Little Bear Peak

Route: West Ridge Variant
Posted On: 7/13/2024, By: Joey_parm
Info: Similar to the 6/29 report by user dfeezell, myself and two others also summited LB via CaptainSuburbia's TR (https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=21616). They may also post conditions, or even a TR of their own, so from my perspective: The photos in CaptainSuburbia's TR were very helpful in gaining the ridge from the standard. The crux, for me, was definitely Class 4 and a little awkward going up; very awkward coming down it. And you can't afford to mess up here. Luckily the rock is very solid, as is the case on the remainder of the ridge, with a few wobblers - so don't let your guard down. It took us a minute to find the correct set of ledges and portion thereafter to get to the southwest face - we took a path that lead to a short class 3 climb over a small chock stone and then continued climbing up from there. Route finding on the way back down was challenging in some places, and there is much loose rock to contend with descending from the ridge back to the standard. This can be alleviated with good line selection, but not eliminated. Much care needs to be taken in this regard because the standard route runs right below this. The same applies when you are gaining the ridge from the standard on the way up. If you have major concerns about the hourglass, give this route a go. Keep in mind, you are trading a relatively straightforward standard route and the dangers of the hourglass for a route that will likely take much longer / entail more route finding and have you on more loose rock when you ascend and descend the west ridge. 

Route: West Ridge *Indirect*
Posted On: 6/30/2024, By: dfeezell
Info: We climbed Captain Suburbia's "West Ridge Indirect" route (https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=21616) that skips the hourglass by heading up to the ridge at 13,100 ft. There is no snow on the route and the rock is solid on the ridge. Crux moves on the ridge are extremely exposed and a bit awkward. We thought it was class 4 in that short stretch. The rest is class 3. It looked like there is no snow of any consequence on the standard hourglass route. 

Route: Lake Como Approach
Posted On: 6/25/2024, By: Brandon0135
Info: There is only one patch of snow at the bottom of the hourglass which you can easily avoid entirely. Everything else is snow free. However, there is a steady trickle of water coming down the hourglass that makes it very slick. Best to avoid this entirely if possible by taking the harder climbing to the left, or wait for this to all dry out. The only rock fall we saw was what we accidentally caused. Do not climb this with any groups above you. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 6/14/2024, By: joshchristian280
Info: Summited Little Bear 6/13/2024: Parked car at about 8500 feet, hiked the rest of the Lake Como approach to camp at Lake Como for the night. Summitted Ellingwood and Blanca the first day, stayed at camp for Little Bear the next day. The gully up to the top of the ridge was still almost completely covered in snow. There were a few patches you could travel on without, but spikes and ice axe were very helpful for going up that gully. Most of the traverse along the ridge was clear. Big snowfield right below the hourglass, again spikes and ice axe very helpful for traversing/gaining this field. After this, no more snow. The rope/anchors all looked to be in good condition. Started at 4:30, summited, by 7:30, down by 10, snow was pretty firm almost the whole way through. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 6/4/2024, By: andy_schlichting
Info: Blanca Group update: Summited Little Bear and South Little Bear on Saturday and Ellingwood and Blanca on Sunday with my sister. I can't overstate how much I hate hiking that road up. Anyways, the snow has melted around the lake campsites and the ice has melted off half the lake--I'm sure it'll be completely gone by this weekend. Snow starts basically right at the lake and is mostly continuous to all three summits. I was here the same weekend last year and there is a lot more snow than a year ago. Little Bear: the snow up the north gully to the ridge was really good going up in the dark. Heading down in the early afternoon, it was awful and soft with a lot of postholing and some slipping. Had to self-arrest once. The west ridge was the only dry section the whole weekend. The hourglass has solid snow from the base to the summit, with a short section of mixed climbing at the top of the hourglass. The choke in the hourglass is very icy so you'll need to kick in there. Anyone looking at the LB-Blanca traverse, it looked like it was in