Sultan Mountain

Route: Little Molas Lake
Posted On: 6/9/2024, By: AsTheDuke
Info: Conditions for Sultan Mountain, Grand Turk, and all peaks on that ridgeline. The gully to get above the cliffband when approaching from Little Molas Lake is dry on the far right where there's a social trail. The biggest snowfield would be between the top of the gully and Spencer Peak (Peak 13087), but you can avoid it if you stay on the ridge and go up Peak 12899. Even then, if it's at all like the other snow on the ridgeline, it should be fine to cross, and I even saw footprints in it. Other than a couple short snowfields, it's almost entirely dry. 

Route: from little mols lake
Posted On: 7/10/2023, By: Scott Conro
Info: Sultan, Grand Turk, Spencer, and the two "Turkshead" 12ers are in summer conditions. This route leads to the saddle between 12ers "West Turkshead" and "Turkshead" (unranked). There is still some snow on the slopes leading to Spencer's west ridge, but its inconsequential to cross or easily avoidable. 

Route: N face
Posted On: 7/4/2023, By: Boggy B
Info: The north face is in great shape for climbing, with topout options ranging L-R from easy to real steep. One could still ski around 2200' continuously from ~10 feet off the summit down to the Belcher mine. 

Route: Grand Turk + Spencer Loop
Posted On: 5/6/2023, By: Geckser
Info: Down in Silverton for the weekend with Arthurspiderman. Started the day by heading up to Spencer from Molas pass, could skin 90% but had to boot a few sections. We hopped the cornice to the summit, skied down to the Spencer-Grand Turk saddle and side hilled over to the Grand Turk-Sultan saddle. It got very cold at this saddle with wind and blowing snow. We booted up to Sultan, skied back to the saddle and booted up to Grand Turk where we skied off the big South couloir (hotdog couloir). Snow was pretty good though hard. We made quick time back to the car. Beautiful features though unpleasantly cold with no chance of corn. 

Route: from Grand Turk
Posted On: 4/22/2023, By: SnowAlien
Info: Great ski, great views, not much to add. A bit windy for sure. Boots did get wet on the exit. 

Route: Grand Turk, Sultan fr Little Molas
Posted On: 10/30/2022, By: Marmot72
Info: Gate on road was open! Snow melted out down low and 2w drive passable to Trailhead. Snow on route varied from dry to drifts above the knee. Snowshoes would not have helped in the basin but would have aided the traverse between the 12ers to Spencer peak. Snow was starting to ball up on descent and will probably firm up by next weekend. 

Route: Little Molas Lake
Posted On: 7/1/2022, By: angry
Info: Summertime. 

Route: little molas lake
Posted On: 6/6/2022, By: zootloopz
Info: A couple of easy patches of snow to negotiate around 12,600', but otherwise summer conditions! No traction needed. Beautiful summit views. TH gate and camping open but restrooms are still closed. 

Route: From Little Molas
Posted On: 7/6/2021, By: d_baker
Info: Car camped at Little Molas Lake trailhead, near camping area, with facilities, on Friday night. Started easy forested "trail" bushwack to Sultan trail. Once in upper basin approach to saddle, we were on a good trail for remainder of ascents to Spencer, Grand Turk, and then Sultan. Used bypass trails around GT and Spencer on return. My first hike above treeline (and above ~2000' El.) since Memorial Day wknd. Much suffering, huffing and puffing, going up 3rd summit. 8hr-ish RT. 7-8ish miles. Gain? Maybe slightly under 3k? Great views in all directions! 

Route: From Little Molas Lake/CO Trail
Posted On: 6/1/2021, By: supranihilest
Info: The winter closure on US 550 is one mile from the upper parking lot. At the upper lot follow the Colorado Trail. When it passes the second white rock band leave the trail to the north/right and follow the rocks for a ways, then pick through the forest towards Turkshead Peak (looks like a nipple). There's some snow in the forest but it can be mostly avoided. Once above treeline head towards the obvious saddle left of Turkshead, climbing across some snow to the top, then cross a long snow traverse towards Spencer. Climb Spencer (or save yourself 30 seconds by bypassing it... just climb it, it's right there) and then descend mostly snow to the saddle with Grand Turk. Traverse across scree, talus, and snow towards Sultan and climb to the summit on snow or talus. There's a trail that's mostly melted out. Don't get too high on the traverse or you'll be on nasty hardpan. Continue on to Grand Turk and/or Spencer. Bonus 12er: West Turkshead Peak is the big blob left of the initial saddle climb from the flats. 15 minute walk away on snow and tundra. Gear: no special gear needed but some may want spikes and/or an axe for the snow crossing. We got by with just trail runners. 

