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Myself, Kevin8020 and a few others started up the Mt. Massive - Southwest Slopes route today. After 2 miles it was readily apparent that post-holing was going to be the order of the day and absolutely not worth continuing on. There was a hard freeze (Lows in the Teens) and so whatever post-holing we were experiencing in the morning was going to be magnified 10 times later in the day so there was no reason to continue and face that misery. Based on review of trip reports at this exact same time last year on that same route we thought that with the supposedly less snowpack this year that snow depth would be no greater this year, Wrong!

All I can say is the snowpack in that part of the Sawatch is more than last year. Not sure where the snowpack measurements (below average) are coming from but I don't believe it in that part of the state. There is definitely more snow there than at this time last year. Perhaps after another week or two it might make sense to head back.

FYI, as Kevin already reported in the TH Updates section we were able to get within a mile of the Halfmoon Creek TH. Standard route THs for both Elbert and Massive are easily reached with 2WD vehicles.

Thinking about a ski ascent/descent of Elbert on 22nd. How do you think skiis would hold up w/o sinking if at all?
thx,

Thanks for the update. I think that snowshoes are pretty much mandatory for a couple of weeks.

slyde55 wrote:Thinking about a ski ascent/descent of Elbert on 22nd. How do you think skiis would hold up w/o sinking if at all?
thx,

Interesting question. I was talking with a girl at a coffee shop in Leadville afterwards and she mentioned that she was post-holing in Skis on Elbert last week. Pretty hard to forecast but I think the worst post-holing is below tree line where it is likely to be significantly melted down given this weeks forecast.