Suggest a Summit County 13er for Mid February

[llamaman]

My wife and I will be staying Summit County (Dillon) for four nights in mid February. We'll spend a day skiing at one of the resorts and then we'd like to do some snowshoeing or climbing. So I'm looking for suggestions now so I can start planning. We don't mind long distances or lots of climbing, but I want to avoid avalanche zones. Can you recommend a good avy safe 13er (or maybe a 12er) around Dillon/Frisco/Breck? Maybe in the Ealges Nest Wilderness? I'll have a back-up plan for a lower elevation snowshoe trip in case conditions are bad, but I'd like to plan for a more ambitious outing. Thanks.

[MtHurd]

Grizzly from Loveland Pass. Since you don't mind long distances, it's also possible to get in Torreys. No avalanche danger but possible cold and windy up on the ridge. Lots of ups and downs.

[Jim Davies]

The ridge to Grizzly is avalanche-safe, but be sure to stay off the cornices.

[davebobk47]

Another option on the same ridge as Grizzly is Sniktau. Not too a long hike but a fairly safe one in terms of avy conditions and I thought it was rather enjoyable.

[scott goldberg]

While not in Summit County, Mount Parnassus (13,574) along the Watrous Gulch route is a great winter climb and not too far away. The Herman Gulch TH is east of the tunnel.

http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock ... assus.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chicago Transplant]

Another one would be Hoosier Ridge from Hoosier Pass, its a good one for winter, lots of false summits is its only drawback. Ridge run the whole way - as long as you stay away from any cornices the avy danger is low.

[llamaman]

Thanks for the suggestions. We're planning on tryinig Parnassus and/or Grizzly/Sniktau, depending on conditions, sometime next week.

[Floyd]

A very good one is Bald Mountain right across from Vail. SP has a route description.

North Star could be another option from Hoosier Pass, but the ridge gets fairly narrow during the summit push.

[timf]

I've always wanted to do the NE ridge of sniktau from bakerville. Looks more ineresting then the loveland pass side and should be doable if the cornices are avoidable.

[llamaman]

Well, the weather wasn't great. Snowying and windy most of the weekend. So we stuck to skiing (1 day at Copper and 2 days of XC) instead. Thanks for the suggestions.

[EZSide]

Thanks to all for the discussion here - I had a similar question.