some elevation gain but worth it to avoid snow. Easy path to follow to summit with minimal snow from Colorado Mines to Flora. Perfect day! 

Route: Berthoud Pass
Posted On: 6/3/2023, By: joannalee07
Info: I would give it a few more weeks before attempting Flora. I went this morning prepared with snowshoes and ended up just going to Colorado Mines instead. I started at 6am and nothing had frozen overnight so very weak top layer. You need snowshoes from the start on the road. The branch off to flora is immediately knee deep post holing. So, I continued up mines road to attempt the alternate route over the top. The road was fine, not much snow after tree line, but the split off to go over the top was also knee deep post holing even in snowshoes. The ridge looked relatively clear of snow but getting to the ridge would be brutal especially with more snow coming this weekend. 

Route: Berthoud Pass
Posted On: 6/3/2023, By: joannalee07
Info: I would give it a few more weeks before attempting Flora. I went this morning prepared with snowshoes and ended up just going to Colorado Mines instead. I started at 6am and nothing had frozen overnight so very weak top layer. You need snowshoes from the start on the road. The branch off to flora is immediately knee deep post holing. So, I continued up mines road to attempt the alternate route over the top. The road was fine, not much snow after tree line, but the split off to go over the top was also knee deep post holing even in snowshoes. The ridge looked relatively clear of snow but getting to the ridge would be brutal especially with more snow coming this weekend. 

Route: From Berthoud Pass
Posted On: 6/3/2023, By: bangerth
Info: I will start by prefixing this conditions report by stating that I do not advise you do what we do: Hike in ankle-high summer boots, without traction and snowshoes. That said, it is possible. The road is reasonably hard packed and we only postholed a dozen or so times till the shortcut to the saddle between Colorado Mines Peak and Mount Flora. The shortcut has deep snow, so we followed the road a bit further and then contoured left over frozen but only lightly dusted tundra to just above the saddle. Down to the saddle and up to Flora is mostly just rocks, with the gaps filled by snow, and occasionally 4-8" of snow cover. Nothing about any of that was particularly difficult or deep. On the way back, we decided to give the shortcut a try. The first quarter mile is easy going, but once one gets to the big snow field, I did not think it a good idea to continue and we angled up hill to less steep terrain and traversed in deep snow to the power line that goes up to the towers. Under the power line, snow is quite shallow and that took us back to one of the switchbacks, from where we followed the road down again with relatively minor postholing. That whole area is often in the clouds moving in from Winter Park, rising over the mountains. This day was no different: It was essential to be able to navigate with GPS alone. We rarely had views of other mountains, and occasionally were socked in so thoroughly that we couldn't see more than 100'. If you didn't know where you were and where you are going, it would be essentially impossible not to end up in the wrong drainage. We did have moments on snow fields where the fog led to there not being any kind of horizon at all -- it was all just white of the same kind around you. That was a unique, and occasionally quite unsettling experience. As I mentioned, we did all this with summer hiking boots. That was certainly not recommendable and we did end up with a lot of snow in our shoes, along with well-soaked socks and feet. It was occasionally slippery coming down from Flora, but nothing that couldn't be navigated with poles alone. My recommendation would be to use snowshoes for the road walk, and then microspikes for the rest of the route. (Why did we do it that way? I was with friends in Grand Lake for a week. We hadn't planned on hiking high in the mountains, but one of the friends expressed an interest and so we thought we'd give it a try -- turning around is always an option. It turned out we didn't need to, and it was warm enough that good socks and shoes managed to keep our feet warm enough even though they were quite wet.) 

Route: Berthoud Pass
Posted On: 5/23/2023, By: antares7
Info: From Berthoud Pass parking lot, 0545 start with hard packed snow on lower third of trail that supported my weight ( 215 lbs with pack) without snowshoes. Minimal postholing. Cleats were adequate. Above 12,000ft trail was essentially free of snow. Only one on summit. Smoke from Canadian wildfires still visible. Coming down a couple hours later, snow had softened and I had much more postholing. This made for a slow cautious descent through lower third of trail. Back at trailhead by 0930. 

Route: Berthoud Pass
Posted On: 5/7/2023, By: Danger_D
Info: Consolidated snow from Berthoud Pass so I left my snowshoes in the car and didnt miss them. There is a baby trench forming a little uphill from the Mt. Flora trail that side-hills over to the saddle. Ridge is 95% scoured. No postholing when I got back to the car around 9am 

Route: From Berthoud Pass
Posted On: 4/8/2023, By: cougar
Info: Road up to CO Mines summit still full of snow, floatation may be helpful, especially once it warms, although some of the south slope is bare. From CO Mines summit to Flora its mostly wind scoured, mix of thin snow patches and bare ground, and a few deeper drifts. Spikes helpful in some areas. Ridge to Eva looked similar. 

