Little Bear Peak

Route: Lake Como Approach
Posted On: 5/31/2025, By: Pcypher
Info: Leave your snowshoes at home! Gully is a mix of rocks (lower and upper) and deep soft snow. We did put a nice trench through the gully which someone hopefully benefited from today! No snow along the ridge or slope that can’t be avoided easily. We took the indirect west ridge route. The exposure is extreme for the short section as indicated and we didn’t realize we were below the summit when we were. Route as indicated in captain suburbia and daways reports are very good. Partner who is 3 peaks away from finishing all the 14ers for the 5th time felt this route was definitely safer than the hourglass (all his other climbs on this peak were via hourglass) but was also harder. I found the route to be fun but very steep and exposed in parts. I have no comparison to offer with the hourglass. The lower slope and hourglass appeared to still have snow but I would expect conditions in the hourglass to be mixed based on other areas of this peak. We did not get photos of the hourglass. 

Route: Lake Como Approach
Posted On: 5/18/2025, By: Nathaniel Brown
Info: No snow until you're rounding the lake. Excellent snow up the gully then mostly a rocky traverse until some snowfields that are more or less continuous with the hourglass. The hourglass itself is icy. The central part recently avalanched, but did not to climbers left (and that appears poorly consolidated). Was challenging to downclimb in crampons and a mountain axe. Though ice tools are far from necessary, two axes would be of real benefit. 

Route: Lake Como Approach
Posted On: 5/7/2025, By: Whitemtnskier
Info: Summited and skied Little Bear Peak on 05/03. Just about zero snow up to Lake Como. Camped from fri night to Sunday morning, went for the Little Bear summit on Saturday. Deep snow up first gully, a bit of a crust on the surface in the morning but melted into wet and heavy stuff by early afternoon. Traverse over to the base of Hourglass Gully was also completely dry. Bottom 600 feet or so of Hourglass (below the choke) was covered in recent avy debris, looks like it went pretty big. There was snow up to probably 13800 on the east side of the gully, but we climbed out of it to the west and had a few hundred feet of (mostly) dry climbing to the summit. Last 100 feet under the summit was back to snow, but a little too thin to ski. For a full trip report, I posted the footage on YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cPOQWaRkVEI 

Route: Lake Como Approach
Posted On: 4/24/2025, By: catfish hank
Info: Attempted standard route to hour glass via snow climb. There was a few inches of snow on the way up and through Lake Como. Above this flotation was needed on this day. Whatever snow may have fallen into the basin during last weeks storm had mostly snow drifted into the West Ridge/ western slopes. I was easily finding over 3 feet in places and was more or less swimming up a snow field vs climbing. The center of the slope had approximately 2 ft. but felt vulnerable to marching straight up this way. Turned around about a little more than halfway up. i could only imagine the hour glass in the same miserable conditions. This approach in this day was a turning into a soul stealer. The snow should pack down and make for a makable snow climb. but by when is anyones guess. More wind and snow in the forecast. Right now flotation probably not necessary. Its assistance for some short stretches might not be worth the weight carrying up. Had a family of rams and picas for company and that was pretty much it. Solitude kicked in an enjoyable wilderness experience and so no regrets on this attempt. 

Route: Lake Como Approach
Posted On: 3/30/2025, By: Cruiser
Info: Had the day off so I ran down after work yesterday to see how the Sangres were looking at low tide. I drove up to the large pullout at 10.2k and camped there. Intermittent snow from 10k on the road until the lake then continuous snow afterwards. Lake is still frozen but there's a little bit of creek poking thru just below the lake for filtering water. I didn't use traction until the lake but snowshoes were helpful (I post holed up to my waist a couple times and then put em on) along the shore and up the apron below the gully to gain the west ridge. Gully was filled in despite low tide but the snow was punchy even after a solid freeze last night so I shut it down and opted for the fun run instead of the summit. Last time I climbed LB it was a month later in the season and a lot better snow year so the snow in the gully and hourglass were isothermic and far more confidence inspiring than what I found today. Sorry, no pics as I forgot my phone. 

