Mt. Lindsey

Route: Northwest Gully
Posted On: 7/5/2026, By: beamersauce
Info: Summer conditions, no snow.
Took the gully up and ridge down. The gully is definitely the easiest way, the scree is completely avoidable by choosing solid rock on the right side. The ridge was fun class 3 moves but and some scree, definitely the harder choice. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 7/2/2026, By: flintel
Info: Trail itself is completely clear with hundreds of wild Colorado columbines in bloom! My first exposure to class 3/class 4 terrain was fantastic. The road to the trailhead, however, was not. I'm surprised this is rated 3 for road difficulty, it was definitely rougher than the Huron trailhead road, but nonetheless I made it in my crosstrek. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 6/21/2026, By: sarahmariekirk
Info: Lindsey is completely summer conditions; no snow at all present. Took the C4 variation up on the ridge, very fun and solid rock with some exposure. Definitely spicier than the C3 standard ridge route that I took last time, but the rock is fantastic. 

Route: Northwest Gully
Posted On: 6/9/2026, By: thebeave7
Info: As others have said the road into the trailhead is in good shape for crossover or above, just really bumpy, no issues in my Rav4.
Route is totally snow free (including the gulley) the whole way, flowers are starting to pop. Last water on the standard approach is at 11500ft, so plan accordingly. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 6/4/2026, By: jthorn
Info: Basically summer conditions. A few patches of snow remaining along the ridge route, but almost entirely dry. We hiked in trail runners and didn't need any spikes/etc. The ridge definitely seemed like the way to go, the gulley was very dry and looked pretty loose. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 5/31/2026, By: masonzastrow
Info: Nearly summer conditions if you take the ridge route. Some small snow crossings both in the trees and on the ridge. Everyone in my party had microspikes, none of us elected to put them on. All three options on the headwall were snow free enough to use. Surprisingly empty, only four parties on the mountain today, probably about 13 people total.
Of note, one member of my party got caught in a small rockslide just below NW Lindsey when we realized we had started taking the gully trail down and attempted to traverse maybe 100 feet to the ridge, directly above the gully route. Totally trash rock, she was lucky to not be seriously hurt and we were lucky in general that there was nobody on the gully route when it happened. The ridge is the way to go. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 5/24/2026, By: scvaughn
Info: Substantial lumps of snow remain in the trees, and micro spikes are recommended. Some snow lurks on the crux, but it's not a serious issue. The rest of the route is in nearly Summer conditions, and it's a great time to scramble. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 5/24/2026, By: ryansappleid
Info: Good conditions right now. Ridge was a little spicier than expected, good exposure for sure. The pictures helped for the crux. There is still deep snow below treeline but there are plenty of tracks so you don’t need spikes or snowshoes. Little to no snow on route above treeline. Beware of the false summit. Marmots are out in full force. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 5/24/2026, By: mholloway987
Info: Lots of fallen trees on the first 1.5 miles of the trail but easy to go around. Not much snow on the trail above tree line and easy to avoid as well. Essentially summer conditions 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 5/3/2026, By: kcwins
Info: Road to upper TH was all clear, can easily be driven with an AWD car. Still a bit of snow on the hike approach but microspikes are definitely not needed (could be helpful in a few spots but we didn’t use them at all). We took the ridge up today, had some snow and ice patches making it a bit sus so we did a combination of class 3 and class 4 route. Probably would’ve not been possible to do the class 3 route as completely class 3 right now due to a bit of snow. The class 4 direct ridge route is all dry. The gully probably would’ve been pretty sketchy and not really doable right now (just from looking at it). Some pics uploaded but not sure how helpful they are 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 4/7/2026, By: coflosmo
Info: Trailhead is easily accessible with clearance and 4wd. Snow on the trail in the gully from ~10.5-12k. Can be avoided by staying on talus to the north, but should be trenched after our party. Some snow on the purple line in Photo #5 of the route description, which forced us to make class 4/5 moves on the "Sharp points along ridge" and then traverse over to the class 3 line up. Minimal consequential snow on the ridge otherwise. We didn't really love the idea of downclimbing the 4/5 stuff, so we checked out the gully first. Kind of rotten snow and scree so we went back to the ridge route. Downclimbed the headwall and tried to go through the snow but it was no good. Thin layer not frozen enough for spikes and not deep enough to boot. Ended up climbing class 4/5 up from purple line (photo #6 below) back to ridge direct and got off the ridge with a bit of relief. Awesome day. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 3/27/2026, By: eastcoasthiker
Info: The first couple miles getting up the gulch to the basin is messy with soft snow, downed trees and impossible to follow trail. Going down later in the day was worse. From the basin to the peak were beautiful. NW Gully and NW Ridge are both almost 100% dry. Beautiful day! Coyotes in the upper basin making lots of noise! Decent pack of sheep too. We did the nw ridge up which had maybe 2-3 sketchy moments by the crux. Descended the gully which is dry but not the best time. Stashed snowshoes in basin and used them once on the way down. No traction needed today. Upper trailhead is accessible if you can drive over one downed conifer. Land Cruiser went all the way no problem. I brought a lost axe to Denver....Let me know if I can get it back to you! 

