Peak Condition Update | Humboldt Peak

Peak:	Humboldt Peak
Route:	East Ridge
Range:	Sangre de Cristo
Posted By:	pmreyn2010
Date of Info:	1/2/2016
Date Posted:	1/2/2016

Details
I just wanted to share a few thoughts from my experience today heading up towards Humboldt's east ridge. Same conditions apply to the trailhead as they did last week... the 2WD TH is where you can park at this point. Most of the road is completely snowed over... from what I could see, a couple of cars have tried to make it up to the mile marker but from the tracks left behind, looks like they had an interesting experience! Save yourself a headache! Walking on the road, microspikes were all that were necessary since in general there was a well packed down trail. From the turnoff onto the Rainbow Trail, we didn't put on our snowshoes... there were a couple of messy parts (and we postholed a couple of times on that first gradual ridge), but in general, the trail was packed down enough that again, microspikes were all we needed. One thing to note: the route description says that about .2 miles after the bridge, you can turn off of the RT and gain the small ridge. As of late, no one else has done this. What was packed down was the 'alternate' way to gain the ridge (add another .2 miles or so to the RT and then turn left... it was an obvious turn). Where we did put on our snowshoes was when we turned NW to go up the ridge. Jclark217 had said that they thought they went wrong on their route finding. However, I don't think they did. We followed what they had done up to about 10,600' or so. (They were clearly the last people who had attempted the east ridge since the tracks stopped where they said they did). Yes, the route is a bit steeper, but I felt that where we were snowshoeing matched the route description. My friend & I ended up breaking trail all the way up to tree line and a bit beyond. The snow condition was the same as it was on 12/29. It was loose and powdery; nothing had consolidated. It definitely was a good work out since there was a good amount of postholing. You can follow the trench we put in up to about 12,200'. We ended up turning around at this point since it was getting later in the day & we didn't want to deal with the route through the forest without light. While the first couple of miles went really fast, the slog up to tree line took a while. Be careful as you descend though through the forest. Because the snow is loose (even after being packed down by snow shoes), it's easy to slip, even with traction. Watch your footing! Hope this helps; have fun out there!

Details

I just wanted to share a few thoughts from my experience today heading up towards Humboldt's east ridge.

Same conditions apply to the trailhead as they did last week... the 2WD TH is where you can park at this point. Most of the road is completely snowed over... from what I could see, a couple of cars have tried to make it up to the mile marker but from the tracks left behind, looks like they had an interesting experience! Save yourself a headache! Walking on the road, microspikes were all that were necessary since in general there was a well packed down trail.

From the turnoff onto the Rainbow Trail, we didn't put on our snowshoes... there were a couple of messy parts (and we postholed a couple of times on that first gradual ridge), but in general, the trail was packed down enough that again, microspikes were all we needed. One thing to note: the route description says that about .2 miles after the bridge, you can turn off of the RT and gain the small ridge. As of late, no one else has done this. What was packed down was the 'alternate' way to gain the ridge (add another .2 miles or so to the RT and then turn left... it was an obvious turn).

Where we did put on our snowshoes was when we turned NW to go up the ridge. Jclark217 had said that they thought they went wrong on their route finding. However, I don't think they did. We followed what they had done up to about 10,600' or so. (They were clearly the last people who had attempted the east ridge since the tracks stopped where they said they did). Yes, the route is a bit steeper, but I felt that where we were snowshoeing matched the route description. My friend & I ended up breaking trail all the way up to tree line and a bit beyond. The snow condition was the same as it was on 12/29. It was loose and powdery; nothing had consolidated. It definitely was a good work out since there was a good amount of postholing. You can follow the trench we put in up to about 12,200'. We ended up turning around at this point since it was getting later in the day & we didn't want to deal with the route through the forest without light. While the first couple of miles went really fast, the slog up to tree line took a while.

Be careful as you descend though through the forest. Because the snow is loose (even after being packed down by snow shoes), it's easy to slip, even with traction. Watch your footing!

Hope this helps; have fun out there!

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