Route: SW Ridge via Tobin Creek
Posted On: 3/2/2025, By: wintersage
Info: Bone dry from base, along the long talus section to Mama Bear. From Mama Bear to Little Bear Summit there is snow in all the wrong places. Microspikes and ice axe were considerably useful, not only for navigating snow patches but also for dry tooling at times. The bushwhack is still there and it still sucks. As far as wind and weather went, it was the perfect day to tackle this: there was only mild wind at sunrise and nothing during the technical sections. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 2/27/2025, By: bigfoot1
Info: I'm baaaaaack and have been reacclimatizing in co for the past week and a half from my sea level trip but still have altitude sickness anyway woo! Another attempt... 14.8mi, 5.8k ft and NO SUMMIT! Ridiculously good weather though. Very early start in the dark for me, originally set out to take the ridge to south little bear and go onto blanca and ellingwood but was too scared to leave the road in the dark to bushwack so decided to take the standard route instead. Didn't need any traction until Lake Como and switched to snowshoes there to re-break out a filled in trench. Stayed in snowshoes until the top of the gully. There were some hollow sounding bits and a lot of faceted underlayer, but the top crunchy layer only got to 4" or so thick at most, probably on average 2" so I wasn't worried about being buried if it let go. It's definitely better to stick to the ridge as long as you can. The lower trail is hard to follow and covered with annoying slabs that take forever to cross because they are all unconsolidated/faceted/granular and your feet are going to slide. Definitely got worse as the day went on with the temps rising. Started up hourglass gully and while there is snow on top, under is almost all rock solid ice or rock. I kept sliding down and having to self arrest to not lose progress. I reached the point to where the green rope is, had to make some sketchy moves to grab it, and then picked at the ice to free it for maybe 5 or 10 minutes until I gave up and came to the realization I would have to descend the same way as I was way behind schedule. Super sketchy on the way down, ice was melting enough that my ice axe could "stick" but a self arrest at speed due to a fall would have been out of the question. I also learned why most crampons have the front pokey spikes... mine do not. I honestly got really lucky to make it down and I'm not even sure how I did. I wouldn't do it again with my current gear. It wouldn't have been a nice 1000ft slide down to the basin. Got some frostnip on my fingers due to my gloves ripping from some aggressive rocks and ice. On another note, the west ridge proper looks pretty dry and that might be an easier option for climbing with minimal snow and ice. I was tempted to try but didn't want to cliff out on an unfamiliar route. The other west ridge (southwest ridge) where South Little Bear is looks 98% dry and like an easier climb. Saw 2 other climbers going up the middle to Blanca/Ellingwood as well so that is also freshly tracked again! 

