Gannett Peak -- Tourist Creek to Southwest Couloir beta needed

[osmog]

Adding to thread with questions...looking for 2024 trip reports. My buddies and I are heading out August 9th via Glacier Trail 4 nights.

1) I see some thoughts and past reports on snow/ice. Any current predictions for early August? Obviously things are getting warmer.
2) Bear activity - any big concerns? We were considering only bagging and hanging. Concern about base camp with no trees and rodents. Any feedback?
3) Any other info we should know specific to August or recent conditions?

Thank you!

[deepdarkseas]

As an update, I summitted Gannett over Labor Day weekend, following the route I outlined in my first post, camping two nights at 10'200. The approach and amount of off-trail travel made it much harder than any 14er I've climbed but also contributed that much more to the sense of accomplishment. Thanks to everyone who gave me tips on this thread that helped make it a success!

My opinion is that if you can handle the arduous approach, the SW couloir is the most "summer CO 14er" way to climb this peak in terms of terrain/technical difficulty. Routefinding to the gully is not that difficult and if you study the Summitpost page you can figure out which gully is the right one fairly easy. I encountered no mandatory snow whatsoever on the route, besides a brief and mostly flat portion walking on Mammoth Glacier (which in late-season conditions had melted such that the surface was grippy and not slippery at all), and an avoidable low-angle snowfield below the gully. You would definitely not need to haul axe/crampons/spikes on this route given similar conditions. In the gully itself there's a fair bit of class 2 loose rock, with some opportunities for class 3 climbing on more solid rock. I would recommend a helmet for this gully, especially if climbing with others (I didn't take a helmet and wished I did). All that said I have no desire to repeat this route, the amount of off-trail boulder hopping and routefinding was a real beatdown. If you have the glacier travel skills just do the standard Gooseneck route from the east or Titcomb and you will probably have a more pleasant experience overall.

If it interests anyone I put together a video of my trip, which has some footage of the gully. Here is what ascending it looks like: And descending it, showing another climber who also did the gully that day:

[greenonion]

As an update, I summitted Gannett over Labor Day weekend, following the route I outlined in my first post, camping two nights at 10'200. The approach and amount of off-trail travel made it much harder than any 14er I've climbed but also contributed that much more to the sense of accomplishment. Thanks to everyone who gave me tips on this thread that helped make it a success!

My opinion is that if you can handle the arduous approach, the SW couloir is the most "summer CO 14er" way to climb this peak in terms of terrain/technical difficulty. Routefinding to the gully is not that difficult and if you study the Summitpost page you can figure out which gully is the right one fairly easy. I encountered no mandatory snow whatsoever on the route, besides a brief and mostly flat portion walking on Mammoth Glacier (which in late-season conditions had melted such that the surface was grippy and not slippery at all), and an avoidable low-angle snowfield below the gully. You would definitely not need to haul axe/crampons/spikes on this route given similar conditions. In the gully itself there's a fair bit of class 2 loose rock, with some opportunities for class 3 climbing on more solid rock. I would recommend a helmet for this gully, especially if climbing with others (I didn't take a helmet and wished I did). All that said I have no desire to repeat this route, the amount of off-trail boulder hopping and routefinding was a real beatdown. If you have the glacier travel skills just do the standard Gooseneck route from the east or Titcomb and you will probably have a more pleasant experience overall.

If it interests anyone I put together a video of my trip, which has some footage of the gully. Here is what ascending it looks like:

Very well done! We tried that route a long time ago on much younger legs but without doing our homework, and had to turn around higher up beyond Tourist Creek. I can see how that route would dwarf most or all CO 14ers. Again, super great work!