Mt. Meeker

Route: Iron Gates, Loft
Posted On: 5/13/2024, By: justiner
Info: Snow on the East Longs Peak Trail starts at the trailhead.

Approach to Chasm Lake is relatively easy, with the snow slope below Mt. Lady Washington being quite dug in. Iron Gates is also relatively snow free. Snow of course of the ledges on the ridge leading up to the summit.

From the Loft, descending the exit ledges are quite snowy. Fairly substantial amount of snow has built up on the ledges thenmselves, so prepare for traversing on steep snow. Loft itself is in great shape below the exit ledges, snow from Chasm Lake to the Exit Ledges - pretty amazing.

Snow isn't yet crunchy styrofoam. Mostly two distinct layers. The top layer is somewhat heavy powder, the layer below seems more consolidated, but feels quite heavy, as if there's more melting than setting up overnight.

Lots of pinwheels everywhere. There seems to be evidence of a small slide on the bottom of Dreamweaver. Top of the Loft has a lot of debris from sluff from the very top, above the cliff band. 

Route: Iron Gates
Posted On: 10/21/2023, By: _coloradical
Info: Trail is clear all the way to Meeker. The knife edge between Meeker Ridge and Mt. Meeker has very little snow and can be crossed without any issues.
The Loft has snow and ice, I did talk to 2 people who came up the Loft and stated that you can easily avoid all ice. Things may change heading into the week, but weather has been great for these Fall Climbs. 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 10/5/2023, By: HikesInGeologicTime
Info: Snow is a relative non-issue until you curve around to the north-facing side in the futile hope of keeping the route strictly Class 2/2+, then is just unavoidable enough to up the pucker factor on the ledge-y/knife-edge-y ridge leading to the summit. Microspikes stayed in our packs nonetheless, as the concerning section is short, and the mandatory snow crossings are in the easily walkable areas.

Makes perfect sense to me why the Loft or Iron Gates might be more popular, as this route is steep, relentless, and overrun with boulders in addition to having a starting elevation nearly 1000 feet lower than the main Longs TH, but it is a nicely southern exposed option if you want to hit this one after conditions have changed to more or less permanent ice/snow/cold. 

Route: The Loft
Posted On: 9/16/2023, By: illusion7il
Info: Fun conditions on Mt. Meeker with 1-3 inches of fresh snow. Melting fast but microspikes we're very helpful. 

Route: Loft Couloir
Posted On: 9/1/2023, By: PikaSteve
Info: Some unavoidable water on the Loft Couloir exit ramp--I don't know when this becomes an ice concern. Great trail to Chasm Lake. A few class three segments in the couloir and exit ramp, but mostly well traveled (but not alway well-defined or completely connected) paths up to the Loft and within a 100 feet of the summit ridge. Meeker summit ridge was a slabby catwalk/knife edge made more interesting by 30 mile per hour wind gusts. Beautiful blue skies and incredible views of Longs Peak. Only a few flowers remaining and still no sign of fall colors. 

Route: Iron Gates
Posted On: 8/12/2023, By: sarahmariekirk
Info: Climbed Meeker today via the Iron Gates and added on Longs via the Loft. Great day up high today despite kinda gnarly weather, and super fun (but quick) climb of Meeker. Ridge is easy and there is very minimal exposure. 

Route: Loft Couloir
Posted On: 6/26/2023, By: jfm3
Info: I climbed "Southeast Longs" and Mt. Meeker via the Loft on June 25. I didn't go over to the true summit of Longs. Still a lot of snow up there. I put on crampons at Chasm Lake and didn't take them off until I was back at the lake on the descent. I saw two people who skied down Lamb's Slide. The snow on the Loft was cold and crunchy. The snow on the ledge that exits the couloir was fairly icy, due to the water ice that is thawing and flowing off the cliffs above. It was more like climbing on a glacier than a snowfield. There is a good track but it's steep and some places are harder to kick steps than others. The snow on the north side of Mt. Meeker is still cold and supportive. There wasn't any ice on the rocks on the summit ridge. 

Route: Dreamweaver
Posted On: 6/21/2023, By: desertdog
Info: Perfect conditions, Snow plus two short sections of ice. We were surprised given the warm up, but we had clear skies the night before then a cloudy morning, so it was quite cold. We descended the Loft which was snow covered with a trench. 

Route: Dragon’s Egg Couloir
Posted On: 5/7/2023, By: Wildernessjane
Info: Hauled skis about 2-1/2 miles in. Made it up to the Dragons Egg and turned around due to poor visibility and thin coverage higher up. If weather had been better we probably would have continued, though the skiing would have been subpar. 

Route: Loft
Posted On: 9/15/2022, By: bsiegs
Info: Similar to most recent CR. Still summer conditions the whole way 

Route: Loft
Posted On: 9/9/2022, By: supranihilest
Info: The loft route is in great shape. Trail to the Chasm Lake area is easy to follow, even in the dark. The couloir isn't as steep as it looks from a distance. Lots of loose rock all the way up it, make sure not to kick rocks down. Basically a river running down the center of the couloir. All water is avoidable though. Plenty of Class 2+ up the couloir, a small amount of Class 3. Final pitch up Meeker from the Loft is about the same. 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 7/18/2022, By: bkcheck
Info: Summer conditions the whole way up. The climbers trail mentioned by others does span the entire stretch between Sandbeach Lake trail and Meeker Meadows, but it disappears often. Try looking for fallen trees that have had sections of branches cleared off. A few marshy sections by the meadow but they could be avoided with some creativity. 

Route: Meeker Ridge
Posted On: 6/25/2022, By: dpage
Info: Summer conditions from Meeker Ridge across the knife edge to the summit. 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 6/22/2022, By: jfm3
Info: I climbed Apache Peak on June 20 and got a good look at the south side of Mt. Meeker. There appears to be some snow at the bottom of the Dragon Egg Couloir. Otherwise, it looks mostly dry up to the top. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 6/16/2022, By: Christensenje
Info: From Longs trailhead: Snow almost fully gone up the summit. Just after the knife edge however, on the final scramble, a little work around on the final section was needed due to some snow still hanging on. Turned it more into class 4 to 5.2 climbing. Can't imagine that little bit of snow will hold on much longer but it was enough to cause a detour when only having trail runners and a vest.

Wanted to descend the loft, but will need crampons/ice axe a little longer for that guy.