Ellingwood Point

Route: South Face
Posted On: 2023-05-30, By: kohnenab
Info: Lake como road is dry all the way to the lake. Snow starts on the North side of the lake and is patchy but still >80% covered through the lower basin. Snow did freeze overnight so was supportive on the approach but requires a very early start (before 5am) from Lake Como to have any chance of not sinking through on the return. Snow is softening up by 10am and significant melt throughout the early afternoon. I would bet most is gone in 2-3 weeks. We had a lot of thigh to wait-deep post-holing through the middle and lower basins. Still had some good glissading slopes in the upper basin. Staying on trail is difficult in current conditions which led to many straight vertical snow climbs. Ice axe and spikes necessary. Snowshoes would have been useful in the descent, but not worth carrying the extra weight on the way up. We did not see anyone attempt both Ellingwood Point and Blanca in the same day. A couple of guys started up Blanca after Ellingwood, but we didn't see whether they made it. The snow was incredibly unsupportive by that time and Blanca's whole northwest ridge trail is completely covered with a few feet still. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 2023-02-01, By: highheeledhiker
Info: Basically the same as Blanca condition report. We wore snowshoes past Crater Lake and up to the base of the climb for the Ellingwood/ Blanca saddle. Then we switched into crampons and used our ice axes for both Blanca and Ellingwood. Ellingwood involved more tedious routefinding than Blanca to avoid avy danger and skirt around more technical climbing. Due to limited visibility, we gained the ridge too soon at first then had to downclimb some to get around the notch in the ridgeline. From there it was more smooth sailing to the top 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 2023-01-15, By: goingup
Info: What a beautiful winter summit. With avalanche danger pretty high and mostly sketch everywhere else in the state the Sangres seemed like the safest bet. Mike and I decided on Ellingwood Point. Mike had done Blanca a few weeks earlier around Christmas time and said it was dry. That is no longer the case, but it is dry in comparison to the San Juans where I live or the Elks which are buried under 30,000 feet of snow. I drove from Montrose on Friday afternoon and slept in my truck at the base of the road. Mike met me from Colorado Springs early Saturday morning. Like true masochists we started on the road at 8,000 feet. It was dry until 9,200 feet. We put snowshoes on at Lake Como and kept them on (navigating a few headwalls) until we were standing directly below the summits of Blanca & Ellingwood. They are necessary. We did not attempt the standard route to the saddle but chose a steep line up the south face of EP. We kept snowshoes on until it got too steep. We did not know if we would need them again, so we attached them to our packs and carried them, along with the other 30 pounds of gear we each had in our packs to the summit. The route was a mixed bag of shit. Really crappy snow. We wore microspikes and jumped between snow and rock. The snow was not consolidated enough for crampons. If it was, life would have been cruisy / : It was tough and pretty exhausting forward progress. We started at 3:45 a.m. so we had plenty of time (made the summit at 11:30 a.m.). Our hard turnaround time was 1 p.m. so we did not continue on to Blanca which was only a loose plan if conditions were right. I haven't done a winter 14er since this time last year (La Plata) with an attempt of Harvard a few weeks later (made it really far but turned out I had Covid and did not know it, so I was moving far too slow.) I forgot how much fun carrying a heavy pack through less-than-ideal conditions for 14 hours is. Really though, this was an absolute blast, and I would have no problem going back to do Blanca and Little Bear. Even though I have completed the 14ers in summer I have never actually been up Como Lake Road. In summer, I did Blanca and Ellingwood from Zapata Falls and Little Bear's SW ridge. I am not a fan of people, and those route choices are void of human life. So, this was my first-time up Como Lake road and it was void of people. That is a win. Final stats were 16 miles with 7400 feet of vert. It took us 13 hours and 15 minutes. I made some coffee and drove back to Montrose as soon as we were done. Colorado 114 is a wild drive at night. That is 62 miles of dark and desolate. I call this the 30-hour adventure plan. Winter 14er #18, hoping to get to 20 this season. Winter is the superior season. I will not be told otherwise. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 2022-09-29, By: greenonion
Info: Ellingwood Point trail today completely dry to summit, aside from benign creek crossing lower. My god that rroad. Shout out to the gentlemen I met on route along lower ledges… peace be with you and yours. Beautiful what you're doing. Stay safe 

Route: Blanca and Ellingwood
Posted On: 2022-09-06, By: zootloopz
Info: 14er finisher. Thanks to everyone on this site for their valuable contributions. should've taken the ridge down. the face route is not fun. 

