Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 2023-05-30, By: Briere Info: Went up and down the Northwest Ridge today. Took snow shoes but never used them. The first set of switchbacks out of the trees is covered in snow but you can take the side straight up; I used crampons and my ice axe with no issues. The top ridge is still covered in snow but the snow was hard for the most part so minimal post-holing. Ice axe came in handy there too for safety if I was to slip and fall. Started at 6am; summited at 10am and returned before 1pm |
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Route: North Face Posted On: 2023-05-26, By: spoony Info: The North Face is still in. I climbed and skied the couloir on lookers left. There is some slough debris in there, but it skied well once it warmed and softened up. Snow is continuous from roughly tree line to the summit. A few other skiers I saw today went up and down on lookers right of the face. That looked well-covered too. The trail down low is snow free until just past the turn off for the head wall but there is a good trench from what I saw on the way down. The head wall area in the trees is unsurprisingly miserable with patchy, soft snow. I broke through above my knees a couple times wearing skis on the way out. |
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Route: North Face Posted On: 2023-05-21, By: jway2952 Info: 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! |
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Route: North Face Posted On: 2023-05-10, By: jgallo Info: Awesome conditions in the couloir, which was completely in from the summit and should be for quite a while. The approach was tough, a steep slog on the way in and a difficult punchy wet snow situation on the way out through the trees. Lots of breaking through by trees, rocks and creek beds, unpredictably and close to the ground, increasing as the afternoon went on. Was grateful to be on skis. Overall an awesome day and an absolute sufferfest. Soaked my feet at 4am leaving the trailhead when I punched through some ice to a puddle, had wet socks the whole day. |
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Route: North Face Posted On: 2023-04-24, By: DeclanKnies Info: Summit and ski of La Plata's north face couloir. Tons of sluffing with the 2 inch snow on top of consolidated hard snow. Soft stable snow exists in some parts of the couloir that get more sun. Ice under the sluffed layer exists in shadier parts. Overall was a great climb and ski. Brutal, but certainly doable. Get is while its good! |
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Route: North Face Posted On: 2023-04-23, By: WildRover80 Info: Snow pack was supportive of my splitboard, in ski mode, all the way out to the base of the couliar (ski crampons highly recommended ). However, it was very slow going. I made it about 1/8 of the way up the couliar with micros on my boots. The snowpack on the. Couliar was not supportive and I lost 3 steps for every one I gained. This seemed a good sign that I should not be there anyway. Temps had warmed on the way back and there was a lot of post holes. 13 hours rt and no summit. Not for the faint of heart at this time. |
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Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 2023-04-03, By: headsizeburrito Info: Bailed super early into the day. Weather forecast was marginal, but I had time and wanted to test out some new gear. CO82 was bare and dry except for a couple tiny patches, parking area has room for about 10 vehicles. First section packed down nicely by a snow machine until the trail turnoff. From there is a shallow and narrow but decent trench, just had to walk a little carefully in snowshoes but firm, would probably posthole without floatation. Followed that trench of a while until I realized it was continuing up the drainage past where I should be gaining more elevation towards the ridge. Trying to make progress up the slopes was very difficult, sinking between knee and waist height in places. Was able to find a winding path with firmer snow and saw some spotty tracks from a previous visitor, but doesn't seem like they went too far either. Snow started falling several hours earlier than the original forecast and the cloud level dropped significantly. Original forecast showed potential of 40-50mph gusts in the afternoon and it seemed like that would come early too. Rather than struggling through the trees only to likely bail due to weather past the headwall anyway, I just decided to call it a day since I'm going to the Grand Canyon for R2R2R this weekend and didn't want to pointlessly wear myself out. On the plus side, they are renovating the Circle K in Leadville, so my usual bathroom stop will hopefully be a bit nicer once it's done. |
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Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 2023-03-18, By: keziahstockdale Info: Reallllllly bad conditions. There was a rut that we followed for a mile or so but it disappeared and we had to break trail the rest of the trip. Took us 9 hours to get to 12k. Every step resulted in a 2-4 ft post hole, some to my neck. The standard route was not able to be followed so we took the creek until the peak was in sight and then beelined for the ridge. Once we hit 12k we turned around because it was 5:30. Still post-holed on the way back but now the trail is better you're welcome lol. Such a pretty day with good views, we just thought someone else had been on the trail in the past week or two. |
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Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 2023-02-21, By: Jonathan Deffenbaugh Info: Was able to keep the trench to the headwall still functional however had to bail with the snow and wind blowing in earlier than expected once I got above timberline, may have caused a reset on the upper sections, so would recommend snowshoes, plus some sort of traction (i.e. microspikes/crampons) and ice axe for stability climbing up and down the gully section to the ridge. |
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Route: North Ridge Direct Posted On: 2023-02-18, By: Paddy6069 Info: Trench is in all the way to the headwall! The headwall is pretty full of powdery, non consolidated snow and was pretty sketchy coming back down. Ridge itself was pretty windblown, but quite a bit of snow on the final thousand feet of so...but avoidable on the west side on rocks. Tons of cornices on the east of the ridge... probably will get worse after the wind. Overall, cold and windy day but glad to summit! Third time's the charm. |
