La Plata's Ellingwood Ridge in Winter

[nickonov]

I would be extremely amazed if someone completed the ascent of Ellingwood Ridge in one winter day -- nevermind the return to the trailhead. Once you gain the crest, it's about two miles of ice- and snow-covered towers, and daylight permits only about 8-10 hours of route finding in relative safety. It'd be great to read a trip report, though I'd also understand if the photographic coverage was rather spotty (again, due to time constraints). Your best shot would be to scout out the approach (which is neither frequently used, obvious, nor simple) ahead of time and then make it in the dark, giving yourself the maximum amount of visibility on the ridge itself. Of course, having someone in your party who's climbed that route before wouldn't hurt, either. Good luck!

[Presto]

best shot would be to scout out the approach (which is neither frequently used, obvious, nor simple) ahead of time and then make it in the dark, giving yourself the maximum amount of visibility on the ridge itself.

Kiefer and Mountainmicah83: We did do this. I concur with nickonov on it not being frequently used nor obvious. The day before, we tromped out the path through the trees (there's no trail) until we broke out of the trees and could see the route up to the beginning of the ridge. It was very helpful for the next day when we left for the ridge traverse.

I would be extremely amazed if someone completed the ascent of Ellingwood Ridge in one winter day -- nevermind the return to the trailhead. Once you gain the crest, it's about two miles of ice- and snow-covered towers, and daylight permits only about 8-10 hours of route finding in relative safety.

Well, that makes me feel a bit better. As I said before, we were very close to the summit by the end of the second day, but thought it wise to bivy there and do the remaining climb to the summit (and descent) in daylight. Happy trails! :D

[mountainmicah83]

Thanks for all of the replies. I am currently tossing a couple of options around right now. While a one day ascent would be sweet, I am not willing to die trying as most people aren't. Otherwise it would have been done already. We are looking at scouting and packing a trail on day one with the option of camping at the start of the ridge or else returning and getting super early 2-3 AM start so we don't have to carry the camping gear and doing it in a day. Problem is, I still don't feel comfortable without the bivy and bag in case we don't make it in that one day. I am liking getting as far as possible on day one and then finishing up day 2.

To be honest, I am tempted to just take the NW ridge (with winter recommendations of course) and save this route for summer as well. All will tell once I get there with as good of a knowledge of both routes as possible.

[Kiefer]

Presto,
That's super awesome, man! Haven't been on that ridge yet but doing it in winter is definitely a stylish way to tag La Plata! Hats off to ya!
So it seems that's two parties who have done it. Seems in winter, the safe way of doing this would be to bring bivy gear just in case.

[gc]

I've been curious for some time to hear about any winter ascents so this thread caught my attention. Some day I'd like to give it ago.

Here's a recent photo from Elbert that I got of the ridge:

LaPlataWinter_IMG_6061_Thumbnail.jpg (273.78 KiB) Viewed 1380 times

[Alby426]

Good luck with the climb. I won't be able to make it this week-end.
Stay safe and take lots of pictures!

[mountainmicah83]

Thanks. I'm just hoping that I will be done in time to make it to work on monday morning. Although, I would rather move slower and miss work than mess something up and not be able to climb ever again.

[TomPierce]

Ellingwood Ridge's first winter ascent was in 1974, January 12 to be specific, by the team of Koontz, Kocsis, Tolton and Lafferty. That was 36 years ago and given that it's only 3rd class I find it nearly impossible to believe a route like that up a 14'er in Colorado hasn't been climbed several times in the winter. Not dismissing the accomplishment by any means (I've not done it and have limited interest in doing so...) but if 5th class routes up Longs get ascents every winter then a 3rd class route should still see some traffic. Yep, it's more remote and not as popular as Longs, but still...Just my speculation.

Mountainmicah: The first winter ascent party took 4 days to knock if off, but the limited info I have from Borneman & Lampert is that they had strong wind and route finding problems. Note also that the first serious attempt in winter (1960) led to the death of a team member in a slide (the approach is apparently slide-prone per Dawson's guide). Good luck!
-Tom

[CVV15er]

Thanks. I'm just hoping that I will be done in time to make it to work on monday morning. Although, I would rather move slower and miss work than mess something up and not be able to climb ever again.

Just curious... Did you ever make it? This looks like a fun (if not grueling) hike. I'm thinking about trying La Plata via the standard route and would love to hear how the conditions are out there.

[Doctor No]

They didn't summit (viewtopic.php?t=23426&p=280169#p279916).

There's some info on the standard (winter) route in that thread as well, since my friend and I didn't summit either.

And I swear that the site is either taunting me, or Bill recently added a bunch of La Plata photos onto the front page screensaver.

[mountainmicah83]

That is correct. We didn't make it. 2 problems- first, we left home way later than planned so we had set a goal to make it to treeline by dark and if we made it then we would go for the ridge to camp to start at the top first thing in the morning. Upon splitting off from the main trail, we were trying to cut trail through thigh deep powder to get over there. After about 2 miles and only being 3/4 of the way to treeline, it was completely dark. We made the call to turn back to the beautiful trail we cut and try for the main route. We were the third party to hike the trail on the main route to treeline so you could probably boot pack it now if you don't like snowshoes but it is steep and they helped with traction also. We made it to about 13,300' the next day at a pretty slow pace. Avy conditions on the route are minimal right now. Had we not spent a few hours the day before trudging around in deep snow, we may have been faster and made the summit. However, even though we were willing to fight the 60 MPH winds on Sunday, some dark dark clouds were looming and neither one of us wanted to descend in a blizzard so we made the call to bail.

If you are planning a multi-day on this, there is an awesome campsite stomped out right at treeline. Oh, and although not necessary, crampons were helpful above treeline.

Good luck!

[CVV15er]

Thanks for the info. I'm bummed to hear that you didn't summit (it would have made for an epic story) but at least you made it out safely. We'll be trying for a long day trip and praying that the weather doesn't do us in...