Snowmass 'S' Ridge Alternative Approach

[nflannery]

Planning a snowmass hike in a few weeks and going to tackle the 'S' ridge. While looking at reports and maps, I was curious if it would be possible to take a different gully to reach the ridge. the attached image shows the standard route in Blue, I am wondering if anyone has tried the Red route, or might have any insight.

[nsaladin]

Haven't done the west side of snowmass, but the route you have drawn out looks to be around the area where this video was taken from...

[Jrodicon]

I haven't been up that gully but I would probably recommend against it. I did the S ridge 2 weeks ago and every time I strayed too far from the ridge it got very loose. I would imagine the route would be as loose as the west slopes with the difference being that the most dangerous rocks haven't already been kicked down since no one takes that route. I also definitely saw rockfall coming out of that gully. The ridge itself is solid and fun though so I'd say that taking it from as low as you can is the best way to do it. Also when you look at trip reports people say that you can either take the loose class 2+ gully or the solid class 3-4 rib to the right to gain the ridge at the bottom, take the rib, the 2+ gully was easily the sketchiest part of my whole ascent.

[DeTour]

I'd say if you want a loose gully, just take the west slopes route. At least there's a route that's been cleaned somewhat by other traffic. You can't tell very well from the photos, but from what I recall from being there is that most of the gullies between the S Ridge approach and the standard west slopes route were pretty cliffy at the bottom. Between that and the loose rock/rockfall danger, I don't think it's a good idea.

The other question is why would you go the way you asked? It may look shorter on the photo, but I think that's inaccurate. It isn't appreciably shorter, just more talus, more gully and less ridge. The photo line appears to suggest you go north past Little Gem Lake on the west slopes route, then angle back southeast to the S Ridge approach. In fact you can cut directly east as soon as you gain the headwall south of Little Gem Lake.

The ridge route is a blast, if you're gonna do it, do it all. That includes the rib between the two access gullies. It had some stretch moves but nothing our group found daunting; it was really solid fun all the way. You do, however, have to be on lookout for rocks moving beneath you, even large boulders, more so on the ridge proper than on that rib approach to the ridge.

[nflannery]

Alright, I am convinced, standard S ridge route it is. Thanks for the quick feedback!

[shizupple]

Is the general consensus that the S. Ridge is a better more enjoyable route overall that the West Ridge? I see a couple trip reports of people descending back down the West Ridge. What is the recommendation for the descent if you do the S. Ridge? I'm thinking of heading up tomorrow to do the West Ridge but really considering the S. Ridge after looking into it a bit more.

[DeTour]

Is the general consensus that the S. Ridge is a better more enjoyable route overall that the West Ridge?

By "West Ridge" do you mean the route labeled "west slopes" on the 14ers.com route description? That is mostly a shallow gully route. There is a bit of a ridge on the west side of Snowmass, north of that "west slopes" route, but when I researched the mountain pretty thoroughly a couple years ago I didn't see any accounts of people climbing that west ridge proper.

So if you're comparing S Ridge with west slopes, I'll emphatically recommend the S Ridge. It's really a classic, right in there with other better-known alternative ridge routes like Kelso, Quandary west, Sneffels southwest, etc. My group of four ascended the S Ridge and descended the west slopes in 2013. The ridge was exhilarating, something like 1800 vertical of almost nonstop class 3 scrambling. (With maybe a bit of class 4, some say, I'm not sure.) It was, however, physically and mentally difficult because of the unrelenting scrambling and the potential for loose rocks up to boulder size.

The west slopes descent was stressful because of the potential for catastrophic rockfall. I was highly aware of a young man who died from rockfall descending that route a couple years prior to our trip. Especially near the top, there seemed to be huge boulders precariously perched everywhere you looked. After we descended a few hundred feet, the fear of getting steamrolled by a SUV-sized boulder relented somewhat and it became just a lot or loose rock, still a risk but not as scary.

