Marble Mountain

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/13/2025, By: Mtnman200
Info: Summer conditions. A little bit of snow near treeline can be easily avoided and probably will be gone in a week anyway. 

Route: From Music Pass
Posted On: 6/8/2025, By: zrsimpson
Info: Marble Mountain from Music Pass is snow free and clear. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/1/2025, By: Istoodupthere
Info: Marble Trail off of the Rainbow Trail wasn’t obvious. I put up a cairn and cleared some debris. About 40 ft into the woods you’ll see the well used trail start. Trail through the woods was easy to follow until around 11,200 where intermittent snow drifts started obscuring the trail. Just keep going up. The final 100 ft or so before treeline had an easily manageable snow field. Wear your trail runners. Nothing else needed. Great views of the crestones. Crux of the route was the deadfall. Wasn’t terrible though. Just annoying in a handful of spots. Garmin had me at 11.9 miles and just under 4500 ft of gain from the 2wd TH. Great day in the mountains 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 2/23/2025, By: osprey
Info: The road up to the Rainbow Trail is well packed by ATVs and goes fast without flotation. Snowshoes on at the Rainbow Trail and followed an old trench which went a short way up the ridge. From there to timberline was the most brutal trenching. Post holing frequently up to knees, going up, over and through deadfall. Got to timber line after 4 hours of trenching and said “ no mas”. Took a picture of the Stones and headed back to the corral. Trench should last for several more days although warm temperatures may melt some parts out. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 12/26/2024, By: Istoodupthere
Info: Road from 2wd trailhead is mostly dry until you get up to the trees. From there to Rainbow Trail is nicely packed. Rainbow trail has less traffic but still a decent boot pack. I immediately turned around when I saw nobody has been on the Marble Trail. I guess this surprised me. I wasnt up for putting in a trench to treeline in 2-3 feet of snow. Zero wind when I got back to my car at 9am. I had most of the day left. This was my last day in the mountains until May. What 13er could I still do? Pennsylvania! 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 11/14/2024, By: greenschist
Info: I didn't hike Marble but had a good view of the ridge from below. The Sangres got slammed with snow in the last storm, but the wind seems to have blown Marble's NE ridge nearly dry. Below treeline there's at least a foot of snow in the South Colony Basin. You'll need snowshoes to get to treeline on Marble, but from there you could probably get to the summit with spikes. The East Ridge of Humboldt looked similar, but I didn't have as good of a vantage point to tell for sure. Sorry for the blurry pics. 

Route: Grape Creek TH/Music Pass
Posted On: 8/11/2024, By: sparnell
Info: Any trail angels out there? First-time O/N backpacker and Sangre de Cristo summiter left her fairly new boots (size 10 Oboz) at the vault toilet site and didn't realize until we got home. We are from E. KS, so no returning to the site to check. If found please message me and I'll pay for shipment to return. They would have been left at the Grape Creek TH, which was our entry/exit point. Trail is good all the way to Music Pass, where we camped. No clear trail to the ridge line - just choose a line and go up. Once on the ridge just follow it. There are cairns at most of the false summits, and a registry tube at the true summit. The ridge over to the Milwaukee/Marble saddle is more of a scramble than mentioned in other reports, but it is stable/not sketchy. Once down from the saddle, the trail from the back of the valley to the Uper Sand Creek Lake Trail is very difficult to follow - we were repeatedly on it/off it, picking up then loosing cairns, w/ sometimes the only evidence of trail being beat-down vegetation. We continued in a generally southern direction until we picked up the trail to the Upper Sand Creek Lake, and then had no trouble returning to Music Pass, then back to Grape Creek TH. All in all a good hike, but a sour taste over the missing boots - can someone please help? 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 7/21/2024, By: MaryinColorado
Info: Nothing terribly noteworthy other than mosquitoes! We both forgot bug spray; whoopsie. Especially closer to treeline, it was a situation of "need to breathe but don't want to stop". Breathing won. I have many bites to prove it. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/15/2024, By: Mark57
Info: Ascended NE Ridge. Extensive deadfall, mostly with well worn user bypass trails, especially the 1st mile above Rainbow Trail. Otherwise nice trail below treeline, mainly dirt and pine needles. One moderately large snow field just below treeline, had to circumnavigate, and then briefly cross (no traction needed), just below a Krumholtz thicket, which I bypassed to the right/NW. No snow encountered on the tundra and talus above treeline or on the summit. Summit register intact. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 2/11/2024, By: yaktoleft13
Info: Refreshed the snowed-in SCL trench. From the rainbow trail turnoff to the summit, it was all fresh trailbreaking. No signs of anyone else having been up there since snow came. Lots of bad snow and whoomfing below treeline. Snow became a bit better at treeline. Above treeline, it was 8ish inches of fresh powder over talus. I had it at a little over 11 miles and 4600 vert 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 12/16/2023, By: d_baker
Info: 4 of us hiked Marble today. Parked at 2wd lot. Didn't bring snowshoes, and was probably right decision. Road walk to Rainbow Trail had an ATV track or something similar, so made good use of the rut. Took Rainbow Tr to turn off on ridge, as described on the route Bill M has here on the site. Refreshed a previous track (prior to last storm??) in trees on the ridge. No spikes, just boots and poles. Started boot-top deep at Rainbow Tr turnoff, then turned to consistent mid-shin with occasional knee-deep pockets. Above treeline, mostly windswept with good traction on tundra/rocks. Steady strong wind today above treeline, but that was our day. Yours may be different. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 8/7/2023, By: denvermikey
Info: No snow. Still quite a bit of downfall on the lower portion of the trail to contend with. Good trail to tree line, just stay on or near the ridge. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 5/26/2023, By: emilyexplores
Info: South Colony Lakes Road completely clear of snow to Rainbow Trail junction, Rainbow Trail also clear. Tons of blowdowns to navigate on ridge crest, per usual. Put on snowshoes at 11k and left them on until reaching treeline. Ridge itself was completely wind blown, no traction needed. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 5/7/2023, By: supranihilest
Info: Route is straightforward. Patchy snow starts immediately on the Rainbow trail and becomes continuous somewhere around 10,400'. In the morning it was frozen and I only postholed a few times. On descent postholing was a lot worse but I was too stubborn to put on snowshoes despite carrying them. Above treeline the snow remained hard and most of the ridge is dry anyway. Tons of deadfall on the lower part of the ridge. If you get an even earlier start than me (~4:50am, and I started at the 2WD South Colony trailhead) you can probably find better snow in the trees on descent. Every minute counts. Gear: crampons overkill, ice axe useless, microspikes maybe but by no means necessary. I wore Gore-Tex trail runners all day and didn't use my snowshoes but I would strongly recommend bringing flotation in case the snow goes to hell. 

Route: Northeast Ridge
Posted On: 4/8/2023, By: gcook33
Info: Parked about a .5 mile up the road just before the cattle guard because of snow patches. Bulletproof snow on the road in the morning until the turnoff for rainbow trail. 2 of us and 2 others tracked up the ridge, winds were very mild. About halfway up the ridge you can lose the snowshoes and walk on tundra to the summit. Way back down was getting slushy in the trees but manageable