Boy howdy is this a route. Trench thru the CO trail to the ridge at 12k established thanks to user wren & 2 skiers. Switchbacks up the first bare south-facing slope hold very hard-pack snow and ice. Put on snowshoes around 10,600 ft. Steady and gentle gain thru the scenic forest until the ridge.
From the first hill onwards the ridge holds a ton of wind-drifted snow; some areas are deep powder, others have a hard wind crust. I used snowshoes to cross the north side of the first hill and stowed them on top of the next bump. The rocky knobs along the ridge usually have snow at their bases and large wind drifts on the saddles between them. I used crampons and an ice tool to cross the hard crust areas on these saddles below the 13.2k false summit. Made different route-finding decisions to ascend each point on the ridge, sometimes the surrounding powdery drifts made class 3 mandatory and other times they could be safely skirted to the right. The final points along the ridge above the false summit have much more snow among the rocks at their base and slopes.
Winds only blew in gusts along the ridge below the false summit at the forecast speed & direction of 15-20 mph from the northeast. Wind picked up a bit and blew more consistently after the false summit. At the summit I met strong 35-40 mph winds blowing from the southwest.
Witnessed an incredible sunset at the summit as the sun dipped below the now overcast sky and pierced the light snowfall. On the descent I glissaded down as much snow on the ridge as I could and found some easier class 2+ routes down the points in the dark. Now that there's for sure a trench all the way through the SW slopes route I'm sure that's far easier than this one. The points do seem never ending and the snow and rocks are a real mental and physical effort to navigate. It took me just under 13hrs RT even with the trench. But if you're looking for a challenging & exciting Sawatch climb with views all around this is the way to go!
              
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