Route: Lake Como Approach
Posted On: 2/23/2025, By: daway8
Info: Did Little Bear via West Ridge Direct after camping Friday night at Lake Como to get practice with climbing after a night of winter camping. There was a remnant trench up to Lake Como, which was a huge relief, because my pack was nearly 50lbs. As expected, the ridge was largely dry thanks to wind/sun, but there was plenty of snow in the gully leading up to the ridge. There were enough sections of exposed rock scattered around that I gambled that any cohesive slabs there might be, in theory couldn't be too large or connected, despite that gully being within the potential target zone identified by CAIC as moderate danger. Used snowshoes partway up but then stuck them standing up into the hill and switched to crampons. On the ridge, all the class 4 and 5 sections were practically summer conditions. It was actually the class 2 and 3 sections which were made more challenging because the snow piled up there and trapdoors on a narrow, highly exposed ridge can be hazardous. So ironically, I felt more at ease on the class 5 sections than the class 2 sections. Looking down at the Hourglass from above made it look like a treacherous mix of steep snow and ice so I stuck with just returning down the West Ridge Direct route. Got past most of the main obstacles before the sun set but still had a lot of ridge to follow in the dark as the wind picked up. Watched a pair of headlamps coming from the direction of Blanca as I navigated the ridgetop in the dark - apparently wintersage and partner. At the gully, I decided to risk trying to glissade down with ice axe in hand. At first it was working well, and I could easily stop whenever I wanted but then I hit an almost bulletproof section and it took me probably 30-40ft to self-arrest, which really got my heart pumping. Eventually worked myself to a spot where I could put on crampons, which made it much better. Did some more glissading and triggered multiple mini-slides where a swath maybe 15ft wide would run for perhaps 30 feet or so, mostly just stripping off a thin wind crust. Whenever a decent amount of snow started moving, I paused and made sure it came to a stop before continuing on. In short, I agree with CAIC having this zone in the Moderate region right now, despite how dry much of the region is. Overall, West Ridge Direct is a viable winter route if you don't mind highly exposed class 4 and 5 to both go up and downclimb. In my opinion that was less sketch than what the Hourglass was looking like from my vantage point. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 1/17/2025, By: jacolc
Info: Jan15: For E/B used flotation to 13330' (0-18in snow deep, average 4-6 where switch to crampons) and generally fallow bottom of drainage. Especially above Blue Lake do not fallow summer road/trail. Very windy. On my way down most of my trench was filled with snow. Jan 16: To LBear used flotation only below initial couloir, but deposit it above on the ridge. However after additional snow maybe useful on last part of traverse to bottom of hourglass. Traverse in little unconsolidated soft snow was slow moving with or without crampons. Maybe micro spikes will be better option. Hourglass was in great climbing condition. Very little, avoidable ice, hard snow required technical crampons (long section of front pointing in excellent hard snow 50-65 deg)) and two ice tools. However I use one tool and tool/pole hybrid (BD Whippet). For every 10-30 feet I kicked rest steps, mainly for my climbing down. In this condition this is NO Error zone. 

Route: Lake Como Approach
Posted On: 10/13/2024, By: summit21
Info: Mostly dry with a smattering of snow on the upper shaded areas of the NW face. It is easily avoidable and not enough to alter the climbing or route up the NW face. The traverse, Blanca, and Ellingwood were bone dry with late summer-like conditions. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 10/7/2024, By: kevinnikolaides
Info: LB standard route plus traverse to Blanca and Ellingwood. Summer conditions. Small amount of water running through the hourglass but easy to avoid. Get after it before it snows again! 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 10/2/2024, By: lyrichildner
Info: Some left over snow patches and mud in the first gulley up to the ridge but dry after that. Hour glass was easy to climb up but some afternoon graupel and really light rain did slicken it up for the decent. Got lucky with no one on the hour glass with us as the loose rock was awful. 

Route: NW Face and traverse to Blanca
Posted On: 9/15/2024, By: climbingyogi
Info: Dry conditions all the way. This was my second time up Little Bear and Blanca, but my first time on the NW face and traverse. NW face does seem quicker than the standard route. Think we parked around 9800'. Started hiking the road around 4:30am. Got to the base of the NW face around 6:30am. Summit of Little Bear at 8:30am. Started traverse around 8:40am, summited Blanca at 10:50am. Descended Blanca at 11am and back to car at 2pm. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 9/12/2024, By: crowdsurf
Info: Conditions in the Hourglass were as good as could be on this day. It still seems to be getting warm enough during the day that the small amount of water running down the gully is not completely freezing yet. It is getting cold at night so this will likely change soon. No verglas during our climb but the peaks are getting snow up high as was evident in the shaded sections that do not see much sun. My tent at Lake Como had interesting ice formations on 2 of the 3 nights I was there. There is a new blue rope in addition to the green rope that has isolation knots. It is a little longer and likely 70m. As always, do not rely on it even though it appears to be new. Rain and graupel were visible in the Hourglass after exiting on this day. Please remember to be responsible with your waste. Poor backcountry etiquette was visible at the campsites east of the lake. 

Route: West Ridge Indirect
Posted On: 9/3/2024, By: sean23
Info: We climbed LB via the Indirect Route that daway posted to the forum. The route seems much safer to us than the hourglass, and we plan to post a trip report soon. Conditions on the route were solid. No precip to contend with on the ridge