Route: Northwest Gully
Posted On: 3/24/2026, By: evanc
Info: Started at 6am from about a mile below the Huerfano TH. Road is quickly blocked by fallen trees beyond this parking spot. Snow and ice on the road to the Lily Lake TH never melted during the day. Used snowshoes from the Huerfano River crossing until crossing the upper basin. Didn’t need them above 12.3k’. Used microspikes in the northwest gully for security on the weird snow that remains. Hiking poles proved useful to carry to the summit for the same reason as spikes. Summited at 10:45am. Began descent at 11am and reached the car at 3:15pm. Descending through the upper basin and the gully that leads up to it was a nightmare. Snowshoes helped moderately, but still a lot of postholing. As the snow continues to melt, WATCH OUT for the creek that runs under the snow in this gully. I punched through once on the way up in an inconsequential spot, but there are a few spots that could be dangerous if you fall through. Shoes and socks were soaked at the end of the day, even with gaiters, snowshoes, and the works. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 3/19/2026, By: supranihilest
Info: Get a very early start after a clear night and you should be able to take advantage of radiative freezing. I started at 4:15am and had reasonably supportive snow for the ascent. Earlier would probably be better.

From the landslide to the upper trailhead is mostly snow and ice. From the upper trailhead to about 12,000' is all snow. The steep gully at 10,800' is kind of a mess, it was so soft on my descent I couldn't help but trash it. I'm sure the two other hikers out today made it worse.

Above 12,000' is basically entirely dry. I dumped my snowshoes since they were clearly not going to help.

The ridge is mostly dry. You could probably avoid all the snow with creativity but most snow patches are small enough with good enough hands to not matter. The crux wall is dry to climber's left and right. The middle Class 4 has some snow but it didn't make a difference for me. Same for the snow above that.

Snow on descent was knee deep, grainy slush. Awful postholing in snowshoes. Trench is trashed. Sorry.

To the stable genius who left their snowshoes at the upper trailhead and made a posthole booster up, I hope you enjoyed your swim in both directions.

Gear: flotation. That's it. Skiing would only be below 12,000' and would probably be terrible. I didn't bring or axe or traction and wouldn't have found them useful if I had. Did the whole route in trail runners despite wet feet all day. 

Route: Northwest Gully
Posted On: 3/14/2026, By: the_hare
Info: Big thanks to previous parties for the trench. Also thanks to the early spring heat the last snow has significantly melted out. Road to TH is mostly packed snow w stretches of crusty ice and bare ground. The trench/ morning melt crust held up well even thru noon and I didn't need to put on snowshoes until around 11000.

Previous folks had snowshoed up the gully from 11,100ft on up to the basin & I followed without issue, no concerns w snow stability seen all day. At the upper basin it was getting towards the heat of the day so I skipped between tundra islands to get to the final push to the saddle with the waiver sign.

Higher winds came with the current high-pressure weather ridge and for that reason I opted to take the mostly sheltered gully. Halfway up I wish I had taken the ridge and just dealt with the wind. There is so much loose rock and gravel waiting to explode underfoot & snow traverses had poor quality, either loose or very slick faceted wind slab.

In the upper basin on the descent I linked up a system of snowfields and gullies. The sun had just set and the wind-crust held well on snowshoes after the day's warmth. This was a lot of fun and very cool to travel through the wind sculptures around the boulders.

The snow quality below treeline had deteriorated over the day but not so bad that I was postholing often in snowshoes, really only if I accidentally stepped off the frozen trench. I tried mitigating the snow slushiness by timing my descent to after sunset, that worked pretty well I think but I got back to my car at 10pm.

I found and carried out a nice ice axe I think dropped by a party that went up over the last couple days, message me a description & we can work out getting it back to you!