Route: North Face Moderate Posted On: 6/4/2023, By: amderr22 Info: Started up the North Face around 6:30 am and summited around 7:30 am. Snow was in good shape and the area is still well filled in - not much rock showing through yet. We took the west ridge route to descend - the route is still definitely in winter conditions, with lots of steep snow-covered slopes that should give you pause if you don't have an ice axe/crampons. The snow got soft and slushy by 10 am when we were nearing the trailhead again. No need for snowshoes but crampons are definitely a necessity and will be for some time. Including a few pics from our climb. |
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Route: North Face Steep Posted On: 6/2/2023, By: Thevirtualsherpa Info: Crystal is in and now has a new booter in it. New snow (estimating 2/3 inches) has been blown around a lot in the Couloir and has sections of legitimate powder. However, the sharks swim near the surface so be careful in there. Its pretty prime though, I would go get this asap. East slopes (from summit) are very thin and I wouldnt recommend them with so many other options to ski / board down. Photos of the approach, line itself, surrounding areas. Dont let some of the snow deceive you though - its dust on rock in a lot of areas. |
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Route: West Ridge from Summit Lake Posted On: 5/29/2023, By: AndrewJCraigie Info: Frozen boot prints from past few days made it easy to get to the top, and was fairly easy to follow the ridge along the summit. Some parts are still snowed over, but nothing too sketchy - went slow with spikes. Took a detour on the way back and hiked down the gulley heading towards Guanella Pass to look for the ice ax I dropped a few weeks ago. No luck.... By the time I was working my way down to Summit lake around noon, snow was soft and slushy, and not the best to hike down. I would get up and down while everything stays frozen. Took me just over an hour and a half to get from parking lot to summit. |
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Route: East Face from Summit Lake Posted On: 5/28/2023, By: HikesInGeologicTime Info: Tl;dr: Skiable from summit down face below parking lot all the way back to Summit Lake (or at least where the road dips slightly below SL), same is bootable mid-morning with only a few spots of postholing. More details: started from Summit Lake parking at 8:50, followed road until I saw prior ski tracks traversing above road. Booted to start of depression just past MM 10; wouldve been skinnable from there, but apparently I am stubborn and/or masochistic. Some postholes near rocks, as one might expect. Path from parking lot to true summit is well-packed snow - I did see a few hikers wearing microspikes, but they did not seem strictly necessary by my summit time of 11:30. While I did not have high hopes for the snow quality when I started my descent just before noon, I was beyond thrilled to find a super sweet corn harvest the whole way down, with only one brief patch of sideslipping to dodge rocks just above the start of the summit path. Overall, a surprisingly fun ski! (Also, for those wondering about different routes up from Summit Lake, I took and added pictures that might be relevant.) |
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Route: Mt Evans road Posted On: 5/27/2023, By: Ben Info: Road clear and open to cars to the summit. I travelled about 5 mi up, got an Ok look into Chicago approach. Idaho springs reservoir looked frozen still. The trail in this area looked snow free. Patchy snow in trees starting around 10k. Gotta imagine the head wall below summit lake was still snowy, but I didnt see it. |
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Route: Mt Evans Scenic Byway Posted On: 5/23/2023, By: cbailey284 Info: Took the Road up from Echo lake and rode the Bike. Road is completely open to the summit and clear. Nice day to get a ride in before it opens to the vehicles. |
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Route: Sunrise Couloir Posted On: 5/6/2023, By: blazintoes Info: Rode my bike from Echo Lake 8 miles. Walked the last 1.5 miles to Summit Lake. Its not plowed yet. Sunrise couloir is west of summit lake in the middle of the Evans-Spalding saddle. It was perfect! It steepens to 50 degrees. I was comfortable with one ax but two wouldve been nice for the last 70. I took the tedious west ridge to Evans and ran into a party of 3 who did this route from Guanella pass. Was nice to meet them. After the summit decided to take the north face down, bisect the road and walk back to summit lake. |
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Route: Mt Evans Road Posted On: 5/6/2023, By: Eagle Eye Info: Mt Evans Road conditions: Late Friday 5/5 I pedaled up starting from the Fee Gate to 10.7 miles, 13,144 ft (last Mile Marker 10) A perfectly clear road starts at the Fee Gate and continues to about 7.2 miles. Then at the current work area there is a level bulldozer track in snow on top of the road surface. The bulldozer track stopped at about 8.4 miles, after which the road is (blown) clear until nearing Summit Lake. Then much of the road around Summit Lake (Mile Marker 9) is under a couple of feet of snow. I only continued 1.7 miles past Summit Lake, to the first switchback. At that point the continuing road was faint and way under deep drifts. |
