Casco Peak

Route: Echo Canyon
Posted On: 6/22/2020, By: angry
Info: Summer conditions. 

Route: French/Frasco/Casco Combo
Posted On: 8/26/2019, By: dwoodward13
Info: You can now cross both stream crossings without getting wet. The first one, if you go downstream about 30 yards from the vehicle crossing, the stream braids into 3 channels. First two channels you can cross on nice stable logs. Then go upstream about 15 yards and you can find rocks to hop across. The 2nd crossing can be easily done with rocks. Route up French is straightforward. I messed up the routefinding pretty good nearing PT 13,470 on the way to Casco so be careful here. If you get off a lot of the rock is extremely loose. After this route up Casco is well worn. For descent, I think it's better to go all the way to the saddle east of Casco then drop down, but dropping down into the basin at any point will work too. 

Route: From North Lake Creek
Posted On: 8/18/2019, By: WildWanderer
Info: First stream crossing at deepest point was to my knees. Second creek crossing snow bridges are no longer usable, but if you look around you can find a way to cross without getting your feet wet. Summer conditions with swampy areas in the basin. The scree to gain the ridge was not fun. Small patch of avoidable snow on ridge. Wildflowers didn't disappoint! 

Route: via SW Ridge from \"Lackawanna\"
Posted On: 8/8/2018, By: LetsGoMets
Info: Fun route. Ridge over to Casco from Lackawanna is all Class 2, maybe a Class 2+ move near the very top of Casco. Very easy to navigate the entire way. I clocked it roughly around 2 miles from summit to summit, took me just under 1.5 hours to traverse. Descended via Fiascol back down to North Lake Creek TH. Steep and loose dirt/scree for 300 feet down to a boulder field, which you can quickly cross to get on grass/tundra. Easy hike out from there following Roach's description. 

Route: French/Frasco/Casco/Lackawanna/13660B Combo
Posted On: 9/16/2017, By: JasonKline
Info: Got under an inch of snow on September 16, but the snow promptly melted except for north-facing slopes. Slippy at points between Casco and Frasco, which was already the toughest part of the hike. There were some decent winds and relatively cold temperatures with the snow, so winter is on its way. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 8/13/2017, By: Grover
Info: This is a great route for two selfish reasons: 1.) If you have a modified 4x4 vehicle, and, 2.) if you only need to summit Casco Peak. If this is the case for you, I suggest driving up to and past the Champion Mine (take the road on the left at the mine to keep going up). You can make it to the saddle looking into Lackawanna Gulch, and Casco Peak will be right there in front of you. To gain the ridge, you do need to suffer through a loose, dirt, scree hike up to the ridge. After that, the ridge is solid, and you can make it spicy by climbing on the ridge itself, if you like. 

Route: French/Frasco/Casco Combo
Posted On: 7/5/2016, By: tjf242424
Info: A few insignificant snow patches on the climb up Frasco. Otherwise, the whole route is snow free and there is no need for traction. I forded Halfmoon Creek (knee deep but flowing fast) and was able to rock hop across South Halfmoon Creek without getting my feet wet. The road to the trailhead is in good shape. No problems in a 2011 Outback. 

Route: French/Frasco/Casco Combo
Posted On: 6/5/2016, By: RyGuy
Info: This conditions report covers Casco/Frasco/French. Couple notes: Halfmoon Creek is raging right now. Unless you have like 14 inches of clearance, don't plan to drive across the creek. There is a pair of logs that cross the river about 80 yards east (Down the road) that you can use to cross. They are a bit fun to use, but work well. It's quite the bushwhack to get back to the road at the creek crossing. Expect to add 20 minutes or so for that. The second creek crossing (South Halfmoon) is also quite high. There is another pair of logs down across the creek about 100 yards up. Also requires a lot of bushwhacking to find. And last but not least...START early. We started at 3:30AM, but should have started at 1:30 realistically. Despite a decent freeze, the snow started becoming sloppy about 2 hours after sunhit on Casco. The ridge from Casco to Frasco and French was decent, but also got sloppy before 10AM. On the way out, the snow was complete mashed potatoes. There are some spots in the basin you can avoid the snow for short bits, but we ended up spending a ton of time post holing, even with snowshoes (Although they did help) 

Route: French/Frasco/Casco Combo
Posted On: 10/25/2014, By: Unknown
Info: French is nearly snow free, boots all the way to the summit. Traverse to Frasco had a bit of snow where gaiters were helpful. Casco had much more snow that the other two, microspikes and ice an ice ax were helpful here. Descent back to the road from Casco had a semi-decent glissade. Decent for October anyway. 

Route: French/Frasco/Casco Combo
Posted On: 9/27/2014, By: desertdog
Info: Did the traverse. Bluebird day with great fall colors. No snow. Plan on hiking most of the road as its got some really rough sections. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 11/12/2013, By: mollykay
Info: Summited Casco from Echo Canyon TH. Trail up to treeline was mostly snow covered with some icy spots, but easy to follow. We ascended the valley by traversing high and avoiding the willows and only had to cross intermittent patches of snow. Grassy slopes up to the ridge also had intermittent snow. Ridge was about 50/50 snow and rock. The summer route was covered with snow in most areas. We descended the valley lower through the willows which weren‘t too bad, but spots had up to a foot of snow. Microspikes and ice axe were helpful on the ridge. We didn‘t use snowshoes. 

Route: French/Frasco/Casco Combo
Posted On: 10/21/2012, By: BobbyFinn
Info: Light snow on the east face. Micro spikes were useful higher up. Insignificant snow on the ridge from Casco to Frasco and French. Pic 1 - Casco from South Halfmoon Creek Drainage Pic 2 - Casco from the ridge to Frasco