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Mt. Edwards

Condition Updates  
Route: Edwards + McClellan: East Slopes
Posted On: 10/12/2023, By: joannalee07
Info: Climbed on 10/10, full trip report here: https://www.coloradomountainpack.com/post/mount-edwards 
Route: Mt. Edwards + Argentine Peak from Argentine Pass
Posted On: 9/23/2023, By: backcountrybrodes
Info: A little gusty but beeaaaauutiful day on the mountains. Lotttsss of yellow over by Argentine Pass trailhead (subaruable) and the creek is a white mineral color, which made for some pretty amazing pictures. Saw a mountain goat fam near the Argentine Peak summit, which proceeded to gallop down the mountain face kicking rocks galore after I slowly approached them. Lol 
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Route: Edwards + McClellan: East Slopes
Posted On: 7/16/2023, By: dssmith15
Info: The road up to the TH is gnarly. Made the mistake of not taking the turn up to Leavenworth and stayed on Waldorf Wagon Road. We had to back out as the road was washed up then made it up to Leavenworth. Not ideal. Thankfully in a jeep. Definitely need some high clearance. The beginning of the road right off of Guanella Pass is probably the worst if you do stay on Leavenworth after that. Following the river up to the basin was easy. There's still a steep snowfield that you have to ascend. We used microspikes and were fine. It was still supportive without post-holing on our descent around 930am. It would have been fun to glissade if we brought our ice axes but we left those at home. The ridge up to Edwards is clear and easy. We ended up opting out of McClellan but that route is totally clear. Beautiful day all around. Saw one other person. Was fun to watch the ant hill going up Grays and Torreys. Overall very nice hike! 
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Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 6/27/2023, By: bsiegs
Info: Trailhead road clear all the way. Several (count them, 11) snowfield crossings remain on the route. Some of them a bit more sketch than others. Crossed them all carefully without traction, but definitely wouldn't have minded having spikes/axe. Definitely a fair bit of postholing in the snowfields. Summit remains totally snow-covered. Started at 5pm on super clear, warm evening. Stunningly beautiful summit sunset around 8:20. Snowfields had obviously turned quite icy on descent. 
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Route: From Grays
Posted On: 6/25/2023, By: 14er101
Info: Did the traverse from Grays to Edwards, and then to Argentine as part of the Loveland Pass to Guanella traverse. G-->E traverse was mostly dry except for the final 200' to summit where traction was nice but not strictly necessary. N face couloirs appeared to have full coverage, Edwardian is starting to thin out in some places it looked like, but probably still in. Edwards to Argentine was mostly summer conditions, traction not needed. 
Route: North Face
Posted On: 6/24/2023, By: slawrence2011
Info: Made it to upper th in my Civic with ease. Started from upper th at 4, 2 hours earlier than yesterday, to avoid wet snow issues. I went through a lot of willows again to get to the base, 1:20. This time, I stayed in the couloir, and it was much less Ne facing than when I went too far R yesterday. Took the far left direct variation, which goes for climbing, but not skiing due to runnels, steep, narrow, and off camber. Summited at 730 to nasty wind, didn't stay there long. Waited til 915 to drop but it was still firm all the way. The Crux was the transition from the open snowfield above to the main gully, I did sidestepping between rocks, but only 10-15 ft or so was not skiable. Due to firm snow, I went for a lap on the N face of Torreys as well, perfect conditions on emperor just after noon. A group of 20 went into tuning fork around that time and said it was also good. Both in from the summit and a couple hundred feet shy of the typical May runout. Road totally clear of snow. Torreys summer trail has snow on upper half, but very well trodden, no postholing at 1130. 
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Route: North Face
Posted On: 6/23/2023, By: slawrence2011
Info: Did not summit and the juice was not worth the squeeze given a broken ski. That being said, snow coverage looks amazing and will go back tomorrow earlier and with different skis. Left the upper Stevens Gulch TH just before 6, which turned out to be way too late and was my primary issue. The beta on frontrangeskimo.com recommends following the creek drainage to the base of the couloir. I made a creek crossing to the S side that got both feet wet, later found plenty of snow bridges up higher. The S side of the creek is not ideal due to steepening talus that was loose and frightening and steep snowfields that didn't go in hiking boots. Apron climbed very easy, was quite firm around 7:30-8. Around 8:30-9, got into the upper couloir which transitioned to a NE aspect rather than N, which rapidly became cohesionless. Plus, I made a wrong turn in the couloir too far climber's right trying to follow the beta photo, but that got me too close to the ridge where snow was spotty and did some climbing on rock. I turned around probably a couple hundred feet below the summit due to a complete lack of cohesion, postholing to the waist. Started skiing down just before 10, and knocked off the biggest wet loose I have this season, about a ski width and 4-6 inches deep, it actually tried to pull me down but I held tight. Then I skied in that track and it was much safer. About 10 turns in, my ski broke and the front of the binding detached completely, managed to stop it with my pole. Quickly transitioned back to skis on pack and got ice axe out and plunge stepped all the way down very soft snow, given too soft and steep to glissade, exposed to rocks and no way to self arrest/stop. Glissaded last 100 feet. On the way out, I tried to beeline straight uphill to the main trail, which involved a lot of willow bashing and soft snow crossing. Then about 30 minutes back down the trail. Tomorrow I will try close to the N side of the creek. 
