Pikes Peak

Route: Three Little Pigs
Posted On: 4/24/2024, By: desertdog
Info: We climbed the right Coulior. Conditions were great in the main section, but once it opened up at the top the snow got a little sloppy. The chockstone crux was well filled in with snow and not too hard, really just one awkward move. The gate does not open till 9am, so you cant get an early start. I dont know, you might want wait a couple weeks to let the snow consolidate. Fun climb! 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 4/14/2024, By: Vasqujg
Info: It's my fault, for being uninformed...today Pikes sucked for decent. Made fast progress all early morning. Then the sun and heat made the snow super soft. Snowshoes were useless and I sank in the snow all the way back to the car. Horrible bruises and extremely stressful day. 4 foot deep drifts just crumbled underfoot. Following my morning foot prints - useless. I know, learn to snowboard. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 3/31/2024, By: colorado yooper
Info: From a SAR mission. Rescued 3 males from just above treeline. Lots of snow @treeline and below. There is no parking at/near the Mennonite camp. The road is not plowed past the camp. Much above tree line is blown off or hardened drifts/sastrugi. This is not a normal winter! Today winds were constant 45mph gusting to ???. Be careful if you're choosing Pikes in the next few weeks. 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 4/5/2024, By: mtn14
Info: Barr Trail was mostly dry up to the Incline merge (apx 2 miles). Soft/slushy snow pack up to 9,000 ft (apx 3.5 miles), and some post-holing during late morning. Trail was packed down and increasingly supportive up to Barr Camp (apx 6.5 mile). Beyond that, used snow shoes and broke trail up to the bottomless pit (apx 7.5 miles) before I turned back. Saw a couple other parties intending to summit as I went back down, so the trail may now be booted in beyond. Traction recommended between No Name Creek & Barr Camp, Floatation highly recommended beyond Barr Camp. Record snow conditions - get it while it lasts!

Barr Camp Note: The staff would be thrilled if you drop in and volunteer to haul down a grocery bag of trash for them! 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 3/11/2024, By: wmanke13
Info: Road closed shortly after Mennonite CG. -1F when I parked my car. Trail is well-packed and defined most of the way below treeline. I put snowshoes on at 11,000 and kept them on until the summit. Above treeline, the trail disappeared and route finding became more of an issue - I found myself off trail several times between treeline and devils playground, which consumed more energy than I would have liked. From Devils playground to the summit, the trail is more or less easy to follow, as it generally follows the road. The last pitch of boulder hopping was a major PITA and I was struggling to decide whether snowshoes were helping me or slowing me down. This was the crux of the route and consumed a lot of my energy. At the top I decided I absolutely did not want to retrace my steps back to devils playground, so I took the road, which is mostly dry. Retraced steps from Devils playground to car.

Left car: 5:40am
Summit: 1:15pm
Back to Car: 5:10pm
~19 miles
~5,100 elevation gain 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 2/26/2024, By: masshole40
Info: Started at the Crags campground. Microspikes the whole way. Brought snowshoes didn't need them. Between treeline and the ridge you could use flotation to make the brief stint of postholing a little better. Wind was 40-45 mph anywhere above treeline and became a nuisance quickly. Garmin watch had me at 19 miles 6000 ft elevation gain about 12 hours truck to truck. I did have some issues with the wind and choosing a route up toward the top. I also added about a mile of uphill tracking to go retrieve my snowshoes that I forgot I stashed. So this contributed to my longer route.

Great trail basically all the way up to Devil's Playground. This is a long one but I found the length helped reduce the steepness of the climb. The very top is light scrambling and the point between the treeline and ridge is a pretty brutal uphill. Outside of that I found it to be very manageable. If you are looking for a winter 14er go get this one! 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 2/18/2024, By: backcountrybrodes
Info: Started from winter closure 1 mi below Crags TH. Perfect weather all day, best I've ever seen on a winter climb - cloudless, 0-10mph wind, and had to have been 45 degrees at one point!
My Strava said 16.76 mi and 4,875 ft in 10:23:25.
8:20am start | 2:30pm summit | 6:50pm car

Snowshoes required, poles are helpful. Very good trench in right now from the winter TH all the way up to Devil's playground - spots of hollow snow on the initial slope up from tree line but I only saw cracks around where I stepped and heard no whoomphing. Everything above that is windblown, and there are 5ft drifts on the road all the way up. I stashed snowshoes as soon as I got to the road and walked it almost all the way up, and on the way down I took the normal trail off of the summit (trapdoor rock hopping) and the road for the rest.

Was surprised to see no one else on the trail - only technicality to that was the snowplow train car on the Cog tracks that came to the top to clear the tracks. Needless to say the summit house is closed but it made nice shelter from the wind.