Route: Berthoud Pass
Posted On: 3/4/2023, By: AndrewJCraigie
Info: Was hoping for a 14er this weekend but winds / temps made me reconsider - planned on doing Flora, Eva, & Parry, but was sick of the winds by the time I passed Flora and the path down to Eva looked a bit too slick from the wind for my liking. Carried but did not end up using my snowshoes, but they might be handy when temps go up as the road up to Old Mines has a decent amount of snow. Plenty of folks skiing and snowshoeing below when I came down, but didn't see anyone else headed to Flora. 

Route: from Berthoud pass
Posted On: 11/19/2022, By: ryansunshine20
Info: Cold AF. Literally had to wear a giant puffy the entire time walking up. There was a lot more snow going up to mines peak than I expected. I brought snowshoes and was not expecting to really need them but used them the entire time up mines peak. Really good coverage I wish i brought my splitboard. Felt like at least a foot of fresh blower pow. After mines peak it was wind blown enough that I continued with just boots. In spots where there was wind drifted snow there were some wind slabs forming up there with some cracking but not steep enough to slide. 

Route: from co mines
Posted On: 10/29/2022, By: jbealer
Info: the road to co mines pk is packed down, we turned off the road at the flora sign and broke trail (mid shin in places) up to almost mines then cut over to the saddle. saddle to flora is a mix of wind blown bare patches and then shallow snow with a few deep spots. wore winter boots and spikes because i hate slipping around, but you might be fine with no spikes. gaiters helped keep snow out of boots. someone broke the summer trail after us and we took that back. the slope has some deep, mid shin to knee spots, not sure how much longer that will be safe to use. the snow was soft and no slabs yet, but we did hit a few slaps forming else where. 

Route: Summer trail from Berthoud Pass
Posted On: 6/25/2022, By: HikesInGeologicTime
Info: Very brief sections of mud between treeline and CO School of Mines Peak saddle. Carrying any sort of winter gear would be an unnecessary exercise in character building. Friendly reminder that the "real" (8-10' higher) summit is the hump to the north of where the obvious trail ends at the sign. 

Route: Berthoud Pass to Loch Lomond
Posted On: 5/28/2022, By: Carl_Healy
Info: Shuttle hiked across the Continental Divide from Berthoud Pass (Colorado Mines Peak) to Loch Lomond (Mt. Bancroft). For conditions between the other peaks see those respective updates. A note for all legs is that we carried spikes, snowshoes, crampons, and ice axes the whole way but never *really* needed them. Also gnarly cornices everywhere, and weather was surprisingly nice: temps in the 40s and winds often below 10 MPH until at least Parry Peak. No issues really hiking up the snow covered road from Berthoud Pass to Colorado Mines Peak. Snow pretty firm all the way to summit (started around 5:00 AM) and of course the trail is popular enough to have a good bootpack. Beyond Colorado Mines to Flora the ridge was dry enough to avoid most snow fields and the ones that we couldn't were firm enough or not deep enough to be a problem. 

Route: From Berthoud Pass
Posted On: 5/27/2022, By: cougar
Info: Colorado Mines Peak is still coated in soft snow. The road up was packed to above treeline, then ski tracks. Less defined above with just one set of bootprints. From the summit of CO Mines to Flora, there's a lot less snow, and the ridge is wind scoured in most places. Ridge to Eva looked about the same. I returned over Mines instead of sidehilling the slippery bypass, and followed the utility lines straight down. Some postholing below treeline. Carried snowshoes but didn't use them. Spikes were useful on Mines for a part following a skin track. I'd expect the route past Mines to be mostly melted out in a few days, but still sloppy lower. Still good coverage for skiing, saw a couple dropping into the basin. Almost no one up there, so don't expect a solid path through snow, just a few tracks. 

Route: Berthoud Pass
Posted On: 5/17/2022, By: zootloopz
Info: Snow lingering below treeline. Snowshoes not necessary, but could be helpful as things warm up moving forward. The CDT still has snow, which is easily avoided by following the powerlines up Colorado Mines Peak. Was able to cut across the north face around 12,300'. Easy stroll from there over to Flora. Beautiful day, beautiful views.