6/19/2011 Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 6/20/2011, By: bogpetre Info: First snow encountered above lake como, but snow is mostly gone. A few patches obscure the trail beyond crater lake but otherwise present no technical challenge. Ice axes, crampons, etc. are not necessary, although snow was very firm in the morning so we had to be careful in the few instances when we traversed snowfields. No notable post-holing for the descent (noonish) A report on 6/4 mentioned that the author had lost sight of the standard route upon encountering a snowfield and circumvented it by an uphill route. We unknowingly found ourselves doing the same thing, and like the original author ended up on the Ellingwood/Blanca traverse. The most natural ascent route was full of took us into the notch gully mentioned in the route description for the traverse, but was full of loose rock (helmet recommended). From here on the route was in good condition and a fun scramble to the summit, from where we could pick up the faint northwest ridge route again for the descent. We took a picture of the snowfield where we lost the trail which I will be uploading soon to clarify. |
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5/8/2011 Route: Lake Como Approach Posted On: 5/9/2011, By: LIV Info: Como road was dry nearly to the lake - just short of the cabin we encountered snow. Early in the day, we didn‘t post hole, but late in the day snowshoes were definitely needed. Above the lake we were happy to have snowshoes. Ditched them at the base of the ridge of the saddle. Cornices on the ridge are easily avoided. Trip report with photos of conditions to come soon. |
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4/10/2011 Route: Lake Como Approach Posted On: 4/10/2011, By: SurfNTurf Info: The road is bone dry until about 10,500, and then a mix of packed snow and bare rocks takes you to 11,200. Snowshoes are helpful past that, though certainly not 100-percent necessary. Past Lake Como I‘d plan on putting on flotation. We made it to about 12,700 before being turned around by unreal conditions, but the Sangres are still pretty hurting for snow. All the lakes and creek crossings remain thickly frozen. We had a party of three and another guy followed us, so there should be a good trail to Crater Lake if anyone plans to take advantage of the good weather the next few days. |
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1/23/2011 Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 1/24/2011, By: Dancesatmoonrise Info: Tough conditions in the Como Basin. Lots of wind slab. Scree is not frozen in place. Highly variable snow, from bulletproof stuff to soft powder to unconsolidated fall-apart sugar. The bottom of the road is dry to 8800 feet. From there to 10,300, there‘s variable snow up to half a foot. Shady north aspect areas from there to Como Lake have about a foot of powder. We put in a trench, but by the end of the day many areas above treeline were windblown over. |
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11/19/2010 Route: Lake Como Approach Posted On: 11/20/2010, By: Dancesatmoonrise Info: Long day yesterday. Snow conditions are still relatively light in the Sangre after this last storm, but we were postholing about knee deep by Crater Lake. No one had been in since the last storm. We‘ve got a bit of a trench going now, FWIW. The scree is still not frozen, making the lower reaches of EP a bit of a nightmare - slow going, treacherous. The EP-Blanca traverse is in good shape and was a lot of fun. We looked at Blanca-LB, it‘s also in good shape, though we got too late of a start to include it, and descended from Blanca. TR will be up in a couple days. |