good shape. The ridge is mostly dry but you'll need crampons to cross the gullies (as I did last year). Heading over to South LB, I left my crampons on the LB summit because this ridge was mostly dry and no traction was needed. A fun, short, exposed class 3 scramble. Ellingwood: We chose to do Ellingwood first since on Sunday it would get first sun and soften up before Blanca. This was a great decision. Snow was really good in the dark up to the base of the Ellingwood south couloir where it was very inconsistent. A lot of postholing below 13k in the couloir, but it got solid the rest of the way. You can leave your crampons on the false summit at the top of the couloir for the short scramble up to the true summit. Blanca: This was a fun adventure. I didn't pay attention to the route on here and chose to onsight it. Mostly stuck to ridge direct on the traverse from Ellingwood and that was fine until probably the last bit where the saddle cliffs out, which forced us to downclimb some class 4 to get to the true route below the ridge. I'd probably recommend figuring out where to descend from the ridge direct rather than downclimb where we did while it's got snow on it. Once we got on-route to the saddle, we followed snow the remainder of the way up Blanca. The snow was mostly solid the entire way up Blanca since it hadn't gotten sun yet by 9 a.m. The descent started to soften and there were sections, particularly below Ellingwood, where postholing was awful. That said, overall there was less postholing than I expected. Crampons and ice axe are necessary for all three peaks. I'm not sure snowshoes would've helped in the late morning or early afternoon and I definitely don't think they're worth the extra weight up that road. Get on this soon while the snow is solid! There's no safer time to do these peaks to avoid rockfall. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 6/2/2024, By: coloradomojo
Info: Hiked in on the afternoon of the 5/31 after having been able to drive that miserable road to 10k ft leaving a 2.5 mile hike to the lake. Camped at the lake where about half of the ice has melted. Started climb at 4AM and puddles around the lake indicated a freeze overnight. Stashed snowshoes at base of snow field. Climb up snow field was solid with complete snow coverage the entire way. Travel along the ridge was made without crampons, cutting steps where necessary to avoid having to throwing crampons back on for a 10 ft wide snow field. Put crampons back once snow became (nearly) consistent before the hourglass. Snow in the hourglass was solid but becoming rotten in the tightest section (image). Will be melted out soon I imagine. Higher up (~25m below fixed anchor) there is a rock step that is mixed section (solely rock and ice) that is challenging to descend without rapping. Above the hourglass sun was beginning to hit the snow softening it up. Summited with Tony E (72 year old badass!) about 9AM. Started descent in softening snow and rocks above the hourglass beginning to become loose. We brought and left an older 40m static rope and single stranded it to get us below the mixed section. Use at your own risk! I imagine that rocks have already started shredding it in the past 24 hours. Suggest a 60m rope for a two-rope rap from that fixed anchor to get below the current mixed section. Descent through hourglass went fine front pointing in solid snow in the shade below the mixed section. As soon as we were out and safely off to the side, a handful of dinner plate size rocks came literally shooting out of the hourglass. Travel back across the ridge was tougher with snow softening up and post-holing to thigh deep on occasion near rocks. Final snow field was soft but able to be plunge stepped mostly (a few occasions front pointing was required, and some glissading was had). Below the snowfield the snow was soft. We brought snowshoes but given the short distance back, would recommend against bringing them (lot of weight to pack in). Recommendations: 1) Go very soon if you want the hourglass as a (mostly) snow climb. 2) Start very early for descent travel over more solid snow 3) Bring a 60m rope to rappel the current mixed section 4) forgo snowshoes, especially if starting early 5) Give Little Bear respect. If you don't have solid mountaineering experience this peak could bite you hard 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 5/20/2024, By: slawrence2011
