5/29/2021 Route: Dreamweaver Posted On: 5/29/2021, By: jtfoss1 Info: Honestly... I should have brought micro spikes. The trail approach was icy early (4amish). No snowshoes needed but we were car to car in 9 hours and finished by noon. Couloir in great condition, the snow was solid for almost the entire way. Periodic sections of ice. I felt better with a couple cams on the first crux but opted to go without pro for the rest. Descent to the Loft was a little spicy. Around 10am, the snow was starting to get a little slushy in areas. Once on the Loft, the snow was perfect and the glissade was incredible. |
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5/28/2021 Route: Flying dutchman Posted On: 5/28/2021, By: trango6 Info: Super fat snow conditions, similar to pics posted this week from other updates. Ice section is solid, "medium" thickness WI2. You'll need shorter screws if you want to use them. Did it as a ski and the ski conditions were really good at 9am, still a bit firm at the bottom. 10am might have been ideal. There is a slung rock above the ice for a rap, but it's pretty "directional" - there was a party below me so I wasn't able to chop out some ice/snow around it to improve it but I'd recommend doing that if you use it. You can start skinning about a mile from the TH with only a couple short dirt sections mostly just out of tree line. Without skis you should be fine without flotation as long as you're back below tree line before about 11am. I was able to 'ski' until about 1.5 miles above the trailhead on the way back down following the trail. Halfway up the couloir I found a headlamp that was probably dropped in the last few days, PM me with a description and I'll mail it back to you. |
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5/25/2021 Route: Loft Couloir Posted On: 5/26/2021, By: jfm3 Info: I attempted to climb Meeker via the Loft. I made it to about 12,500 feet before turning around. The mountain is still in full winter conditions above treeline. I was getting hit with windblown snow and ice and didn't feel comfortable going higher on the steep slope. The snow was very supportive all morning and every step had a great crunch with the crampons. The snow on the trail starts about half a mile up from the parking lot. There is a good path to treeline, then several paths that all lead to Chasm Junction. Any snow climb you want to do on Meeker will probably remain in condition for another month, maybe longer. Photos 4 & 5 are looking up & down from where I turned around. The editor can't save the captions for some reason. |
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5/22/2021 Route: Dreamweaver Posted On: 5/22/2021, By: jbealer Info: Conditions were just about perfect. Had nice boot steps to follow most of the way. One solo guy ahead of the 3 of us then 2 fast guys passed us at the entrance of the couloir. The 3 crux spots have a thin layer of ice so we did rope up for those areas. Summit of meeker is holding snow, some unconsolidated around the large rocks. We desended via the Loft, we started following tracks that cut away from The Loft entrance and realize that people had repelled down from that area so we turned around. If anyone finds a glove near the start of the couloir let me know, friend lost it when building the anchor. We had an axe and ice axe with us, came in handy. 2- 30mm ropes, crampons, harnesses, helmets, cams and nuts. No snowshoes, worst sinking section was the lower part of the Loft, back down to the lake. Will upload camera images monday. |
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5/20/2021 Route: Dragon’s Egg Posted On: 5/21/2021, By: jmanner Info: South side of Meeker is holding some nice snow. |
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5/15/2021 Route: Dragon’s Egg Posted On: 5/18/2021, By: Nathan Hoobler Info: Crusty layer on top of 18 or so inches of unconsolidated sugar made the couloir a rough climb. Too steep for skis with skins, but postholing with crampons. We turned around at 12,500. Great and quiet camp at Sandbeach Lake |
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4/30/2021 Route: Loft Posted On: 5/1/2021, By: SnowAlien Info: Approached Mt Meeker from Loft, used a fixed line (?) didn't know it was there for the alternative Loft finish, deep snow at the top of the Loft. Ice fall in the middle and the standard ramp looked still snowed in. Skied down Dragons Egg couloir, kicked off 2 wet slides with a ski cut and later saw one natural. Took Hunters creek exit to Sandbeach trail, continuous snow to about 1.5 mile from the Wild basin TH. Great tour but way too warm for skiing, skied slush (snow warmed up in a big hurry). |
