5/3/2025 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 5/5/2025, By: baz11127383214er Info: Ascended the East Ridge, descended into the NE Bowls. Started @ 7:30 (lot probably 70% full), 11ish summit, 11:30 descent. Snow was absolutely mint at the top, very slightly slushy just above treeline. Below treeline is mixed snow and dirt, might improve after this next big storm, but I would expect to probably be booting most of the way up to tree line. Ski crampons not strictly needed for the summit pitch (at 10ish), but I was glad to have them. We skied from the lower bowl back down to the trail instead of following the normal route through the trees to the road. This is on the advice of a Fairplay local we met. Ymmv, but I'd guess you'd be bushwhacking on dirt if you follow the normal route GPX you see on OnX or Snow Project.. |
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5/3/2025 Route: South Gully aka Cristo Couloir Posted On: 5/4/2025, By: BillMiddlebrook Info: Cristo is holding some good snow coverage. With how much it’s been skied recently, small moguls have formed on the lower sections. Today was sunny, but the cool temps and breeze let us take our time and enjoy a noon drop-in for the ski. More snow is on the way, so it’s about to get a refresh! |
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4/29/2025 Route: South Gully aka Cristo Couloir Posted On: 4/29/2025, By: Danger_D Info: Pics of a lot of surrounding pics included (see captions - thanks to Chicago Transplant for some corrections on peak names) Went up summer trail and there are several melted out sections below treeline, one a few hundred yards long. Above tree line normal spring conditions with barely enough snow to ski the saddle/false summit around 13k. Snow on east face looking thick, and snow on summit will stick around for a while. We skied from the summit and had to thread a needle to get through a small rock band, but after that the couloir is wide and you can ski straight to the lake. Snow was icy up top at 10:45, but corn down low. It was so skied out after the last snow that there are practically moguls in some sections. Road is basically melted and an easy walk, but if you are determined you can ski some disjointed sections |
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4/27/2025 Route: South Gully aka Cristo Couloir Posted On: 4/29/2025, By: jpacheco1982 Info: Started out couloir about 7am. Snow was hard with not much purchase to start but around 13400 and above started to get better for kicking steps. Was continuous snow. Took east ridge down. Parked at quandary trailhead. Overall mellow couloir just long. |
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4/26/2025 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 4/26/2025, By: ProfetaP Info: Get it while the ski conditions are good! Shortly after the turnoff on the road to the quandary trail I was able to start skinning and only had to take them off once (I think it could have been avoided). Skied right off the summit around 10:15 (still a little firm) and took the NE bowl into the trees. The snow in the trees quickly became soft and catchy so be careful! Also, got a little lost in the trees but no worries as it leads to a service road that takes you back to the parking lot. Couldn’t have asked for a better day tho and met some awesome people on the mountain today! |
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4/26/2025 Route: North Gully aka Quandary Couloir Posted On: 4/27/2025, By: ajeski Info: Hiked the East Ridge to the summit. Conditions were perfect. It truly was a bluebird day. Sunny, warm, no clouds in the sky and no wind. We skied the Quandary Couloir. The couloir was filled in very nicely. You have to navigate a bit of rocks at the entrance, but it is well filled in after that. Lost a hiking pole on the hike up the East Ridge. Let me know if you found it. Beautiful day in the mountains! |
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4/26/2025 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 4/30/2025, By: MtnCaleb Info: My first 14er! I started my hike at 6:30am. I wore only microspikes on the way up and summited around 10:30am. I then descended and swapped to my snowshoes and halfway down. At the bottom of the mountain just before treeline I was postholing with my snowshoes, so I would recommend starting a bit earlier and definitely wear snowshoes. I completed the hike around 12:30pm. It was a beautiful day and the wind wasn't too bad, lots of skiers up there. |
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4/22/2025 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 4/22/2025, By: nilaoire Info: Short patches of ice at the beginning of the trail. 'Soft packed ' snow all the way to 13400ft, broke through a few times but I never felt the need to put on snowshoes. Nice skiing conditions. |
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4/22/2025 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 4/23/2025, By: Jay521 Info: I would add to Nilaoire's comment that later in the day (cuz I'm not near as fast as she is), it was helpful to have snowshoes on the way down. |
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4/16/2025 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 4/16/2025, By: nilaoire Info: I started late 750 am, as the plan was to only go up to 13300ft. Conditions were as expected due to the recent temps and lack of recent snow. Firm with no need for snowshoes on the way up. Navigated patches of ice at beginning of the trail, so didn't use spikes. The decent around 10 am, I single 'legged' post holed a few times below 12000ft, but what do you expect at that time. Spikes on the way down allowed for a swifter decent. Saw only 1 other hiker with snowshoes, I was happy to carry but not need mine. Summit Rescue out again this morning. They were busy with call outs due to folks postholing on Quandary last weekend. |
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4/15/2025 Route: East Ridge to Quandary Couloir Posted On: 4/15/2025, By: ericahlstedt Info: Continuous snow besides one short rock band up high from parking to summit and down the North Couloir. Quite windy up high so conditions never really softened up. Couloir was quite firm and chalky. Ski crampons useful on the final uphill to the summit. Mccollough gulch road was nice corn around noon. |
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4/14/2025 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 4/14/2025, By: HubbleSR Info: Conditions were more or less awesome. Completely packed snow all the way to the top using only microspikes - Large gusts of wind towards the top and minimal cloud cover. Really bad post holing right above the tree line after it got warmer. |
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4/12/2025 Route: South Gully aka Cristo Couloir Posted On: 4/12/2025, By: jeffh7 Info: Started around 5:15am and was 2hr45m car to summit up the east ridge. Hard pack in the morning which made skinning quick. We booted the last portion of the ridge adjacent to the upper bowl because skinning was tedious. Waited an hour at the summit and dropped into Cristo Couloir at 9am. Was able to ski from the summit pretty easily. Was still pretty hard pack and crusty, but I’d imagine if we had waited another hour or two it would be nice corn. There was a lot of wind and the clouds covered the sun for the first hour of the morning so it seemed to be warming slowly compared to a similar aspect and elevation in the Elk Range that we skied the day prior that was perfect corn by 9am. Had afternoon plans so we had to go down. Was able to ski down most of the road but had to take our skis off and walk nearby the dam. Fun day regardless, lots of people out there and the parking lot was full when we got back to the car at 10am. |
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4/10/2025 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 4/10/2025, By: notidealbutfine Info: Didn't use skins or traction all day. Not too icy as well. Nice boot pack trail to the summit. There is enough continuous snow to ski from the summit back down to the parking lot if you exit the upper bowl onto the East ridge. Beautiful bluebird day! |
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4/7/2025 Route: North Gully aka Quandary Couloir Posted On: 4/7/2025, By: chrisharkness Info: Skied up East Ridge, down the couloir. Follow a GPS track for the proper entry point. There are a lot of ski tracks that go further down which leads to a fairly gnarly looking descent looking at it from below. Perfect conditions today as well. Windless. Very stable snow, but definitely some no-fall zones. A bit of a trudge to get back to the East ridge trailhead once at the bottom of the gully, but not too bad. |
