Mt. Lindsey

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! 

Route: Northwest Gully
Posted On: 3/9/2026, By: oliverrobinson1224
Info: Started from landslide area, snowshoes were required from there until the Huerfano/Iron Nipple/Lindsey saddle. Snow is continuous and extremely variable, with parts right next to each other being 1 ft deep and 6 ft deep. Had to put our own trench the entire way. If following our path, take the trench in the gully all the way, as the scree fields were awful. Did not summit due to trenching taking too long, but got to 13300. Gully or ridge, snowshoes and microspikes are required at the very least. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 2/12/2026, By: Randy1983
Info: Parked at the lower TH. Retrenched from there. Snow mostly continuous from the upper TH through the trees. West facing slopes have bad, unconsolidated powder. I hope my trench tracks are gone by the time the next person goes up as my route was not ideal. Stashed snowshoes around 12,400'. No traction needed up the ridge but there are some icy spots. Used crampons to descend the gully. Haven't climbed this peak in over 20 years, WTF happened to the gully? 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 1/4/2026, By: daniel_a34
Info: Managed to get our Tacoma to about half a mile from the Huerfano Trailhead, tree across the road stopped us there. Not a ton of snow at any point on the whole hike, but it did look like we'd had a little snow the night or day before. Where there is snow there's a nice trench - thanks to all the people who've gone before! Took the ridge on the way up and had fun with some tough climbing. We didn't really route find, just went straight up and over everything. No issues with snow at all. On the way down we took the gully, and I hate that thing with every fiber of my being. Th few rocks that didn't slide out from under us were covered with ice and our axes saved us a couple times. Took us 1:47 to get from the peak back to the waiver sign. Ridiculous. The whole day took us a really long time - I don't think we were in great shape after the holidays but winter hikes always take a toll.

Iron Nipple and Huerfano look like snow is not much of an issue - someone was ahead of us and did them.

Huerfanito has some snow on the north slopes, but you could avoid it all the way to the top if desired. There's one patch on the west side of the slope that could maybe be used to glissade down 2/3 of the way.

Didn't see any tracks heading toward Lily lake.

Also have I mentioned how awful the gully on Lindsey is? 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 12/30/2025, By: Skimo95
Info: Thanks to Rob Barlow for previous report. A group of 3 put in a good snowshoe trench to the saddle today. Great climbing on the ridge direct route, did not personally use traction. 4x4 can make it 2 miles from trailhead. Took a line up the creek which was nice but a little dangerous with the late afternoon temps (trapdoor). Now is the time to do this in my opinion. Thanks to Judd and Max for good company, and nice to meet you Yazzie*?

Packed out a latex glove with a women’s face drawn on it and a dog leash 

Route: Northwest Gully
Posted On: 12/31/2025, By: jacolc
Info: Was prepare to hike previous day to summer TH or above, but tanks to some ruts at snow I drive my AWD to ca 10030', about 2.2 miles below 4x4 summer TH. Made some recon and decide to one puch next day. Before 6am, another team of 3 came in.
My opinion about summit gully. Its no longer class 2. Probably neither class 2+. Long section loose, steep, exposed gravel I bypass on rocks class 3/3+. In unusual December condition, it was more difficult for me, then El Diente or Mt Wilson few days ago. On a way down I take NW Ridge Cl 3 without any traction.

My GPX at library 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 12/24/2025, By: RobLowe
Info: Parked 5 miles below the summer TH. Variable dirt and snow 4-6” to the summer TH. Above 10,800 to 12,000 sugar snow mid-calf to knee height. Icy and bulletproof snow in the gully and ridge. Did not see another person all day. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 11/22/2025, By: Will_E
Info: Beautiful weather on Lindsey today. I drove up last night and camped 1.5 miles from the TH, walked the road in the morning, there were vehicle tracks to a half mile before the trailhead. More snow than I anticipated, but no snowshoes or traction needed today. Snow was mostly 4"-6" deep, nothing difficult until the ridge, the section around the notch was difficult, I was fortunately able to get up/down okay, just a bit of pucker factor with a few exposed moves on fresh snow.

Didn't see anyone else all day, but someone followed my tracks to treeline at some point, and by the end of the day there were vehicle tracks all the way to the TH. Really enjoyable day. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 11/16/2025, By: notidealbutfine
Info: Drove my Honda Element (7.1'' ground clearance) to the upper TH without issue. The road is slow going but not particularly technical, definitely very subaruable. Had the TH to myself for a Saturday evening camp. Started Sunday morning at 5:30AM. Some small patches of ice and snow on trail, but mostly dry until the Iron Nipple/Lindsey saddle. It would be very possible for one to poach Huerfano and Iron Nipple from here if desired... From the saddle, Lindsey's NW ridge was actually much tougher, sketchier and slower going than I anticipated. Overnight, the dew had frozen onto the rocks creating an extremely thin layer of ice over the rocks on the NW ridge. I climbed too early in the day: the ridge was shaded, cold and very slippery. Followed the ridge direct for most of the way. The crux was actually the least sketchy part, for some reason it wasn't as icy. Used spikes for the entirety of the ridge; it would have been extremely difficult and scary without them, perhaps impassable. Amazing views of the Wahatoya and Sisnaajiní. Encountered a herd of about a dozen bighorns on the way down. These conditions will most likely drastically change in the next 24 hours with the snow coming tonight (11/16/25). 11.48 miles / 4,724' gain / 7 hours, 17 minutes 

Route: Northwest Gully
Posted On: 11/2/2025, By: stirfry
Info: Hiked Mt. Lindsey NW ridge today. Road to the TH had some patches of ice but nothing that made it any harder than driving it in the summer. I got to the TH at 6 am and didn’t encounter anyone the entire day.
From the TH to ~1.4 miles there were some patches of snow and ice that were later muddy on the descent. At ~1.4 miles the trail starts gaining elevation. From there I encountered a bit more snow (2” deep maybe), which would alternate from dry to snow and so on. After getting to the waiver sign, I chose to do the NW ridge as opposed to gulley. The gulley is on the north side of the ridge where the majority of snow and ice was. On my way up to the headwall and after the headwall I had dipped down on the north side of the ridge, and had to put spikes on. After summiting, I realized staying as ridge proper as I could would be a lot easier for the descent. Navigating off the ridge on the north side was tedious.
Spikes were nice for the descent also.