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Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 2023-02-04, By: Logan5280 Info: Skied to NW Ridge from the summit on 2/4. Good weather and excellent views, but the skiing was terrible. Skinned up to headwall, booted up headwall, and booted to summit intermixed with skinning. Headwall wasn't that challenging, but wasn't very fun. No traction needed for headwall imo and probably not the ridge walk either, but an axe might be useful for the descent of the headwall. The headwall reminded me of the Pyramid amphitheater gully with a few inches of snow on it, and less steep. From a distance, the ski down looked like it might be continuous to headwall, but that is absolutely not true. I skied from the summit, then had to boot pack through the many rock/talus/meadow bands down to the headwall. The east-facing couloirs on skier's right looked very enticing, but they looked quite wind loaded, so definitely avoid them for now. The ski through the forest at the end was deceptively steep, quite dense, and the downed trees created many shark fins; absolutely terrible skiing. As of now, snowshoes are definitely the gear of choice (flotation needed). |
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Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 2023-02-04, By: Maricopa Mountaineer Info: Summited via the winter variation of the Northwest ridge. There was a trench for about 1.5 mi and then I had to break trail up to the headwall with some of the snow reaching up to my hips. The headwall isnt too bad but definitely not fun, there is some ankle deep snow in certain sections but mostly a mix of loose scree and light dusting. I recommend bringing snowshoes pretty much the whole way up because I was post holing up to my knees in areas on the ridge proper, otherwise I skirted around to the west side with a lot of rock hopping. Absolutely beautiful weather today though and you could see a ton of other 14ers. For the winter variation my Garmin said 9.9mi and ~5200ft but im not sure how accurate that is. Definitely recommend La plata for some awesome views. |
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Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 2023-01-25, By: danpayne17 Info: Winter variation of standard route. There's a trench for the first 1.5 miles or so then followed the boot/ski tracks to tree line. Snowshoes/skis recommended. Had to break trail from tree line to headwall and along the ridge. Headwall was unconsolidated snow covering loose scree which was unpleasant but it's short and manageable. We stashed snow shoes at base of head wall. Wore crampons for head wall itself. No traction on ridge. Snow was wind scoured and shallow in places, thigh deep in others on the ridge. We turned around at 12,750k due to slow pace from breaking trail and not wanting to descend in the dark. |
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Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 2023-01-20, By: Chrisfish25 Info: Standard & then up to headwall on ridge. Ridge walk to top. Snow the whole way. I didn't use any traction although it probably would've helped. Too lazy to stop for 3 minutes to throw it on. Can ski top pitch if you carry skis. I didn't. Ski out wasnt great but faster than snowshoeing. |
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Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 2022-11-07, By: ARBlake Info: CO 82 is still open and plowed all the way to the trailhead. There were even a few plowed parking spots at the trailhead. Floatation was not required below treeline, but was nice to have for most of the approach. Just above treeline, floatation was a must have. Even with snowshoes, some of the drifted snow was well above the knee. After taking the ridge, hopping rocks was possible for most of the climb, with a few small sections of post holing in deep snow. Micro spikes came in handy. I turned around at around 13,700 ft due to very high winds. |
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Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 2022-10-19, By: CraigE Info: Beautiful fall conditions today. There was a thin layer of snow and ice on the trail above 13,000 feet, but it was easily manageable with microspikes. Weather was clear and calm. I didn't see anyone else on the Northwest Ridge route all day, but I met one guy on the peak who came up the Southwest route. |
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Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 2022-10-10, By: coclimber2 Info: Trail is clear to treeline. At treeline it gets a little muddy. No snow until the ridge then a mix of snow and rock to the summit. I didn't have a need for spikes but I have hiking boots with good tread. Snow from several inches to shin deep but there is a good boot pack and I didn't have to post-hole at all. |
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Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 2022-10-06, By: jburnspopplewell Info: The standard route is dry up to the ridge. After that you'll encounter snow from inches deep to a few spots of shin-deep postholes. The route is easy to follow and the deep sections are carved out decently. Micro spikes were nice for the decent on packed snow. |
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Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 2022-10-03, By: mjordan Info: Summited on Sunday 10/2 right after the overnight snow storm. You start to see snow above 10.5k on the trail and more heavy accumulation of several inches starts around 11k. On the ridge at 12,800ft (photo 11 on the route description) the trail was shin deep snow and I don't see it melting. Some spots were knee deep already. Expect full winter conditions the rest of this year. Above 13k feet we diverted from what would be the standard route and we climbed a gully breaking trail through knee deep snow to the left of standard route. Much more direct and enjoyable route with snow, and no avy risk right now. I did not use spikes, my partner did. I would suggest at least bringing some traction. |
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Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 2022-10-03, By: bryanpeck3 Info: A couple days of snow have ended summer conditions. Snow/ice starting during the first mile yesterday morning. Continuously more snow the higher you go. Snow fields near the top were 2-3 feet deep. Some snow melted by the descent so the last 1.5 miles were mostly dry. A few aspen were golden along the trail still but we mostly took pictures across Independence for aspen colors. |