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Route: Mt Evans Road Posted On: 5/2/2023, By: Eagle Eye Info: Mt Evans Road Conditions 4/30 and 5/1: Sunday 4/30 I went up for an exploratory bike ride & the road plowing hadnt started yet except for the parking lot & the huge berms blocking the gate. (Preparing for the Memorial Day opening, clearing the road has started as early as the first week in April that Im aware of) A collection of CDOT snow removal equipment was parked just inside the gate. I was able to ride some places but overall was pushing & punching through, so when I got to 2.5 miles Id had enough. Monday 5/1 (late day) my guess was right, the plowing had started earlier on this day. Miles 1 to 2 are mostly clear to the road surface & have some snow and ice drainage on them. Miles 2 to 3.5 are clear. Approximately miles 3.5 to 5 have a level bulldozer track but are not down to the road surface. The plowing stopped just short of Mile Marker 5/at 12,155 ft. |
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Route: West Ridge from Guanella Pass Posted On: 4/25/2023, By: JasonCrane Info: Topped out at 13.7k via Evans West Ridge route from Guanella Pass Started 7am, hastily booted thru willows section while ground was still frozen. The steep gully is the crux of the route & its an unrelenting mixture of ice, loose rock & snow. The gully is tracked-out, but tracks dissipate around 13k+ ft. I had difficulties trail-finding & consistently locating cairns b/t Spalding & West Evans. Resultingly, my pace slowed & felt like I reached my limit physically. Made the always difficult decision to turn back (at 12pm.) While descending the steep gully, dark clouds rolled in & a dense snow squall created white-out conditions & dumped a few inches of snow on Evans & Bierstadt ~2-3pm. After sun warms the willows, floatation is an absolute must or you'll be swimming in snow. Flew in from Orlando (FL) & reached 13.7k less than 48 hrs after arriving. Its disappointing to not reach the summit, but gave it 110% & left everything I had on the mountain. Enjoying my 8th year of winter/spr climbing 14ers & thank you to the 14ers community for volunteering your knowledge & sharing info. Your generosity truly makes climbing these mountains possible. Peak Notes -- Guanella Pass closure adds 2-3 miles RT. Tent camped near Scott Gomer Creek & theres a TH bathroom facility (outhouse.) Mt. Evans Wilderness has coyotes & late night chorus of howling isnt the most settling noise to hear. Dances with Wolves was a great Hollywood blockbuster, but actually living it is quite an adventure. I saw a black ice axe on the route, but unfortunately was hurried due to approaching bad weather, on top of having a full pack w/ camping gear. Very sorry for not being able to grab it. If you DM me, Ill tell you where I saw it. Winter storm expected Tues, 4/25 & NWS predicting heavy snowfall. This report will be quickly outdated. |
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Route: West Ridge from Guanella Pass Posted On: 4/23/2023, By: AndrewJCraigie Info: Failed attempt at Mt. Evans today - turned around less than a mile from summit as the final ridge was full of snow, and I couldn't figure out the best path and was a bit nervous. Bummer! But pretty risk avoidant in the winter hiking solo - no one else on the trail. The willow section was a breeze with snowshoes, dropped them before heading up. Going up the gully was slow and tiring - snow pack was slick and hard, had to use my ice ax to make foot holds. Going down was difficult as well with the snow warming up - a warning that many of the rocks are not stable. Found an ice ax on the way - message me the color / brand and I'll get it back to you. Ironically I also lost my own ice ax on the way down, same location.....black petzl ice ax...please let me know if you find it! |
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Route: West Ridge from Guanella Pass Posted On: 4/19/2023, By: ElliottG Info: Yo, whats up fellow hikers! I recently skied and hiked up Mt. Evans in March and wanted to share an update on the trail conditions. As a native of Colorado, it was sick to hike on such a gorgeous, sunny day. It was awesome to finally get to the top of a mountain that has been staring at me since a little kid with absolutely nobody else at the top. My apologies for the late upload life gets in the way sometimes. Ima try to start uploading a little more here though. I took the west gully route and then hit up the west ridge to avoid any potential avalanches. The snow was in good shape, and I had a rad time hiking to the summit. But dang, being out of state for two years made me realize how much I miss the high altitude life. That final mile above 14,000 feet had me feeling the altitude! As a backcountry baller and peakbagger, I'm stoked to tackle all the 14ers this year. I started this mission when I was 15 and I'm now 20 and ready to crush it. My mom's a bit too worried about me going solo, so if any of you want to join me for some gnarly routes and deep conversations about life, hit me up! I have a bunch of expierience including quite a few CMC classes and have some ropes and gear from learning how to climb out in So-Cal when I went to the University of San Diego. Don't forget to keep being a rad part of this collective thing we call conscious. Peace out, fam." |
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Route: West Ridge from Guanella Pass Posted On: 3/10/2023, By: artemavovk Info: tagged it along with Spalding peak itself has barely any snow once you're mostly out of the gully; up to that: made another trench because the old one is 90% gone; postholing in snowshoes until the gully; then trapdoor rock hopping, until like 2/3 of the way up; no traction needed after that |