Info: Packed into Lake Como 5/17 from 5 am to 9:30 AM. Meant to start at 3, but slept in, by 9:30, the snow was too soft to do much. Snow started having drifts around 10,5, more substantial above 11,2, but by the time I packed out 5/19, wasn't worth skiing anything below the lake, melting super fast. Above the lake, snow is continuous and glorious. Started from Lake Como around 5 AM. Wore Crampons basically the entire way. Moderately poor overnight freeze meant punching through crust between ankle and knee depth entire way to ridge, but at least it made it avy stable. Easy to follow cairns along S side of ridge, and mainly traveling through snow, kept crampons on, stable in the am. Booting up the hourglass, had continuous snow, with a crux of a couple feet wide, where my crampons hit the rock beneath and ice axe obviously only went down a couple inches, moved through that quickly. Great smooth snow up above literally to the summit. Summited around 11, waited until 11:45 to drop so the snow could soften. The climbing crux was actually easy skiing, as there was a traverse sneak. I cheated and side slipped 4-6 feet near the bottom where it got narrow, and half the jump turn was still shaded, bullet proof, and debris, and other half was sun warmed. Skied all the way to 12,4 to make it worth it (some one told me later this is private even at this elevation, please let me know if so), and regained the ridge route out. I heard some whumphing on the snow around 1-2 PM, very scary to cross even brief islands between rocks. I went to the top of the ridge and just followed that vs. the cairns to avoid the hazard. Skiing the N couloir at 2 all the way to camp was glorious, but probably a bit too late. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 5/6/2024, By: aksean22
Info: Lake Como road is completely dry to a little past Jaws 1. There is only a few patches of snow the rest of the way to the lake that was supportive and can easily be done in trail runners. Easy booting snow up the access gully. The west ridge to the bottom of the hourglass is a mix of patchy snow and dry rock but was pretty easy to navigate. Very fun snow climb the rest of the way to the summit. We made it to the top way to early and hung out for almost 2 hours waiting for the snow to soften up. I had pretty low expectations from the last few TR's, but last week's storm gave the line a second life. Great coverage and great corn skiing straight off the summit. Only took the skis off for about 10' to get around one rock halfway down. Hourglass is getting narrow but holding on. Lots of old avy debris to avoid when traversing back to the west ridge. Stuck my head down Baby Thunder Couloir, but you would need a rope to repel the first 25' or deal with some sketchy downclimbing in ski boots, we so backtracked across the ridge and down the standard gully. I have no idea how long it'll stay skiable for but it was prime on Saturday. Great way to close out the Sangres. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 4/25/2024, By: EmmaClaire5280
Info: Summited Little Bear on a bluebird day- April 24th! We took the west ridge and the hourglass route. Below I will break down the route into pieces and discuss conditions for a thorough review... Approach: The lake como 4WD road is melting extremely fast. We drove the car up past 10,100 feet with no issues before deciding to park due to snow. A smaller 4x4 made it slightly farther down the road but turned around shortly. Snow shoes are not needed as it is possible to skirt around the little snow banks on the side of the trail. Lake Como: Still quite a decent snowpack present at lake como as of right now. Snow shoes are an absolute must in order to get around the lake without post-holing terribly. We were post-holing even with snowshoes later on in the day as we began our descent from little bear. Approach Gully: The approach gully has incredible snowpack right now! The snow is nice and soft and kicking into it with crampons was probably the easiest part of our day. Towards the top of the gully after the patches of exposed rock, the snow gets a little bit firmer and more difficult to kick into, but this gully is quick work. West Ridgeline: The ridge-line is mixed snow and rock conditions. There were some decent postholes that had frozen and were left by a previous group that created a nice little path straight up to the hourglass! Ridgeline was quick work and not too terribly difficult. Hourglass: The hourglass is where the real work begins. At the beginning of our day the hourglass was covered in mostly snow, however by the time of our descent, much of it had melted out. There are now several portions of exposed rock and I daresay that it is almost reaching more summer-like conditions. If you are going to be attempting the hourglass soon here is my bit of advice. BRING SOME ROPE. As of right now, the hourglass is a mixed climb between an icy waterfall sheet and wet rock. This was the sketchiest part of the day by far