Peak Condition Update | La Plata Peak

Peak:	La Plata Peak
Route:	North Face
Range:	Sawatch
Posted By:	jway2952
Date of Info:	5/20/2023
Date Posted:	5/21/2023

Details
Went up the North Face with 4 other guys on 5/20/23. This definitely helped cut down on the suffering breaking trail. That said, no snow till you get into the trees heading up towards the headwall. Floatation helpful/necessary from then on. Used crampons/axes to ascend the couloir (it's in great shape!). Although I wish we didn't, we descended the Northwest Ridge Winter variation and found intermittent snow fields, scree, boulder fields, and of course sugary snow all the way back to the trail. Started at 4 and ended at 3. Awesome day out get it while you can!

Details

Went up the North Face with 4 other guys on 5/20/23. This definitely helped cut down on the suffering breaking trail. That said, no snow till you get into the trees heading up towards the headwall. Floatation helpful/necessary from then on. Used crampons/axes to ascend the couloir (it's in great shape!). Although I wish we didn't, we descended the Northwest Ridge Winter variation and found intermittent snow fields, scree, boulder fields, and of course sugary snow all the way back to the trail. Started at 4 and ended at 3. Awesome day out get it while you can!

Comments or Questions

Briere	Descent Question 5/24/2023 3:50pm Why do you wish you didn't descend via the Northwest Ridge winter variant? I am looking at going that route this weekend.
jway2952	Descent answer 5/24/2023 4:29pm We didn't go the standard route because we thought it would involve a lot of post holing with deep snow through the trees, but looking back, post holing on a trail is still faster and has a better chance of being tamped down (we saw multiple people coming up that way) than doing the same while route finding through the trees and down slippery snowy slopes.
Briere	Ave Danger? 5/24/2023 9:42pm Ahh, that's interesting. I would have thought the standard route would still be exposed to ave danger. Is that no longer look the case? That's why I was planning to do the winter route version of the standard route where you gain the ridge much earlier.
jway2952	Dry 5/24/2023 9:53pm It was pretty dry and I can only imagine it will be more so after this week. You always have the option of assessing the route going down the winter variation on your way up to the north face. Then, you can compare to what you see on the standard route on your way down and make a decision of which to take.
Briere	Thanks! 5/25/2023 9:31am For sure; its always nice getting betas going into it though so thank you very much for the details and answering my follow up questions!

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