Route: North Ridge via South Zapata Creek
Posted On: 2022-08-01, By: CBMassive
Info: Recent rain storms have greatly increased water flows in the area. Reached the creek crossing at about 1.4 miles up the trail and was faced with wading in fast moving water about thigh high, or turning around. The logs shown in the pictures that accompany the route write-up are no longer present, maybe washed away. We walked up and down the creek looking for an alternative for about 30 minutes, but couldn't find anything that didn't look risky. Decided to abort the hike and try from the Lake Como approach later in the week. If you're going to tackle this route, be prepared for high water at this crossing until the afternoon rains subside. 

Route: North Ridge via South Zapata Creek
Posted On: 2022-07-06, By: majormajortom
Info: Summer conditions. No one else approaching from Zapata Creek. C2 is snow free and I was glad to be the only one in it because of the loose rock. Great weather. Completed traverse to Blanca and back. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 2022-07-05, By: E_A_Marcus_949
Info: Overcast/foggy morning but able to summit before t-storms rolled in. Summer conditions on the trail and following cairns. Watch for the turnoff point between Ellingwood and Blanca. 

Route: Lake Como Approach
Posted On: 2022-06-20, By: arthurtect
Info: Summer conditions from Lake Como. Went for a late start, which paid off. Missed the mornings icy rain and enjoyed sunny skies on the summer. Super windy in the approach but mostly calm on the summit. Lake Como Road is no joke. Believe all the nightmares and horror stories!! 

Route: North Ridge via South Zapata Creek
Posted On: 2022-06-12, By: TheSpaceForce
Info: It's marmot and mosquito season on this route. Did not investigate C3; C2 still had some snow in it and generally pretty loose rock/talus/scree. We used ice axes up and down, and were able to kick steps in, no problem at 10:00 am and later. We did not use spikes/crampons, but gaiters were nice in the melting slush (we punched all the way through a few times). Opinions/comments from others: Generally we found this route to be challenging (combination of gain and distance - haven't done class 4 14ers, have done several class 3). One morning climber claimed C2 was a sheet of ice. Another climber used trail runners and shorts & kept to the rock to avoid the snow. We also made the traverse to Blanca, and found it nearly devoid of snow. 

Route: North Ridge via South Zapata Creek
Posted On: 2022-06-07, By: jeffh7
Info: Backpacked in on the 4th, summitted on the 5th. Route is completely dry aside from C2 couloir which contained extremely variable snow. We ascended C3 in the morning and descended C2 at 11 AM. The upper section was white snow that was softer and easier to safely kick into or carefully glissade. The lower section was brownish snow that was BULLETPROOF and required 5-6 kicks per foot to establish any sort of trench (if not using crampons). C2 is not safe with the brownish snow unless you have crampons and an ice ax. No signs of wet sluffing or rollers in the couloir. 

Route: Blanca and Ellingwood
Posted On: 2022-05-30, By: Guyer25
Info: Still very deep snow above Crater Lake. A bit of exposure and easy climbing at the top. A lot of post-holing and trudging up deep snow, steep in parts. Not much trail to follow. Ice axe and spikes were nice to have. 

Route: North Ridge via South Zapata Creek
Posted On: 2022-05-27, By: butcher213
Info: Saw 7 active avalanches in the Zapata basin. C2 couloir is a death trap, with two slides occurring while I was on approach. I, obviously, did not summit. I didn't see C3, but I presume it's just as bad. I wouldn't recommend this route until it melts in a couple days. 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 2022-05-13, By: Grisel
Info: Lake Como road is dry all the way to Lake Como. Past the lake, intermittent snow all the way to summit but solid, didn't even post hole on the way down. Brought microspikes but didn't use them, might make some comfortable higher up 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 2021-12-13, By: chrisbendrell
Info: Relatively little snow on Lake Como road to Lake Como. Significantly more snow than expected to Crater Lake, waste deep postholing, deep drifts (sufferfest) in some areas. Trail is mostly still obvious with a few adjustments necessary to avoid deep snow. Doable with an early enough start. 

