5/1/2021 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 5/2/2021, By: HikerGuy Info: Slept in car at 2wd parking area and started hiking from there. Road is drivable for 1.08 miles at which point snow begins. Snow patchy to forest boundary and continuous from there to Rainbow Trail. Used snowshoes starting at Rainbow Trail up to treeline, approx. 2 to 2.25 miles of shoeing each way. Snow depth averages 2 to 4 feet on top of the ridge. Snow free above treeline. |
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3/7/2021 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 3/8/2021, By: rivrrapids Info: Did from Music Pass. Had to park 2 miles from Grape Creek TH due to snow drifts. Don't recommend going even that far unless you have good 4wd. Was able to boot up to just below lower Music Pass parking lot due to packed snow from snowmobiles. From there broke trail w/snowshoes all the way to Pt. 12,739. Stashed snowshoes there then booted rest of ridge to Marble. Didn't need traction, had axe but wasn't absolutely necessary. Snow on ridge from pass to first point was getting wet but still mostly supportive 11-12:00 or so on way down w/approx. 45 deg F temps. http://tpks.ws/LINJ57IRGP545TI4FEYTRMETSU |
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3/2/2021 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 3/2/2021, By: ScottLovesRMNP Info: Parked at 8,600 feet, below the 2WD parking. Saw nobody the entire day, but followed the trench along the standard route that was put in yesterday -- it's in great shape. Views of the surrounding 14ers and 13ers are incredible right now. Stashed snowshoes at tree-line and didn't use spikes at all, as there is plenty of bare ground on the tundra. Windy up there today, but thankfully sunny. Quite warm for much of the hike below treeline. |
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3/1/2021 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 3/1/2021, By: CoHi591 Info: Had to park a quarter mile or so below the lower TH due to snow. Put snowshoes on right away and kept them on all the way to treeline, spikes from treeline to summit but you could get by without. There's now a trench, although I don't know what kind of mindset I was in on my way up this morning because I noticed upon descending that I took a pretty meandering and inefficient route. It'll get you there though. Blue skies, zero wind, warm enough to spend an hour on the summit. I'll add pics in a sec of the surrounding area. |
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1/31/2021 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 1/31/2021, By: Flyingfish Info: Road is packed to the Rainbow trail and ideal for spikes. From there we broke trail to around 11,000ft and turned around after 4 hours of trenching in knee to waist deep powder. The trenches in the last conditions are gone after the last storms. Will need snowshoes from the road to treeline even on our trench. Snow depth is probably over 4 feet the entire ridge to treeline. |
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1/13/2021 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 1/15/2021, By: pjcolorado Info: THANKS for the earlier updates, they were VERY helpful in preparing for my hike. There's a good trench up South Colony Rd to the Rainbow Trailhead. Once off the Rainbow Trail and on the Marble trail you will need snow shoes. The trench is not capable of holding you with just hiking boots and micro-spikes. I tested the trench at times and it was as deep as my trekking pole. The wind above and below tree line makes staying on the path difficult as well. Above tree line and on the side of the mountain you can switch to micro-spikes. The wind was another factor. Going up the wind was ferocious, but coming down I needed my trekking pole to help keep me upright at times. It was great to back below tree line to cut the wind. Managed to get back to the road before dark, but needed my headlamp to get back to the 2 wd trailhead. Excellent training for winter hikes. |
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1/3/2021 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 1/4/2021, By: lkk8815 Info: Snowshoes are a must. The road is hard packed for two miles to the Rainbow trail turnoff, after that I put snowshoes on. The trench still exists to just beyond Pt 10725 (thank you to those who put that in!) After that, I have a hard time believing any trench can survive the wind blasting it away from there until treeline at 11500'. My tracks from the morning were almost gone on the way down. Expect deep snow and wallowing in some places. Above treeline is mostly wind blown with some hard snow patches. It should have been an easy cruise to the summit and back except for the wind tossing me around like a rag doll. My watch said 10.9 miles round trip from the lower south colony lakes TH. |
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1/1/2021 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 1/1/2021, By: CoHi591 Info: There is a lot of snow up there. Post holing up to our knees even with snowshoes. Flotation absolutely necessary once you get onto the rainbow trail. We put in a solid trench to about 10,900 where we had to turn around due to being completely over it. Beautiful day though. Go get it! |
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12/26/2020 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 12/26/2020, By: Sbenfield Info: Pretty good path partially up, but then stopped. Made a new path to tree line where the snow ended, but I'd still bring snowshoes. Last part to summit the snow could be avoided. Great views |
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7/23/2020 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 7/24/2020, By: JasonKline Info: Summer conditions. In the event that you're considering climbing Marble on the way to South Colony Lakes and descending down the east slopes of Marble back to the trail to South Colony Lakes instead of going back down the ridge of Marble to the Rainbow Trail, don't. It involves cliffing out several times combined with class 3 bushwhacking. |
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5/26/2020 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 5/26/2020, By: Brian Thomas Info: There is a large snowbank right at treeline. Other than that, 99% free of snow. |
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5/9/2020 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 5/10/2020, By: Tony1 Info: Generally, patchy snow in the low 11,000' range and continuous snow in the upper 11,000' range. Dry above and below that. We carried snowshoes but didn't use them. At around 8:00am on the ascent, all snow was supportive. At 12:00pm on the descent, the upper reaches of snow were supportive, while the lower reaches were not, but the postholing wasn't bad. |
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4/12/2020 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 4/21/2020, By: angry Info: Broke trail all the way to top of ridge. This was slow going. Areas below treeline where I was wallowing mid-thigh. From ridge to summit is mostly dry. I was able to glisssade the areas with snow on descent. |
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11/9/2019 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 11/10/2019, By: summitwolf Info: No snow on the ridge once you are out of the trees. There is several inches of snow on the ridge below tree line but I did not use floatation. There is a nice trail that follows the ridge direct for most of the way up to tree line. The 4wd road and the Rainbow Trail are snow packed and icy in spots so spikes would be helpful (but not essential). Parked at the lower S. Colony TH but I probably could have driven all the way to the Rainbow Trail crossing since the road was so packed down. |
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7/9/2019 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 7/9/2019, By: Adoniram Info: Success at last! The trail is completely clear of snow except for about 100 feet at tree line. I didn't bother with either my yak tracks or snow shoes as it was stiff and easy to kick into. Overall a good but difficult hike due to the steepness. One pic is the elevation profile. Other pics are for fun. |
