Pikes Peak

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 1/1/2026, By: Myankelshurt
Info: Hitting it from the back for my 27th PP ascent. Took me 3 hours longer than normal with the gate and snow, but totally doable!
I clocked 8 hours and 16.2 miles. With the amount of ice on the trail, spikes are required below tree line and poles would help.
Most of the trail is well traveled and very few spots that you have to trail find.
An overall great day. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 12/30/2025, By: acctforfun
Info: Snow not deep enough to be an issue/concern or slow me down. Had several dry spots, but reasonably consistent coverage from the winter TH to Devil’s Playground. Trail is well bootpacked. Once you reached to the road crossing sections it felt like a normal early summer hike (albeit it being feels like -10 at summit and not much warmer below).

I found microspikes helpful as there is definitely ice. Snowshoes completely unnecessary.

My Garmin said 16.8 mi, 4800ft. Personally took me 8.5hrs car to car, but I was feeling it. Enjoyed the brief respite from the temps in the summit building with some donuts, another nice day in the mountains. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 12/1/2025, By: sophia_layden
Info: Waist deep snow past tree line. Snow shoes would have definitely been helpful. Coming up by devils playground gets sketchy with snow and ice, an ice axe could be useful too for the steep climbing of the face. Super windy up top! Overall it was beautiful 

Route: Cornice Bowl/Rock Garden
Posted On: 12/4/2025, By: ProfetaP
Info: Conditions have definitely changed since I was here!

Went and did a little snow climb on Saturday via the Cornice Bowl / Rock Garden. Avy conditions were low, but was still cautious as this was north facing, and had wind slab at the top (no surprise with the name Cornice bowl).

Start - it was sugar snow.
Middle - Sugar snow with a thin layer of crust on top.
Top - Crust which was great for snow climbs, but was definitely weak.

Didn't cause any avy's but was cautious and careful. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 11/16/2025, By: Amratkov
Info: Summer conditions! Beautiful weather. I did not think the trail would be so rocky with quite a few washed out areas. Minimal patches of snow once you get above 12000' or so. All avoidable except one large section between the Devils Playground and start of the class 2. I opted to walk on the shoulder of the road (tsk tsk) to avoid it going back down. Class 2 some small spots of ice but, again, easy avoidable. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 11/7/2025, By: MaryinColorado
Info: Overall, route is mostly dry. We had no need for traction. The areas to be careful of, though, are below Little Pikes where the snow that's holding is a bit slick. And on the final boulder scramble, there are plenty of patches of sneaky ice. We had a lot of cold wind today! I didn't realize the hot chocolate at the summit house is so damn good - or maybe just seems that way since it was so needed by the time we arrived, haha. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 11/6/2025, By: yachtclub
Info: Road is clear up to the trailhead. There are areas of snow/ice on the trail, but didn't need traction and easy to navigate through/around. Hiking poles helped in a few areas but definitely not necessary. Just be ready for the wind. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 10/30/2025, By: Myankelshurt
Info: Great conditions! Little bit of snow and ice. A bunch is avoidable. I used poles all the way up. Crampons would be helpful. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 10/19/2025, By: Near-miss
Info: Very windy above tree line today! 25-30mph sustained with gusts over 40+

Snow pack above tree line starts around 12,500ish ft. Wind scoured, but stable and very little ice. Last pitch had consistent snow and micros would be helpful if not comfortable with snow travel (carried them, but didn’t feel the need to don them).

Excited to give this route a go during the upcoming winter season! 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 10/8/2025, By: feldyinstilly
Info: Shorts and t-shirt down low (wild!), very gusty up high and much colder, but not TOO cold. Might be the last solid days before things deteriorate. No traction needed on the boulder field and almost no snow on the entire route. I would imagine this will change quickly. Small flow of running water at around 12.5k and water in the gift shop. There is one highway bypass that you should go through the concrete channel they've built and not take the dirt path on the left. The dirt is eroding badly and has one no-fall zone. Just stay in the concrete barrier. Everything was straight forward and it was a sunny, dry day. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 7/28/2025, By: HikesInGeologicTime
Info: Nothing of note re: the very much snow- and other impediment-free trail, just wanted to comment about how on point the Pikes Peak port-a-potty/pit toilet game is. Outhouse at TH is one of the nicest I’ve used in Colorado, and the offerings at Devils Playground are some of the best portas I’ve seen anywhere. Really enhances this mountain’s status as a good choice for a beginner fourteener - anyone worried about having to do their business outside/above treeline has some fine options to avoid it. 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 7/4/2025, By: Myankelshurt
Info: Today we hit it from the back. For my 20th PP Accent.
Only 1 snowfield, super manageable.
On the way back down I actually stumbled into the new trail the RMFI is building and took that down the last miles, so ended up with 14.5 for the day. 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 7/2/2025, By: Myankelshurt
Info: Just a fantastic day!!!!
I took the incline up where I saw a cougar (can't believe my sister was up there......it's funny because her bf is 15 years younger than her) about 200 yards after "Top of the Incline".
There was 1 snow drift that was easy to get around!
Left the Barr Parking lot at 4:30 back by 1:30
My total was 23 miles with taking the incline. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 7/2/2025, By: wolfgangstiller
Info: Route is in summer conditions (excellent). There is a 100 ft snow field at about 5.25 miles up the route (13,130 ft elev) and two very small snow fields just below the summit that can be bypassed but none of these pose any issues (no post holing or special traction needed). 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 6/29/2025, By: dweiss
Info: Absolute pristine climbing weather. Sunny, no wind (even at the summit) and no snow, except for a small segment of snow patch previous posters have mentioned. Started at 3:30am summited at 8:30am, was a great climb.