Little Bear Peak

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 5/19/2013, By: WarDamnPanic
Info: Still spring conditions on Little Bear although the snow is deteriorated quickly. The north gulley is filled with great snow, the first half of the West Ridge is snow free and the latter half leading to the hourglass is still covered in snow. The hourglass is still snow filled, but there are some icy sections just above the narrowest section. Above the hour glass it is a mixture of snow/rock and the snowfield leading to the summit was in great shape. I agree with the previous conditions report that self arrest skills mandatory, no snowshoes required. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 5/14/2013, By: The Legend
Info: The Mayhem and I defeated the Bear Yesterday. It was a long day, full of danger. The road to Lake Como is in excellent shape, no snow, and there is snow all around the Lake. The first gulley is still full of snow, but it is soft, slippery, and a post holing pain. The ridge line is in good shape, though still of a few sections of snow, but mostly to be avoided, or really it makes no difference at all. As for the hourglass, it was a loose nightmare. There is still tons of snow in it, with mostly no ice. At the top of the peak, there is still good snow, but it is slippery, and a few times we fell, and needed to self-arrest. It is really dangerous, and good kick stepping has to be done for the entire way down. If it turns cold soon, there might be some good snow climbing left, but if not, the snow climbing season on Little Bear is done. Email me if you have questions. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 5/5/2013, By: mrschaible
Info: The road to Lake Como was dry until you reached Lake Como. The snow is hard packed by the lake in the morning but gets soft in the afternoon and post holing is a problem. The couloir to the ridge line in snow packed and makes it easy to climb (and a great glissade down). The ridge is devoid of snow and dry. The hourglass is full of snow (still very steep) and has good steps up to the summit. The snow gets soft in the afternoon so we had post holing on the way down to the ridge line. The nice thing is there is no falling rock! I do not think the snow will last much longer, so if you want a good climb, go now! Crampons and ice axes mandatory, snow shoes won‘t be of any value. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 5/4/2013, By: BillMiddlebrook
Info: Snow is melting fast up there but we were able to get a fun ski of Little Bear on surprisingly good snow. Camped at Lake Como and booted over to reach the lower gully at 7:45am (pic #1). After traversing more than half the ridge, we reached the large snow fields below the Hourglass. The Hourglass is full of snow but the choke is getting rather narrow and it won't be long before ice is exposed. Above the summer rap station, angle right to find more snow to approx. 13,700'. Then there was an ~80-foot dry patch below the final strip of snow (pic #4) leading to the exact summit. Nice. Pic #1: Near the base of the first gully Pic #2: Snowfield before the Hourglass Pic #3: Base of the Hourglass Pic #4: A long strip of snow below the summit 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 4/16/2013, By: seth0687
Info: Granted this is just my .02, but the conditions right now are perfect! The snow is a little soft in areas from the road up to the summit, but nothing to worry about aside from the occasional post hole. Thanks to a great driver and a standard clearance F-150 pickup we made it to within 3-4ish miles from where we camped. We chose to camp on the far side of the lake at the base of the north gully. From the road to the campsite there were some minor post holing issues and we all had snow shoes but no one ever needed one. I repeat....NO SNOW SHOES WERE NECESSARY AS OF THE 15TH. However, if you pack like a boy scout then toss them in just in case. North gully was full of great powder with some sugar underneath. The conditions were soft at times and we sunk in a little bit but overall the snow was firm and accepted great half boot sized steps all the way up. The traverse from the north gully to the hourglass was easy and straight forward with great snow, NO ice. The hourglass was in great condition. I truthfully didn't even realize that I was in the steep section until I looked over and saw a little bit of the "fixed" rope sticking out from underneath the snow. In order to stay on good snow you do have to zig zag a little bit, as the snow is getting sparse over a select few rock bands. Still, it is completely possible to stay on good snow for about 99% of the hourglass to the summit. There is a smallish portion of Alpine ice 1 or 2 under some snow so I would recommend crampons because you will want to front point through this section. Again, nothing would warrant two tools or anything, but I suppose that's all personal opinion. I would advise an early start so that you are on the hourglass up and down by early morning light so the snow doesn't heat up too much. Any further questions hit me up. I don't have the best beta pictures, but one of my partners should be adding a trip/conditions report with better beta photos soon. pic 1 is road just a short distance from the lake pic 2 is the bear standing on the lake pic 3 is looking up from half way up the north gully pic 4 is looking up the steep portion of the hourglass Cheers, Seth 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 10/7/2012, By: bgouger
Info: Climbed Little Bear on Saturday from halfway up the Lake Como road. Despite the bad weather along the Front Range, it was a beautiful day - sunny and mild, just a bit of wind. Conditions are dry along the entire route. Only a bit of ice in the Hourglass. We attached a prusik belay to the rope in the Hourglass and examined it on the way up. A couple of frays, but it held fine on our rappel down. Probably still usable for the next week or two before winter sets in. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 9/21/2012, By: CMCMG
Info: The talus and scree filled couloir up from Como Lake was loose as usual with a touch of veriglass on the rocks. More veriglass discovered at directly down the center of the hourglass. At the hourglass the central ice coating was easily avoided by ascending on the right or left hand sides. Left hand side made the most sense. The rope was in good condition and the two slings of one inch webbing that stood as the anchor were still in pretty good shape. one of the pieces of webbing showed minimal signs of wear. I readjusted the scrap of webbing that acted as the buffer between the two slings and the rock. Now the two slings are resting better on the small scrap of webbing decreasing the rock rub. Sun hit the west ridge and southwest face to burn off the mild coating of snow that fell on 9/17. 