We had intended to descend the S Ridge on the same route as our ascent, but by the time we reached the summit we were pretty gassed and thought descending that ridge would be rather difficult. After going down the west slopes, I guess I'd say it was easier, but if I did it again I would have it in mind to descend the ridge.

Also, we had not thoroughly researched the west slopes and didn't have any route information with us. We encountered some routefinding difficulty at around 12,800'. We should have angled to descender's right, out of the shallow gully that comprised most of the descent, but we basically continued down that gully and had to negotiate the lower cliffy section without benefit of the main trail. We found a way down that wasn't too bad, but it was harder than it had to be at a time that we weren't interested in making anything harder. If you retain even a remote possibility of ascending S Ridge and descending west slopes, you should have some of the route info for the west slopes available, especially Photos 15 and 16 from Bill's route description.

Bottom line: S Ridge is a great route. There are several good TRs posted here for research, especially by PKR in 2007 and FCSquid in 2011. I'd encourage anyone who likes scrambling to do it.

[XterraRob]

The various western ribs/gullies coming off of Snowmass are filled with loose, shoe box to dining room tables sized granite rocks that are in no way shape or form stable. I haven't tried the ridge from the South but just keep in mind that if you decide to take any of the western ribs/gullies to be absolutely careful. The descent can also take a good bit of time too because of the same danger. Last year I took a line that went up the left most gully in your picture but also saw climbers taking routes similar to what you have outlined below. Be mindful depending on where you end up at the top of the western side (if you choose this), you may have to do a little class 4 climbing on or below the ridge to reach the summit block.

[FCSquid]

Is the general consensus that the S. Ridge is a better more enjoyable route overall that the West Ridge? I see a couple trip reports of people descending back down the West Ridge. What is the recommendation for the descent if you do the S. Ridge? I'm thinking of heading up tomorrow to do the West Ridge but really considering the S. Ridge after looking into it a bit more.

Having gone up the S-Ridge and then down the West Slopes route, S-Ridge is much more enjoyable. However, it does have some technical challenges - and we decided to go for the exposed Class 4 variation on the way up. It was sufficiently spicy that we opted not to downclimb the same way and instead chose to downclimb the West Slopes route.

I'd compare the S-Ridge in difficulty to something similar to Kelso Ridge, but much looser with the obstacles requiring a little more creativity to get past. If you can imagine downclimbing Kelso Ridge's trickiest Class 4 variations (super fun going up, down ... not so much), then that kind of explains the mindset that made our group more comfortable going down the West Slopes.

[Matt]

Regarding your original question, I would recommend just following the "standard" gully up to the ridge.

As for the descent...
Keep in mind that many people go up the S-Ridge and down the West slopes because of impending storms.
We did this reluctantly, and it was the best choice that day, but shite, the west slope was one of the most miserable descents I can remember on a 14er.
It was loose and wet with intermittent rockfall all the way down, despite having no other climbers above us.
I'd say that if you can make it up the S-Ridge and weather isn't threatening, going back the way you came would be much more enjoyable and probably safer.
To make the entire endeavor easier, I recommend looking at this old school report and its "part 2." The pic above came from it.

[shizupple]

I'd compare the S-Ridge in difficulty to something similar to Kelso Ridge, but much looser with the obstacles requiring a little more creativity to get past. If you can imagine downclimbing Kelso Ridge's trickiest Class 4 variations (super fun going up, down ... not so much), then that kind of explains the mindset that made our group more comfortable going down the West Slopes.

This has all been really helpful - thanks everyone. I ended up holding off on Snowmass over the weekend and had a successful climb of Pyramid Saturday morning. How would you rate the S. Ridge (ascending and descending) to the standard route up Pyramid?

[onebyone]

I did West Slopes ascent and S Ridge descent. The only probably for me was finding the exit on the S Ridge. I stayed too far north and ended up on some 5th class downclimbing and had to traverse to the beginning of the West Slopes ascent. Anyway, par for the course when you descend something you didn't ascend. So just study that part carefully.

I would agree that descending the West Slopes would be pretty miserable.