and by the end our crampons were not working too well. Rope is your safest bet at the moment. Top-out: Finally, the entire top-out of little bear is almost free of all snow. This is incredible because we were able to take off our crampons for a little bit and get into some of the more technical climbing, however there are little bits of snow and ice that are still covering the standard route. Our party had to find some work arounds to this, which led to some class 5+ climbing maneuvers. Nothing was too incredibly sketchy, just be mindful that with snow there needs to be extra caution as not to slip. Also if you are reading this you are probably all too aware of rockfall in the hourglass. I hate to say this, but we experienced several bouts of rockfall. The quickly melting snow has led to an increase in rockfall, which added to the dangerousness of this gully. ** side note- there is no access to the ropes down the center of the hourglass as they are frozen or missing Descent: START AS EARLY AS YOU CAN BECAUSE POST-HOLING SUCKS. Post-holing added many hours to our descent and was absolutely exhausting on the backside of the ridge. Get up and get down as quick as you can to try and avoid the suck. Overall, it was an incredible day on little bear! This is definitely one of the scariest climbs I have ever done, and I do not know if I would ever attempt it again (yikes) That being said, I had a wonderful experience and I am glad that I was able to complete this beast of a peak on such a beautiful day. # 46/58 down baby! 

Route: Lake Como Approach
Posted On: 4/25/2024, By: AlpineSplit
Info: Climbed and skied the standard route through the Hourglass on Tuesday. This required some climbing through a large rock band above the hourglass choke and is probably no longer skiable for the rest of the season. The road is mostly dry all the way to the lake with a few snow drifts here and there. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 4/21/2024, By: bmcqueen
Info: Climbed Little Bear today from a little over 10k on the road. One little patch of snow on the road that we had to cross. Once on foot this morning, the road is intermittent snow and dirt. We didnt put snowshoes on until the lake, but they were necessary on the descent from the approach couloir back to the lake and a ways down the road. Approach gully is snowy and steep. West ridge has a lot of quickly rotting snow on the traverse - very annoying on the descent after it had baked in the sun for a while. Snow coverage in the hourglass and upper mountain was great today, but its melting fast. 

Route: SW ridge
Posted On: 2/19/2024, By: artemavovk
Info: Snow begins to suck a bit before creek crossing and until treeline. There you get to actually enjoy talus hopping for a change, but the wind was as unrelenting as the talus. I was glad I brought snowshoes all the way up - the three bear cub humps are pretty loaded with slabby snow. From the last cub to mama bear I dropped snowshoes for better traction - everything is trapdoor snow from there onward. The wind died down thankfully - it was slow going, the ledges are sketchy, the ridge is obnoxiously loaded, lots of scooting. From above, the standard route looked like a bad time 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 1/4/2024, By: justiner
Info: Minimal snow on the approach from Lake Como, and minimal snow on the route itself. I didn't use any traction on the ascent, but you may want microspikes at the very least if you take the ledges below the ridge proper. Most difficult area was dealing with the tower right after Mama Bear. Great route, especially if you like to eat talus for lunch. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 10/22/2023, By: Istoodupthere
Info: Perfect day to do LB with nobody hiking in the entire basin from what I could tell. The gully was miserable with a little ice and hard packed snow in a few spots. Hourglass had a trickle of water and a little ice in the center. Easy to avoid. Cant imagine doing this route on a busy day. So easy to accidentally let a few rocks loose above the hourglass and in the gully. Hourglass was easier than expected. Not sure why a rope needs to be there. A little wildfire smoke from the San Juans was moving into the San Luis Valley. Thankful I finally caught a break with the weather this year to be able to knock this one out! 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 10/15/2023, By: buddapilot
Info: Some minimal snow over the scree/talus on the notch climb. This makes boot traction more difficult, recommend traction up and down. After the notch all dry on the south side. The hourglass is mostly dry with small water/ice on the roped portion, but easily avoidable.