Culebra Peak

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 3/11/2023, By: Veory
Info: Didn't end up summiting because I felt off, but my partner did in snowshoes and I did get to ski from 13k to the car. We ended up too far north on the face which made for horrible skiing and skinning because we couldn't see far enough to tell that the right side had more snow. Otherwise the road up makes for good skinning or snowshoeing. Went up a low angle east facing slope near four-way while waiting for my buddy and got to experience a pretty massive whoomf in the snow, hundreds of feet in all directions. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 1/8/2023, By: yaymountain
Info: 3 ppl attempted on Sat, 0 summited. Attempted to poach @stilldavid's trench but more snow or wind covered a good chunk of it. Took a right at the second Y junction while in dark (last pic) instead of a left which added a mile to Four Way. My group of two then caught up to @CommanderDawn at 11,650ish where the summer TH starts. No trench exists after this point. We were beat so all turned around. Culebra's second summit for the year is still up for grabs! We came back the way we came totaling 12 miles roundtrip so the trench is a beautiful highway now! Weather looks pretty good next few days so anyone attempting should have a manageable 6 miles to summer TH then you've got another 2-2.5 miles and 2500-3k elevation gain remaining on your own. If you go left at the second Y junction, you'll save a mile but snow might be deeper and there's prob remnants of @stilldavid's tracks from last week. I made a snow angel at 11k feet as a consolation lol Btw, the staff has a bad rap but I found them very professional and nice. Had a great chat with them after and they even called a local restaurant for us to see if they were open. Accessing Culebra legally felt like being allowed into a club with ID checks and all. It is a cool experience and great for solitude. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 6/25/2022, By: MichiganBrian
Info: Full summer conditions on the whole route - no snow to avoid anywhere 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 6/4/2022, By: TheHikingDoctor
Info: Similar to last report. Route is essentially summer conditions. Road is bone dry all the way up. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 5/29/2022, By: Rfox88
Info: Trailhead at north gate clear of any snow. Porta potty and camping area available. The road to HQ is clear, and thr road to the 4wd trailhead is clear. There is little snow on the mountain and no traction was needed. Poles were helpful as the tundra is very soft and uneven. There is no defined trail so avoiding the tundra is impossible. I tried to stay on the rocks when able. On this trip the wind was very harsh. It was not fun! On another note the guys who rin the operation are really nice and helpful. They even drove 6 hikers to the upper trailhead and picked them up after completing the hike. IT is worth the $. They are taking good care of the land and that mountain. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 5/27/2022, By: soundchaser2112
Info: The road is dry and open all the way up to the 4WD trailhead. There was more snow than I'd expected on Culebra, but still nothing too crazy. About ankle+deep snow throughout and knee-deep trap-door postholing along the ridge. Gaiters would still be appropriate, and microspikes were handy for the slushy descent but no need for snowshoes or ax. Also Red Mountain is virtually dry or has avoidable snow. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 5/22/2022, By: jmg11
Info: Decent day out there. Road to 4WD upper parking lot is void of snow and I was able to drive my AWD QX60 up there with no issues. About 3” of snow on the mountain from this weekend's storm. Ground was completely saturated with Fri/Sat rain too, so while I would normally recommend microspikes on a day like this, my footsteps chewed the crap out of the alpine :/ Can't do anything about it without an established trail though…Winds 50mph sustained from saddle to summit (forecast called for 30), with last 300' of elevation socked in all morning with cloud cover. Happy to check it off the list, not happy the weather was too blustery to tag Red Mountain. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 5/22/2022, By: TheSpaceForce
Info: We hiked this when most of CO was experiencing a spring snow storm (12+ inches reported in many towns across the state). A GMC Denali and a jeep made it up to the (open) 4WD TH, no problem. Lots of exposed grass on the way up, mostly tops poking through on the way down. My guess is that it will melt off fairly quickly, since all of the surrounding valleys had minimal snow coverage. High winds: it was hard to walk/stand-up for sustained periods, but not because of ice/snow. Sadly, I can't comment on the view, other than the lumbering bear we saw on the way out. The ranch staff were professional and very helpful. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 5/20/2022, By: dfeezell
Info: Summer conditions for now (depending on what the storm brings this weekend). The wind was brutal today - hard to stand up at times. If anyone finds a black beanie, please let me know. It's most likely on the ridge somewhere. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 5/15/2022, By: rayers1001
Info: The road is clear all the way to 4WD parking lot. Can confirm. All snow is easily avoidable. I didn't pack traction and I didn't need it. The Sangres are melting out quickly. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 5/9/2022, By: denverfromdenver
Info: Road is open all the way to 4x4 lot. The west winds can be fierce and you are exposed the whole time.99% dry. No traction or floatation necessary. Cue summer conditions. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 5/2/2022, By: ellenmseb
Info: My final Colorado 14er! Now is the time to get Culebra!! Road is open to 4-way. Permits are available until Memorial Day. 95% snow-free ascent by staying left. Glissade descent. 2 people skied but melting fast. Leave the snowshoes at home. Microspikes yes. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 4/25/2022, By: Cide
Info: Ranch managers led our group of vehicles approx. one mile up the trail to a pull off. Downed branches were removed by the ranch as we drove up the road. Past the one mile-in pull off was more downed trees and snow although the snow is melting fast at this time. The "Four Way" sign area is blanketed and the snow from there and into the lower bowl is just deep enough to have some postholing but nothing that is going to seriously mess with your ascent/descent time. Snow on the upper bowl has many rocks poking out and is not that deep. Ridges for the remainder of the route are a mix of snow and rock to the summit. Snow shoes may have helped for the lower bowl area and not much else but we managed without them and our ascent time was 5h45 min and descent shaved about 1h30 off for a combined 7h15. We are average to slightly above average speed hikers that were acclimated. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 4/10/2022, By: Jbakeman
Info: Road from HQ frozen on way in and muddy on the way out. Brought skis and spikes. Just wore hiking boots to the bowl. Skinned up bowl to ridge and ditched skis. Ridge is clear no traction necessary. Summited 11:30. Very windy. Tagging Red took about 1.5 hours. Skis made descent and road hour+ faster than those on snowshoes. We skied until the road turned back to dirt. Total time just under 10 hours. Maybe skinning up left side of bowl would have been faster. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 3/14/2022, By: coopereitel
Info: We had snowmobile tracks to 4-Way and then broke trail from there. We went lookers left of the bowl feature up to Punta Serpiente then the regular ridge over to Culebra. We summited at 1:15. It was quite windy. I skied the bowl on the way down which was holding nice powder. Skis definitely expediate the trip back to the ranch HQ. I got to the HQ at 3:40. We were looking at hitting Red, but were not really feeling it, so we decided to hold off.