"K 49"

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 11/2/2024, By: Will_E
Info: Nice day up on K49, I followed Bill's route, it's pretty nice. Some nasty trap door fun after treeline, I banged my shin a few times. I parked a mile or so from Halfmoon TH, someone made it all the way to the trailhead at some point today, very likely they were not driving a toaster. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 5/31/2024, By: 9patrickmurphy
Info: I parked at the 110J split since that was what my Forester could easily manage but the road is drivable to the North Halfmoon trailhead. The trail is almost immediately patchy snow with lots of muddy and wet spots and becomes mostly continuous snow less than a mile past the trailhead. At the large clearing, I made the mistake of trying to follow the summer trail when I should have just followed the creekbed. The creek is mostly exposed but there are currently some snow bridges. Once I stopped messing around in the trees and made my way to the creekbed, travel became much quicker. Around 11,600 I turned left up and headed into K49's northeast basin. I skinned to 12,300 before switching to crampons to gain the north ridge, then took that to the summit, being careful of the cornices on the ridge. Fantastic ski down. I took a steep gully below treeline that was a more direct return to the clearing. Pictures of surrounding peaks attached. Lots of snow up there and all the lines look tempting. sidenote: does anyone know the origin of this peak name? is it a riff on "K2" or something? 

Route: from Champion Mill
Posted On: 8/18/2023, By: ScottLovesRMNP
Info: We climbed this the "sufferfest" way out-and-back from Hwy 82 (North Fork Lake Creek TH), up and over the shoulder of Mt. Champion. It is straightforward but there's a lot of up and down. Trail on the east side of the creek is hard to pick up down low, but it picks up just beyond (north) of an open meadow with some mining remnants. If you ascend the left side of Lackawanna Gulch, it climbs the lower slope of Champion and you'll find the trail soon enough if you just go for it. It is easier to follow higher up. From the pass, you drop 800 feet on the road to the south face of K49, which is a steep, relentless climb up 1500 feet, but footing is surprisingly good. To make this more interesting, consider a loop or point-to-point hike (using 2 cars) from the Mt. Massive/Oklahoma side which I believe would be quite a bit easier. You can also visit the remarkably well-preserved and sizable Champion Mill along the way if you're into that sort of thing. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 7/10/2024, By: nilaoire
Info: Make life easy for yourself, don't waste time driving to the trailhead, lots of parking available about 1/2 mile from the actual trailhead. The last 1/2 mile is faster walked than in a car. Our Outback had no problem driving to that point. Stream crossing may not be feasible at the exact points shown on the gpx track as the water level is still high. A little up hill or down from locations shown may be the key to success. One or two snow fields, easily navigable, on route. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 5/29/2023, By: davisrice4
Info: Viewed from the SW slopes route on Massive. NE face looks to be in great conditions for skiing. Stream crossings were a non-issue. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 6/13/2022, By: kwhit24
Info: Hiked the loop with Oklahoma and Deer On the approach to Deer the snow is avoidable and all Class 2+ until the last 100' from the summit. Still some snow which requires some maneuvering leading to more difficult moves but they are short. No snow over to K49 or on the ridge coming off K49. There is snow to navigate when heading back into the basin but we were able to avoid it all just barely before or creek crossings 12.71 miles; 5,011' gain; 9 hours 20 min Start about 5:30am; Mt. Oklahoma 8:30am (15min break); Deer Mtn 10:45am; K49 12:30pm (20 min break); TH 3:00pm 

Route: SE gully up, NE face ski descent
Posted On: 5/13/2022, By: SnowAlien
Info: Road is drivable to the upper Massive TH, but the last half mile has a few rough obstacles. I parked at French/Frasco turnoff. Halfmoon creek is raging, so crossings are adventurous. Took up CR 11 a ways, and then took SE gully to the ridge. NE face looked good, so that's what I skied. Snowline was all the way down to Halfmoon creek @11k. Oklahoma looks great. Trail back was dry except for one snowy section with many footprints. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 11/28/2021, By: angry
Info: Broke trail to summit. Snow depth varied, worst is in the trees and basin with postholing knee to waist deep. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 11/6/2020, By: Jay521
Info: Patches of snow made the final few hundred feet interesting but other than that, a good one to get now before the next storm. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 7/13/2020, By: CaptainSuburbia
Info: Creeks were easy to cross. There was an avy debris field to cross on bushwack section. The ridge was totally dry. I descended northeast off the ridge and caught a glissade down to the talus pile. Snowfields on and off from there to lake. Contoured right at lake and connected back to the North Halfmoon Lakes trail just before it hit the Mt Massive Southwest trail for a nice lollipop. 

Route: West Ridge, North Ridge
Posted On: 6/27/2020, By: supranihilest
Info: The west ridge is a lot longer than it looks - it took me about 50 minutes one-way. It's all Class 2 but there's almost nothing but talus and it's basically all sidehilling and tedious. Totally dry. The north ridge descent isn't too bad until near the flat block at the end of the ridge. The rock is horribly loose but there's no scrambling. Descending down to the willows is ankle deep kitty litter and super duper annoying. There's tons of wet, marshy ground and willows to bash, and a few soggy but short snowfield crossings (a couple can be avoided too). At the creek I couldn't find a log or rocks so I just went down it until a trail appeared on the north side. A bit further was a narrow section I leapt across. DO NOT miss crossing to the north side of the creek! Staying on the south side puts you on the wrong side of a gorge which, to my knowledge, you can't cross over. I then meandered through the forest back to my track and then the trail. No surprises there. 

Route: Oklahoma/Deer/K 49 Loop
Posted On: 6/24/2018, By: JasonKline
Info: Other than one brief snow crossing below the summit of Oklahoma, snow was avoidable the entire loop of Oklahoma/Deer Mountain A/K 49 (including the tougher parts on Deer Mountain A). Ice axe and microspikes are unnecessary.