Route: From Little Molas Lake/CO Trail
Posted On: 8/20/2020, By: supranihilest
Info: Short, easy route from the Colorado Trail trailhead near Little Molas Lake. Go in a northern direction towards the peaks linking trail segments and dry creeks as you go. On the way up I had a significant willow bash that I was able to avoid on the descent. Near the "Turkshead Peak"/"West Turkshead Peak" saddle find the trail and follow it up the saddle and across open slopes until it begins rising up Spencer Peak's west face. The remaining route is obvious. Loose rock abounds on this route but it's all Class 2. Grand Turk and Spencer Peak are obvious additions to the hike. I also did "West Turkshead Peak", a ranked 12er, by walking up the grassy slopes near the "Turkshead"/"West Turkshead" saddle. 

Route: Little Molas Lake
Posted On: 8/3/2019, By: idratherbebiking
Info: Trails/route in great shape. The snowfield between East and West Turk can be avoided by hiking slightly above it. All routes to Grand Turk and Sultan are free of snow. 

Route: From Little Molas
Posted On: 6/29/2019, By: Tweedie
Info: I climbed Sultan and Grand Turk from Little Molas Lake Parking by Highway 550. The road to the lake is closed and has some minor damage on it. I left the parking lot at 5am, to try and be back down before the snow got too soft. My route took me up the road then through the forest to the bottom of the Turk Basin. Turk Basin is complete full of snow. The snow is firm early in the morning but was softening up by 10am. The end of the basin required Crampons to get to the top and then I used crampons off and on from there to the trail up Spencer Peak. From the north face of Spencer to Grand Turk is clear of snow and I was able to avoid the snow from Grand Turk back over to Sultan. There is a small section of snow on the ridge between Spencer and the Grand Turk ridge that passed to the West with some exposure, instead of putting my crampons back on again. I needed my snowshoes in the Turk Basin on the way out. The snow was soft enough that I was potholing pretty good after glissading the end of the basin. I got a good look at Ice Lakes Basin from the summit of Sultan, it is completely full of snow. It was a beautiful day in the mountains. 

Route: Grand Turk, Spencer Pk
Posted On: 10/20/2017, By: tmud
Info: Completely dry. Really windy. It looks like most of the San Juans are still dry, at least on the south and eastern faces. Pics... https://www.flickr.com/photos/92276249@N07/albums/72157661754277838 

Route: Via Grand Turk starting from Little Molas Lake
Posted On: 6/3/2013, By: Eph 2 5
Info: The route to Sultan Mountain starting at Little Molas Lake is mostly snow-free. There‘s no unavoidable snow until turning east after reaching the base of Pt. 12,899. Even that snow isn‘t very steep, especially if you stay low. I didn‘t wear snowshoes and I didn‘t posthole at all the entire day. When I reached the Pt. 12,899/Pt. 13,087 Saddle the ridge looked a little rough so I dropped down a little and started traversing away from the ridge toward the steep grassy western slopes of Pt.13,087. On the return trip,as I came down from Pt. 13,087 I found a path that stayed near the ridge all the way to the saddle between Pt. 12,899 and Pt. 13,087. It avoided the rocky ridge obstacles on the south side of them. This would have saved some time on the way up if I had seen it. The biggest difficulty of the day was when I started ascending Grand Turk and then took the path directly to the saddle between Grand Turk and Sultan instead of ascending the western summit of Grand Turk. I ran into a snowfield that I didn‘t feel comfortable crossing. I had to climb on all-fours up loose scree to the ridge leading down from Grand Turk toward Sultan. If I could do it again I‘d go almost to the western summit of Grand Turk and then head to the left down a little bit of scree (there are paths though) until I hit the ridge descending from Grand Turk toward Sultan. I did this in reverse on the way from Sultan to Grand Turk and it was much easier. This is a great hike with 360 degree views after about 10 minutes that last the duration of the hike. The view from Sultan would be in my top 10 if I took the time to rank my favorite peaks.