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3/27/2021 Route: Iron Gates from Longs TH Posted On: 3/27/2021, By: Will_E Info: Summitted Meeker today via Iron Gates route. Trench was in pretty good shape until near treeline in the morning, I put snowshoes on around treeline. By the end of the day the trench was fully in, several others went to Chasm Lake today. I kept snowshoes on until maybe 3/4 mile past Chasm Lake, from there all the way up to Meeker Ridge its pretty windblown, I didn't use any traction. I used crampons from Meeker Ridge to Meeker's summit, there were some tough parts. |
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9/27/2020 Route: Southwest Ridge Posted On: 9/28/2020, By: Laxer04 Info: Ideal conditions, dry all the way to summit. Knife edge is dry as well |
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9/27/2020 Route: Southwest Ridge Posted On: 9/27/2020, By: graberz Info: We started at 4:45 am and summited around 9:15 am. As the reports state route finding after the hunters creek turn off is a little difficult especially in the dark. We timed it so it was getting light when we were in this area. there is broken trail segments kind of everywhere. If there is considerable deadfall back track and there was likely another trail and you chose poorly. We went up to mt meeker first which I thought never got too difficult unless you wanted it to. We crossed the knifes “ledge†Which was solid and fun. We stuck ridge proper over to meeker ridge at 9:45 am and down the ridge proper. It took about 3.5 hrs down. We went further southeast into the trees which wasn't great and would just cut down much sooner. The weather was much better than expected. It never got too cold or too gusty. We saw a handful of people on Longs. No snow on our trail. It was still trail runner shoe season. Notably really cool inversion coming up over the east face and cloud cover over the front range. |
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9/3/2020 Route: Southwest Ridge Posted On: 9/3/2020, By: Jay521 Info: Summer conditions. Followed the route description for the most part. This is NOT an easy 13er! Long day. Not going to post my trip time cuz it would certainly be the worst.. But I got the damned thing! |
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8/22/2020 Route: Southwest Ridge Posted On: 8/24/2020, By: bangerth Info: Perfect conditions. Took the SW ridge up -- apart from the stretch along the creek that's off-trail, there are no substantial route-finding difficulties if you've memorized the route description. For the off-trail part through the forest, use the rule that close to the stream is where you want to be. If you lose the trail (which happened to us at least half a dozen times), it's likely to your left along the stream. We took the SE ridge down to the saddle between Meeker and Lookout Mountain, and from there the (very good, but often still steep) trail back out to the road. Walked the road back to the Sandbeach Lake Trailhead. Be prepared for a very very long way back: It's 5,500 ft of elevation to lose, and must have taken us ~6 hours with stops. |
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6/7/2020 Route: Southwest Ridge Posted On: 6/13/2020, By: nmedica Info: Trail was clear up the bowls. There is still a pretty large snowfield that needs to be navigated around, but it can be avoided on talus, etc... |
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5/31/2020 Route: Dark Star Posted On: 5/31/2020, By: jscully205 Info: Coulior is not in condition. No ice and lots of hiking on the way up. Climbs like a 5.7 off-width with some dry tooling. Normally an M5- WI3. Still a fun day out. Snow climbs around Chasm Cirque are not good to climb right now in my opinion. No overnight freezing has rendered the snow into a posthole fest. |
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10/26/2019 Route: Southwest Ridge Posted On: 10/27/2019, By: Dose Info: Solid trench from trailhead to Chasm Lake. Worked my way up the loft couloir on the exposed rock. As the couloir narrows near the exit to the ramp, snow is waist to chest deep. Ended up going to far climbers left and climbed solid Class 3 rock and traversed over to the ramp. Route from ramp to loft has some snow but was able to follow the route. Ice axe and crampons are needed. Route was clear loft to summit. |