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Route: West Ridge from Guanella Pass Posted On: 2/11/2023, By: madmattd Info: 2 of us hit Evans from Guanella Pass today. We found and re-opened what I assume is Jay521's trench up Scott Gomer Creek from a few days ago (thanks Jay!), including the awkward but workable climb up the rock rib near the small pond. We continued uphill on the West side of the creek until 12.6k or so, then cut over towards the West Ridge of Spaulding, jumping the ridge around 13.3k. We used snowshoes from the summer Guanella TH until around 3/10mi from the Spaulding-Sawtooth col (and from the same spot back to the car on the way down), but they weren't really needed above ~13k. We booted from there to the summit, inadvertently sticking on the ridge for a while, bringing some scrambling we weren't expecting. On the way down we were able to stick to the summer trail most of the time - much bare rock with plenty of snow between and the occasional small sloping snowfield to add some excitement. Snow is patchy above 13k, mostly a few inches deep but plenty of knee-deep drifts to find. The cutover from the Bierstadt Trail to the trees by Scott Gomer Creek was a little soft in the afternoon, and we were seemingly the only ones to go through there today - more traffic is needed to establish this better. In the trees, the trench is pretty well-established at this point, but you'll still want snowshoes, especially in the afternoon. The road is packed well enough for whatever footwear you want to use - the very top of the pass is bare road, but plenty of depth in the trees. Both shortcuts are in, but we didn't use either. The lower one still appears to come out at the road with the tricky climb like it did a month ago. Snow seemed pretty solid all day, and no evidence of recent avy activity near the switchback of concern. Great day, but a lot longer than expected - that final ridge on Evans was tedious. We saw a whopping 2 other people all day - snowshoers on the road in the AM near the pass. |
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Route: West Ridge from Guanella Pass Posted On: 12/29/2022, By: dougb1010 Info: 12/26 Hiked Mt Evans via Gomer Gully and the West Ridge from Guanella Pass. Guanellas Pass road and the Bierstadt trail are in great condition and well-traveled. Everything from the Bierstadt trail to the Gomer Gully was 1-3 feet of untracked snow requiring snowshoes to break the trail over the willows. Saw some fresh moose tracks which must have been made just a few hours earlier, or less, as no snow was blown into them. The trail is pretty much non-existent, snow-covered. The creek was actually flowing and accessible via small open patches in the ice in the basin below Gomer Gully. Much of the rock going up Gomer Gully is still very loose underneath the snow. Gomer Gully had lots of snow blown into it at the bottom, it was somewhat treacherous finding good foot placements on whatever rock was sticking out and available. The top of the gully and the west ridge were mostly snow-free. I saw one guy who biked up the road which was mostly snow-free. 12 miles / ~4k elevation round trip / 10 hours going pretty fast-solo |
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Route: Mt. Evans road Posted On: 11/21/2022, By: jhills2 Info: Biked up Mt. Evans road sunday 11/20/2022. Snowpacked first 2 miles - deflated tires down to ~10psi and was able to slowly float over. mile 3-4 was clear then the backside mile 4 was snowpacked again - deflated tires back down to make it up. mile 5-14 all clear for biking up! was all alone at the summit. almost zero wind. |
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Route: Mt Evans Road Posted On: 11/9/2022, By: Eagle Eye Info: Mt Evans Road Conditions: Late yesterday 11/8 I pedaled up Mt Evans Rd with a bright full moon from the Fee Gate (closure) to the summit parking lot ~14,130 ft/Crest House. The lower, first miles of the road that have snow on them are not well traveled & packed down at this time. The road is snow covered for the first 1.5 miles, and again about 2 to 2.5, and again 3.5 to 4.5. Beyond Mile Marker 5, (from 5 to 14.5 miles) snow drifts partially cover usually some inside portion of the road. It was 18 degrees on the Crest House thermometer at 11pm. |
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Route: SG Creek From Guanella Pass Posted On: 10/30/2022, By: Jack_H Info: Some places had no snow others had drifted up to waist-deep. Gators and boots mandatory. Didn't use the spikes I had but was glad to have them just in case. Allow a lot of time for the last mile to the summit. It is incredibly taxing with boulder hopping and many unknown holes in the snow for your ankle or leg to get caught in. Willows were a joy going up and down the creek since there was not enough snow to help cover them up. Incredible weather! Wore a long sleeve shirt and base layer all day! |
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Route: Mt Evans Road Posted On: 10/24/2022, By: Eagle Eye Info: Mt Evans Road Conditions: Pedaled up the road yesterday from the Fee Gate to Mile Marker 10, which is ~13,000 ft. This is about one-mile past Summit Lake. Light snowfall and snow covering the road began around mile 8. |
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Route: Mount Evans Scenic Byway Posted On: 10/18/2022, By: HikesInGeologicTime Info: Road is completely dry up to Summit Lake (my own planned destination for today), and I would imagine that if there is any snow above that, it's likely avoidable. What was visible of the route to Spalding also appears to be dry, as was the upper Chicago Lakes trail. Whatever time is left before more significant snowfall would be ideal for Evans or its surrounding thirteeners if you're looking to have any of them to yourself! |