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Route: Edwardian Couloir
Posted On: 6/20/2023, By: TakeMeToYourSummit
Info: A friend & I went for the Edwardian on Sunday & we were not disappointed! We managed to boot up on variable snow from the apron the entire way to the summit (with a bit of rock mixed in near the top). The snow was punchy at points and rather firm in other places. A summit descent was possible by either weaving through some of the rock bands & entering the Edwardian or we also saw one couloir lookers right that looked continual from the top. We had spied a variant of the Edwardian that avoided most of the frozen avy debris (see marked picture borrowed from sarahmariekirk). Our variant would be hard to link from the summit as you need to stay high in the couloir near the start (we dropped packs at the rocky start of the ridge). I can add more photos later if anyone needed to see other pics (not much has changed since the last report though). Also - full snowless road to the TH. Thanks again Sarah for the CR that got this one back on my radar! 
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Route: Edwardian Couloir
Posted On: 6/10/2023, By: sarahmariekirk
Info: Beautiful day on Edwardian Couloir; this col has been on my list for awhile and it was a great day for a climb. There is quite a lot of hard avalanche debris in the couloir which can make it difficult if you are planning to ski down. I am a climber and not a skier, so we took the standard descent down off of Edwards after tagging McClellan Mountain and it was pretty spicy with steep snow fields to traverse in multiple no-fall zones. I would recommend crampons if you are planning a descent via standard. 
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Route: North Face Couloir
Posted On: 5/16/2023, By: zhanley
Info: Encountered small snow drifts shortly after Grizzly Gulch fork that are passable in high clearance + good tires 4WD. Continuous snow starts ~1 mi from the summer trailhead after which you cannot drive. Someone ended their day really early getting their truck stuck in the snow. There was a moderate overnight freeze. Snow was hard and supportive on skins on the approach. Ski campons were helpful in the apron of the couloir. Halfway up the couloir I started booting and sunk to knee depth which dramatically slowed progress; would have hoped for more supportive snow. At 9am snow was warming rapidly but clouds quickly came and prevented more thawing. Summited and promptly started ski descent at 10. There is still enough snow you can ski directly off the summit all the way to below the summer TH. 11am might have been a more ideal descent time for today with partial clouds, but on a hot full sun day you might want to be descending any of the Grays/Torreys/Edwards aspects that get early sun by 9. 
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Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 10/13/2022, By: NittanyLion14er
Info: Clear up to near saddle, couple stretches of snow but avoidable. Some patchy snow up top but avoidable or walkable, no traction needed. 
Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 8/17/2022, By: Istoodupthere
Info: About as easy as it gets. One brief scramble, otherwise pretty much all class 1. Surprised to see 3 jeeps at various times drive up to Argentine Pass at 13,200'. Peru Creek is eerily very white. 
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Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 8/2/2022, By: jordanthebuff
Info: Really awesome trail. It's straightforward until Argentine Pass. From there, the trail disappears, but you just stay on the ridge or slightly right. I looped this route with Grays south ridge. The ridge between Edwards and Grays was a lot of fun and not super technical. It's easy to keep the ridge a class 2, but there are options to make it more difficult. Moderate route finding involved if you're keeping it to a class 2. The "crux" of the ridge happens just after you depart Edwards. There are two towers or points that I just stayed to the left of to navigate around. 
Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 7/13/2022, By: NotTimid
Info: Ascended via the traverse from Grays, descended to Argentine Pass TH. Summer conditions! No snow on the slope up to the pass (or anywhere on the route). 
Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 6/10/2022, By: Ssgustafson
Info: Significant snowfields to deal with from Walfdorf Mine TH. Overall, a great morning on Edwards and McClellan - didn't see another person all day! 
Route: Edwards + McClellan: East Slopes
Posted On: 6/3/2022, By: funsizetiff
Info: Able to drive to Waldorf Mine on Leavenworth Creek Road. Some snow patches but you can just drive over them. 4WD required. Mellow skin on continuous, smooth snow from parking area to summit. There was only one dry patch I had to briefly take my skis off and walk across. On descent I carefully stepped across this with skis on. Started at 7, summit at 8:50. Waited an hour for the snow to soften up then it was time for the corn harvest! 
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Route: North Face
Posted On: 5/19/2022, By: jmanner
Info: The North Face lines are aline currently, its pretty thin at the moment... But skiable from summit area to summer TH. 
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Route: North Face Couloir
Posted On: 5/19/2022, By: ClimberSkierDave64
Info: Skied the North Face Couloir today on Edwards. Pretty fun line, and it'll definitely be skiing even better after this next storm! Even with a light freeze, the snow was still supportable all the way up the line in the morning. We were able to ski to and from within a couple blocks of the trailhead using the creek drainage which is still continuous although some of the snow bridges are thin. Winds were ripping today! 
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Route: Edwards + McClellan: East Slopes
Posted On: 11/22/2021, By: Anima
Info: I parked at the 2wd lot along Guanella Pass. There was an inch of snow along the 4wd road for the first couple miles and then a couple inches beyond that. Lots of ice under the snow. The gully between McClellan and Edwards is holding snow but it can be avoided. Flotation is not necessary nor is traction. A couple Jeeps and ATVs didn't have a problem with the ice and snow on the road. 
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Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 7/20/2021, By: PikaSteve
Info: Summer conditions. Saw several mountain goats today: Andrew Hamilton on road to Waldorf Mine; one group at Argentine Pass and a group of eight halfway to summit. Well cairned route from Argentine Pass keeps route on the easier end of Class 2. 
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