Route: North Ridge via Huerfano
Posted On: 2021-11-28, By: arete66
Info: A thousand feet above the trailhead, Dawson's guide alerted me to cut left off the trail to an open talus slope. Out of the trees, one gets the first broad views of this east aspect of the ridge. It was big, steep and complex as I had been led to believe. (image 1) It also looked like it steepened most near the ridge crest. I zigged and zagged up the wall finding weak chutes with loose boulders leading to steep buttresses with increasing exposure. A patch of grass drew me and as I got closer, I noticed a small harem of bighorn sheep, perhaps 5 individuals. Short sections of snow were icey in patches but mostly soft and airy. I had already switched into trail runners. The sheep allowed me to approach within perhaps 30 meters but on a silent signal, they bolted up the slope, out of sight. I took mental notes of landmarks wanting to store a mental picture of the face for my descent. Looking up reminded me that it just got steeper to the crest. (image 2) Just beneath that final granite wall was a black slab of shiny and featureless gneiss. Here I moved left not liking the gash directly above. This led me to a solid steep granite nose. The moves were sustained 5.easy and the exposure is harder to put out of one's mind. I hoped for an easier way down. My sense was that an alternate descent would have to be to the north (my right side) because looking left seemed to be only steeper terrain. Although the Valley of the South Zapata seemed mildly less severe, the crest itself was jagged and near vertical on both sides. Despite the description, the ridgeline appeared to tip upward precipitously in a short distance to ascend an unrelenting 700 feet or so. I saw no weakness in the face. I had a 200' or 300' section of nearly flat ridgeline. I dropped west onto a series of ledges and traversed south, moving now for the first time directly toward the summit of Ellingwood Point. At the base of the broad steep face, now I looked up again and lo! There was a fine sharp ridgeline keen but solid and appearing to be smartly solo-able at least through its first half. Up higher there was a short wall that reflected the sunlight like a large cylinder of steel. I knew I had unlocked the key at least as far as the steel pillar. The well-defined crest was perfect with plenty of solid holds and yet all-absorbing by virtue of its low 5th class nature. At the steel pillar I found a sneak to the right and another sharp edge lead beyond. This was glorious and easy enough that I knew it would be glorious downclimbing. All beta that I had read warned that the top 150 feet got steep and technical so I kept bracing for it. Just a short distance above me, was a false summit. I knew the real summit must lay beyond because the difficulties remained easy and within control. As I crested the last few feet though, I looked across not at a true summit but Blanca Peak. I was already on top! Conditions were excellent. Now all resources were focused toward the descent off the crest. I relished the delightful downclimb of the ridge and when I got to the end of steep, I reversed the ledge traverse. At the very tyne where I had crested the ridge, I continued the traverse only about 100' or so. At the top of a chimney feature, I felt relief seeing my way most of the way to the black band of gneiss. The rock seemed uncharacteristically yellow and I was able to face out most of the way. In no time, I had unlocked the top section and felt a great sense of relief. The steepness eased slightly as I descended. At the same high grasses where I had seen the sheep before, I found them again, and again they allowed me to approach quite closely before bolting off to impossibly precipitous defenses. I kept the trail runners on because… why not? 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 2021-10-03, By: durkan
Info: If your only goal is Ellingwood, only snow of concern was ledges. If not, see report for Blanca. 

Route: North Ridge via South Zapata Creek
Posted On: 2021-10-01, By: dsr80304
Info: Camped at Zapata lakes - nice way to break this up. Some flurries and/or graupel up there on 9/29. Did C2 to Ellingwood Pt on 9/30 AM. There's no fun way up or down C2, you can't avoid a lot of loose dirt and rock. There was generally a dusting of snow on the upper 500' of the EP ridge, with 1-2" of accumulation on some ledges and little crevices. Made the scrambling a bit trickier. Weather was hard to gauge on the summit (9/30 9:30ish) so we didn't go for Blanca. Looked like more clouds rolled in and seemed to have received another heavy dusting of snow by mid-day. And looks like continuing precip up there today (10/1). 

Route: North Ridge via South Zapata Creek
Posted On: 2021-08-30, By: SamWerner
Info: Trail is still full summer conditions. It was a fun one on the way up to Ellingwood with plenty of scrambling and nice views, though adding on Blanca made for a killer long day. Mostly just posting this to tell other people who may be dumb like me that although this route is shorter than the Lake Como route, a huge chunk of that is off-trail so it takes much longer than you likely would have on Lake Como. I'm generally a pretty fast hiker and decent scrambler but this took me 13.5 hours round trip (with Blanca). C2 was just as the previous report said, gotta focus for the last little bit. If you want to make sure you don't accidentally go down Crossfire Couloir on the way back, there are a couple rusty metal stakes on the ground right next to the top of C2 - so just remember, finding the right couloir is "high stakes" 

Route: South Face
Posted On: 2021-08-04, By: GordoByrn
Info: I stayed a little left of the cairns at the "turn" at 13.5K. The rock was stable. Looked over and the cairned line seemed less steep so tried that for the way down. It's really loose, off the summit ridge, and I nearly sent some big stuff down. I wouldn't want to be under anyone in this section. Bill's tip about the mine worked great. Close to the mine there is a large snow patch that the trail passes beneath - helped me navigate on the way down and kept me away from some steep terrain.