4/29/2025 Route: North East bowl Posted On: 4/29/2025, By: Geckser Info: Arthurspiderman and I skied the North East Bowl of Willoughby today. We started from the Ditch trailhead and followed the large ramp on the North East to the summit. Snow was hard enough in the morning we were able to wear trailrunners to the summit. Perfect weather and snow had started to corn by 11:30 when we started our descent. The bowl is big and fun skiing. Approach and deproach were fairly unpleasant but luckily someone had booted through the forest recently making our lives much easier. Very fun moderate ski! |
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4/23/2024 Route: NE Ridge Ascent, E Ridge Descent Posted On: 4/24/2024, By: Chipmunk Info: Started off booting from the Ditch TH, which had both too much and too little snow (enough to ensure post holing in spots, not enough to skin). The trail disappeared just after the water study station, and we followed the creek bed for a short while before hopping into the trees. There was finally enough snow in the trees to begin skinning. This helped with the post holing, though we still punched through occasionally. We did a creative skin through the avalanche debris field. Things got much easier past this. We skinned up a north facing gully to gain the northeast ridge. The angle was mellow enough to skin all the way to the summit, but even at 8:30am on north facing terrain the snow was glopping on our skins. After witnessing two point releases happen on our intended line (the NE bowl) we adjusted our plan to ski down the east ridge instead. The snow was very sticky but coverage was excellent and we had a continuous 2,000 foot descent to the valley below. The views of the Elk Range 14ers from the summit are outstanding, and this is a worthy ski touring objective if you can put up with the approach. We carried but did not use crampons or axe. 11.5 miles, 4,500 vertical feet, 9 hours 15 minutes. |
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4/26/2022 Route: from East Snowmass creek Posted On: 5/1/2022, By: SnowAlien Info: Finally got this previously orphaned peak. Took 3 tries, route finding due to 2019 avy debris field is no joke. Snow was not consolidated above 11k and the ridge had a big cornice. Skinned to the summit, then skied NE gully. Mellow ski, long approach, very nice views. |
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9/23/2021 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 9/27/2021, By: supranihilest Info: I took the East Snowmass trail for approximately 4.5 miles until I passed an open space with a clear shot all the way up to Willoughby's (false) summit. This came almost immediately after a sharp switchback that dropped into and ascended out of a small stream drainage. From this spot I took Class 2 grass to the ridge and then continued up grass to the last few hundred feet which were steep, extremely loose dirt and talus. Pretty unpleasant, this section was Class 2+. Once on the north ridge proper it was an easy Class 2 walk to the true summit. |
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6/30/2018 Route: East Snowmass Trail Posted On: 7/6/2018, By: piper14er Info: a longer loop from the East Snowmass TH, 17.5 miles and 7400 feet will get you to Willoughby, 13020 and 13336 up at Willow Pass I posted a report over at listsofjohn with a gpx and some pictures a few pics here, first one of Willoughby and then one of 13020 and the ridge to 13336 (which is a nasty hill of loose rocks) |