Route: Little Bear - Blanca Traverse
Posted On: 9/21/2012, By: CMCMG
Info: From Little Bear the traverse looked completely free of snow on the righthand side. There was a very shallow coating of snow on the left. This seems to pose a problem only on the left side of bivouac tower. I went over bivouac tower and never encountered the left side. I experienced no out of control snow or ice problems when I went across the traverse, praise God. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 8/30/2012, By: kbmountain
Info: Very little water running down hourglass, Ropes looked like they were almost brand new and anchor was secure. Saw someone rappelling down it when I arrived at hourglass. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 6/6/2012, By: Nelson
Info: Snow is not a consideration anywhere. Conditions are pretty much summer time. The one caveat is that there was a considerable mount of Verglas in the hour glass. I found myself moving to harder areas to avoid the Verglas. Also, there was considerable snow at key spots on the traverse. My purpose for being there was the traverse and I declined after one look at the route. Nelson 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 1/5/2012, By: Zambo
Info: Full TR here. => http://bit.ly/z47MsS Felt like early Summer. We found the road to the Tobin Creek Trail Head void of snow, except for a few very thin patches. The trek to treeline was almost completely bare as well. We ditched snowshoes just before breaking the trees, and did not need them anywhere along the route. Upon gaining the ridge, the snow was sparse and completely non-threatening. Avy danger was essentially zero, and we were able to traverse all the way to South Little Bear encountering only minimal snow along the ridge proper. The Mamma Bear traverse was a bit of a different story. While certainly not as snowy as it could have been, there was still a very healthy layer of dry sugar snow along the whole traverse. Icy patches were scattered throughout as well. While the traverse was in about as good of condition as you could ever hope for in winter, we all agreed that too much more snow or ice would have increased the difficulty considerably. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 7/31/2011, By: slowhead
Info: Summited on July 25, party of five. Conditions good, though hard half-hour of rainfall early the prior evening left some significant water in the Hourglass; also heard a big rockfall in middle of night on the ridge opposite Little Bear‘s west ridge, which made us worry a bit about looser than even usual conditions in the gully. Monday was a good day, saw only three total other climbers, started at five, summitted by 8:30. All dry, other than the aforementioned leftover rain runoff. Ropes are solid for first 100 feet, but frayed at bottom. Beware: there is a bear in the vicinity who has developed an interest in tent contents. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 7/18/2011, By: Rcizzle
Info: Successful climb up LBP yesterday. The standard route is completely snow free, however, the hourglass had a running trickle of water on both sides of the gully. It wasn‘t really avoidable and gave my partner and I fits climbing up the steep rock. There are two ropes in the glass, One blue rope has some knicks and cuts while a lighter green rope was more sturdy, but was not as long. I also noticed several individuals (around 9) made it to the summit, but no more than 3 (including myself) used the standard route. Ask away if you have questions. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 6/30/2011, By: TravelingMatt
Info: Conditions same as below. I‘ll add two things: the rope in the Hourglass is sturdy and its anchorages are quadruply-redundant. However, expect some wet spots on it due to contact with the flowing water. Also, smoke is blowing in from the Los Alamos fire in New Mexico. This is restricting visibility from all the lower Sangres and seems to be at its worst late in the day. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 6/29/2011, By: Nelson
Info: I climbed Little Bear yesterday. There is a snow apron right under the hour glass. You can easily get around on either side or just walk right through the slush if you don‘t mind getting your feet wet. There is a rivulet of wather running right down the middle under the rope. There was not a hint of ice or Verglas anywhere. This is as good as LB gets in the summer. Keep in mind it is still Little Bear and there are tons of loose rock everywhere. I would not climb it with anyone above me. Yesterday I had the whole place to myself. I have lots of pictures I will post in a report sometime next week when I‘m back in civilisation. Nelson