12/26/2011 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 12/26/2011, By: Jyak Info: Trailhead: A few spots on the dirt road up to the summer trailhead demand a decent 4WD; it is actually bare in many spots but for these drifts. Good clearance 4WD can make it all the way to the summer trailhead. Route: Snow sucks. There‘s a bit of crust on top of very dry sugar snow. Nothing seems to get really good purchase (snowshoes, crampons, and/or microspikes). It‘s about knee to hip high. Snowshoes are required crossing the willows to the gully. Once you make to the gully, you have mixed snow and tallus; take whatever route works for your traction. Ice ax is strongly recommended for the bit of traverse as you approach the gully. There are a few spots where the runout at the bottom of a slide would be less than ideal. |
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12/24/2011 Route: Southwest Ridge Posted On: 12/24/2011, By: CinciKid Info: Had to park about a 20 minute hike from the huge deserted house thing (Levick site I think?). I really regretted now bringing show shoes. It would have made my time from the parking spot to the gate soooo much faster. I would say that the snow is about 8" deep in most places, probably more. Past the gate things get a bit better. |
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11/19/2011 Route: South Slope Posted On: 11/20/2011, By: primary332 Info: Road open almost to Leavick site, large trucks/ 4x4‘s could probably make it all the way. Cold and windy day, not a lot of snow in the drainage, I brought skis hoping to make use of them, left them with the vehicle. Snow shoes were definitely not necessary, I only used them on a 1/2 mile section of the road, and that could have been avoided. May want yak-trax or something like them, a few sections were a bit icy, we did it with out them and were just fine. A storm was coming in later in the day, could have dumped enough snow to need snowshoes, but majority of route was fairly devoid of snow. |
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10/23/2011 Route: Sheridan Posted On: 10/23/2011, By: JQDivide Info: The road to the trail head is completely clear. Most of the trail is too. We actually climbed Sheridan, but got some good looks at Sherman. But snow is predicted for midweek, so this might be all wrong by next weekend. |
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10/13/2011 Route: Southwest Ridge Posted On: 10/17/2011, By: lafutura Info: My climbing partner and I had tried to find updated peak info on here before going but didn‘t see anything and thought we‘d chance it, and wanted to let everyone know the conditions as recently as possible in hopes others are looking to get one more summit in before winter. Some snow in places, sometimes up to our knees but we managed just fine with hiking boots and trekking poles - didn‘t even need microspikes. The biggest issue when we went was the wind, especially on the ridge. It definitely got worse as the day went on - we left the trailhead (the road, by the way, is completely clear) around 0800 and returned around 1400. Not really any ice and not really anything truly treacherous. Unless it‘s dumped up there since we last went, I‘d highly encourage giving it a try! |
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9/25/2011 Route: Southwest Ridge Posted On: 9/25/2011, By: tjerasdave Info: Route has some ice along the ridge. With good foot placement you‘ll be fine. |
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9/24/2011 Route: Southwest Ridge Posted On: 9/26/2011, By: lzinsmaster11 Info: Trail was free of snow almost all the way. There were just patches of snow here and there as you neared the last 500 feet in elevation. Patches of snow at the top. Weather was warm and snow was melting. If they have sunny weather all week and no more snow I‘d be surprised if there was much of any snow at all by next weekend. Hiked in trail runner shoes; no poles, and no yak tracks and was fine. Lots of scree to hike through for a lot of the hike. No snow on the road yet to the TH and you can park at or below the gate at 12,000 feet in any vehicle. |
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9/23/2011 Route: Southwest Ridge Posted On: 9/23/2011, By: RckyMtBob Info: An absolute beautiful bluebird day. Very little snow left from last week‘s storm. Approach road clean and dry. Aspen starting to change above the 10,000 ft level |
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9/18/2011 Route: Southwest Ridge Posted On: 9/19/2011, By: alanecharlesworth Info: Mostly sunny, but very windy on the ridge leading to the summit. Patchy snow above about 12,800. Not deep enough to need gaiters, and still fresh enough to not to need microspikes. Trekking poles were useful to hold on against the wind gusts |
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7/22/2011 Route: Southwest Ridge Posted On: 7/25/2011, By: mrschaible Info: Route was clear except for a short snow field crossing just past the mine as you are trying to gain the ridge for the summit push. The snow is soft and has a very low exposure so no traction devices are needed. |
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7/6/2011 Route: Southwest Ridge Posted On: 7/6/2011, By: allegromus Info: Road is clear up to the gate; my Prius made it up to about 200‘ before the gate with careful driving (Photo 1). Only one serious snow field to cross, doable with regular boots although yaktraks and/or poles are helpful. We had a gorgeous day. It was very windy from the saddle to the top (Photo 2). Conditions are perfect for glissading - no ice pick needed (Photo 4). |
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7/1/2011 Route: Southwest Ridge Posted On: 7/5/2011, By: traderaaron Info: From Leavich TH to make it a little more of an effort, was below freezing that morning so snow was very firm but went to very soft by late morning. Route crossed snow in two places but was very manageable with trekking poles and careful steps, it is largely avoidable if one chooses the talus above these spots. The steeper areas of snow up to the saddle were avoidable and were quickly melting. Glissade routes back down if one chooses. |
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6/29/2011 Route: Southwest Ridge Posted On: 6/29/2011, By: usfgal Info: You can drive as far as you are comfortable driving on the road--no snow at all to the gate. A few snow fields (3, I think) from the gate to the summit, one of which is fairly long, but no big deal. I wore microspikes through them, just because I was more comfortable with them on, but plenty of people were hiking without traction. I took my ice axe and only used it (kind of) for a glissade. The ridge is completely dry--there are patches of snow, but all of them are avoidable. The snow is between 12,300 and 12,900, and it is not continuous. We were off the mountain by 10 AM, but even then it was already warming up and the snow had gotten softer. We did not posthole at all. I was glad I had the microspikes, and I‘d definitely recommend poles if you don‘t bring an ice axe. |
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6/22/2011 Route: West Slopes Posted On: 6/22/2011, By: ilium Info: Snow shoes aren‘t necessary, but there are some crossing that would be better with an axe and/or micro spikes. Snow was solid in the morning, softer in the afternoon. |
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6/18/2011 Route: South Slope Posted On: 6/18/2011, By: a94buff Info: On the trail at 615AM and off the road 5-10 minutes later. Snow nice and crusty and fairly contiguous the whole way up this route. I used microspikes the entire way except for one stretch between about 13.5 and 14. Recommend ice ax too if you‘re going to be up there especially if you don‘t have spikes - you don‘t need the ax to climb but you‘ll need it if you slip. Summit at 8:25 - absolutely miserable wind and clouds, though it did keep things nice for the descent. Back to the car by 9:30, was basically just ‘heeling‘ straight down the snow - it was just soft enough to control my descent but not soft enough to posthole, though I did that a few times too. Didn‘t use gaiters or snowshoes and didn‘t need them, but keep in mind I was up there early and there was essentially no sun at all on the snow the whole time. Naturally when I got to the car the sun came out. :-P |
