Blanca Peak

Route: Blanca and Ellingwood
Posted On: 6/22/2026, By: chadahooche_
Info: The GPX file needs to be updated for the climb up to Blanca. The one I downloaded from here had me going to the left of the ridge to gain the last .10ish to the summit which is dangerously wrong. I followed it thinking it had to be a mistake since it was loose class 4 terrain above no fall zones. Finally I checked the 14ers app which said to stay on the right side of the ridge.

I showed it to another person down at the lake who had the same file downloaded and the gpx route pointed her to the left of the ridge as well. 

Route: Blanca and Ellingwood
Posted On: 6/11/2026, By: Robrunsround
Info: tiny patches of Ice on the the climb from crater lake but they were completely avoidable and should be melted off soon with the warm weather. Traverse between the peaks was full summer conditions 

Route: Little Bear + Blanca Traverse
Posted On: 6/6/2026, By: V1per41
Info: Full summer conditions across the whole group. 

Route: Blanca and Ellingwood
Posted On: 5/30/2026, By: WinterisClimbing
Info: Pretty much summer conditions. There are a few snow fields and patches that make route finding a bit more difficult, but nothing is deeper than a 2-3 inches. 

Route: Lake Como Approach
Posted On: 4/19/2026, By: wmagnuson7
Info: Gorgeous day on Blanca and Ellingwood. The recent snow added a little difficulty as far as footing and route finding, but still only need gaiters, trail crampons and poles. I took a stop Jeep Wrangler to 9,850, probably could have gone higher, but didn’t want to risk getting a flat or damage to vehicle. Enjoy! 

Route: Lake Como Approach
Posted On: 4/19/2026, By: ClaytonEck
Info: There is a lot of snow. Mircro spikes highly encouraged and super water proof shoes. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 3/22/2026, By: owen_farkas
Info: Backpacked in from 8000' on Lake Como road. It is hot in the San Luis Valley. No snow until 10000 feet on the approach, and it is easy to avoid.

Snow gets considerably deeper at Lake Como up until treeline. The lake is frozen over and the south banks are snow covered.

Left at 6 am from camp to climb Blanca & Ellingwood. Lots of snow on the trail until treeline, after which it is more patchy. This snow was consolidated in the morning and could be easily negotiated with microspikes and ice ax (ax not necessary). On the descent it turned to punchy slush. I don't think snowshoes would help. Bring a change of socks.

Easily avoidable snow to the ridge of Blanca, and the push up the NW ridge is near summer conditions. Ellingwood standard route holds a steep slope of slush snow that can be avoided by walking over talus. Otherwise this route was dry also.

Some guys went up to the end of Lake Como road in atv's as I was leaving. Should make that section of the hike a little easier. 

Route: Lake Como Approach
Posted On: 2/6/2026, By: John Prater
Info: Did not climb. Some photos from Little Bear. 

Route: Blanca and Ellingwood
Posted On: 1/4/2026, By: daway8
Info: Hard fought pair of snowflakes - tracks to Lake Como from winter camping earlier in the week were turned into garbage by lots of random boot tracks plus what looked like maybe a motorcycle someone got partway up, plus some melt/freeze cycles and then a couple inches of fresh snow. Result was very firm but very uneven craters that were to some extent more troublesome than just fresh trenching. From Lake Como to the LB gully the remnants of my snowshoe tracks were in better shape. From shortly past there, all sign of any previous tracks was soon lost and I had to make my own way. Occasionally sank a foot or two with snowshoes but thankfully much of the way was either very shallow or very firm snow so actual trenching was fairly minimal.

Headwall had a continuous snow slope that I considered but wasn't confident of snow quality so botted up adjacent rocks before going back to snowshoes above. Booted up ridge to the saddle and hit Blanca first - typical snow covered rock with trapdoor danger. For Ellingwood, couldn't decide between ridge proper or dropping way low to get down below steep snowfields. Started ridge proper then dropped to some cairns for the high traverse then kick-stepped across multiple steep snowfields before finally deciding to scale straight up to the ridge, only to be forced to cross another steep snowfield. No sign of any slabs or instabilities - punched solid footing into the snow in most cases. Wore spikes and generally felt comfortable with those. Looking at my GPX tracks after the fact with slope angle on prompts a response of what the??? But I made it work. Probably would have been better off ridge proper with a little extra climbing challenge.

Once back on the ridge it was just typical snowy rock - with careful steps, no real challenge. For descent, partly used the standard and partly some random shortcutting as the sun was going down then and I wanted to reach the valley floor while it was still light. Snowshoes the rest of the way until partway down the headwall - went partly down the snow slopes but intermittently very punchy so switched back over to booting down the rocks then back to snowshoes until just after Lake Como, at which point a snowshoe strap popped loose and I booted the rest of the way. Mileage to/from the 9,850ft switchback was 11.2mi but due to all the gear switches, scrambling and and such it took 16hr 42min. Average speed 0.7mph; average moving speed 1.1mph. These stats are roughly half the speed of my Bierstadt grid on New Years. At 30/59 I'm now a Half-Frozen Finisher, lol. Pictures coming. 

Route: Lake Como Approach
Posted On: 11/10/2025, By: gillacrusha
Info: Only saw one other soul all day, and it must be the guy who posted the other trip report!
Parked just below Jaws 1. We have a lifted 2-door wrangler but chickened out. That road is brutal. Summited Blanca first, used spikes the last 200 ft or so but hardly needed them. Didn't need my ax at all - just poles. The traverse to Ellingwood is fun and well marked once you are off Blanca, but I got mixed up and first headed down Blanca in the wrong direction. Pretty windy and shady up Blanca, but the sun was shining on Ellingwood and it was beautiful. I did wish I had my helmet, but at least there were no other climbers around to kick rocks. Lots of loose rocks on both peaks. 

Route: Little Bear + Blanca Traverse
Posted On: 11/10/2025, By: notidealbutfine
Info: Traversed from LB. The traverse is still in and totally dry. Just a spec of snow on the initial descent, but totally nonconsequential. Took me about 2 hours to complete. Really nice, extremely exposed climbing. I thought this was a breeze compared to just climbing the West Ridge Direct on Little Bear, with the exception of the wind, which made it a lot scarier than it should have been. Continued on to Ellingwood by staying on the ridge, which goes at easy class 3. Check my Ellingwood and Liittle Bear conditions updates for more. 19.22 miles / 8,307' gain / 12 hours, 45 minutes 

Route: Little Bear + Blanca Traverse
Posted On: 10/20/2025, By: evanc
Info: The traverse is still in! Very little ice/snow on the traverse proper. Hourglass had lots of ice, so we took west ridge proper on the way up LB. Descent from Blanca had much more snow, needed micro spikes on the way down. Great day on a great route! 

Route: Lake Como Approach
Posted On: 10/5/2025, By: prddraper
Info: Great conditions on Blanca and Ellingwood. Some snow up high. Need to be careful and watch your step but, didn't use spikes. Some of it might have melted later this afternoon. 

Route: Little Bear + Blanca Traverse
Posted On: 9/29/2025, By: Buckie06
Info: All routes are dry 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 9/27/2025, By: R7777777
Info: Summer condition. Very rocky above 13k. It’s a long day, the last 1000 ft took me very long.