Weather definitely made the day!! Go get it! Bring snowshoes! 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 1/20/2024, By: Gator Wrasler
Info: Great hike, temperatures in the 20s down in the trees, closer to well below zero with the child chill at the top. Well established, packed trial but the packed trail is actually not on the regular trail. It eventually gets to the top though. Micros spikes a must, snow shoes optional and some of group used, ice axe not needed. Wind was brutal at the top, ski goggles a must. Parked at the lower parking lot and then hiked in about 2.5 miles in and camped about 10,700 feet elevation. There are Several good campsites that are packed down if you want to use them. Six person group with varying speeds, took about 2 hours to hike into camp. Started from there at 4:40 AM and made the summit at about 1:40 pm. Pretty chill Pace, had breakfast on the way that way. Took about 7 hours from summit to car at parking lot. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 1/6/2024, By: Gueza
Info: Well established and easy to follow trench with about 4 - 8 inches of new low density snow to treeline then its knee deep with a lot more new snow until the saddle - I wish I had floatation for this section. Saw one solo skier skiing in this area and the turns didnt look too bad - lots of buried obstacles for sure though. Everything below treeline except for the road still surely sucks for skiing at the moment. On and off trap dooring from devils to the last summit pitch - microspikes were useful 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 1/2/2024, By: s_brummer
Info: Climbed the NW Slopes on New Year's Day for my second winter summit of Pikes!

Snowshoes were not necessary, I also did not use any traction for the ascent (I did put spikes on for the descent, but certainly not totally necessary). Trail to treeline was very nicely packed, extremely easy to follow. Treeline to saddle at 12,750 was in really nice shape too, quite a few different options through that area, the one I took was mainly about 4inches of snow over tundra, with maybe three spots where I sunk in just a little, but barely enough to consider it a post-hole even. The "meander" to the last summit pitch is basically just covered in variable levels of minor snow, nothing to be of concern though really. Final summit pitch was really straightforward, all the cairns were basically entirely exposed, as well as many footprints in the scant snow that was left. Quite a few other climbers out as well! Ran into @ eagle_eye (Mike) The train and highway were both very busy too!!

I started at 1:30 and summitted by 10, back to my car a little after 2! I'm certainly not the fastest, and I also had a heftier pack (ice axe, extra coats, stove, etc.) on for winter-training just to give a little more info.

Also don't forget that there is a little additional mileage with having to start at the winter road closure! The drive to the TH was fine (2WD here), the road was snowy, but very nicely plowed!

I'm sure conditions will stay favorable even with the potential round of upcoming snow later this week and weekend! 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 12/30/2023, By: derb66
Info: Did the Crags route today. Started at the Menonite Camp at 5:00 am with 9 degree temperature. Trail was clearly visible and well packed up until tree line. From the tree line to the ridge there was no trail and quite a bit of post holing. From the ridge to the summit trail was obvious and it was 50 degrees. 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 12/22/2023, By: Ronsammons
Info: Tough hike as noted by @Jabonm. I did manage to solo the entire hike, but took the train back down. Yak Trax or better, plus an ice axe are very important. It was a long day but I enjoyed it. Maybe 10 other hikers and one runner. Snow storm coming tomorrow so might be a bit before I can do this again. 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 12/20/2023, By: Jabonm
Info: Made it to 12,700 feet marker about 2 miles from summit from Barr parking lot. Started 5am little wind and pretty ideal weather all day. Lots of ice on first part of trail so put on traction right away. Ice gives way to packed powder after mile marker (MM) 3 and stays that way until you hit MM 8.5 just above the A-Frame. From there youre following footsteps or post holeing if you miss the mark. After MM 9 drifts start to hide the trail and youll have to scramble or dig trenches and use GPS to find the actual trail. I turned back at the 12,700 marker somewhere close-ish to Mm 10 but another hiker was doing his second summit in two days and made it to the top with lots of scrambling shortcuts. Definitely recommend poles, traction and calorie surplus to deal with the snow challenges above timberline but should stay more or less this way for awhile unless a ton of snow comes this weekend. Happy trails! https://www.mountain-forecast.com/peaks/Pikes-Peak/forecasts/4300 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 12/18/2023, By: Michigander
Info: Great day with mild weather conditions. Plan for a long day, even longer if doing a round trip. Also look at the wind forecasts, as the 12,750 foot saddle can be super exposed to the elements. Took 7.5 hours to summit as none of the trail above 11,800 was in and there's some big drifts with post hole potential. Recommend an ice axe for a couple spots where self arrest might be necessary and as early a start as possible as the snow got softer later in the day. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 12/12/2023, By: swilson753
Info: The gate past the Mennonite camp is closed for the season.The last storm dumped 6-12" of new snow. We carried snowshoes but didn't use them since all of the snow was so unconsolidated that we would have sunk just as deeply with them. We put in a trench up to 11.7k before turning around due to time constraints. There were a couple of single hikers behind us that may have extended the trench further. Go get it while it's in!