Mt. Silverheels

Route: West Ridge via Scott Gulch and North Spur
Posted On: 4/19/2016, By: eskermo
Info: West Ridge via Scott Gulch and the North Spur 7.2 miles 3,300' elevation gained total ~1,500' total snowboarded ~1,000' sufferfest that I thought I could snowboard down 7 hours 35 minutes total I took the splitboard up Silverheels, hoping to get a nice mellow skin/climb and snowboard descent on a Centennial. While everything east of Beaver Ridge was quite awesome, everything to its west was miserable. I started up the trail at 9:00 AM and met deep, punchy snow almost immediately. I quickly transitioned into skins and planks and started up. There was a pretty decent freeze and clear skies that night, so the crust was mostly supportive, save a few random knee to waist deep post holes. A faint trench appeared and disappeared at times. When I could stay in it, it was very supportive and way easier to skin. When I lost it, things quickly ran into suck-mode with a lot of bushwhacking. Although the snow was getting thin is some spots, I was able to stay on frozen stuff the entire time up to just below the saddle on Beaver Ridge Just before cresting the saddle on Beaver Ridge, my climbing wire bent and broke off of my binding. Keep that in mind if you are considering the Spark R&D Arc bindings. This was around my 10th time touring on those bindings, and I was really surprised that it didn't hold up better. Aside from that one mishap, I love those bindings - they thought of just about every consideration for making an excellent binding (except a sturdy climbing wire!). From Beaver Ridge, I strapped in and rode almost 300' down into the basin, heading east and holding high and skier's left until I ran out of gravity just shy of 12,000'. From there I booted east into the well defined gully before turning southeasterly and gaining more dry ground as the pitch got steeper. Around 12,280' I angled up and climber's left onto the mostly dry tundra and shortly thereafter found the standard route's trail up the North Spur. Connecting trail segments on mostly dry ground, I gained the West Ridge around 13,560', where I dumped off my snowboard, microspikes, and ice axe for the quick push to the summit. The remaining hike was almost completely dry and a mere talus hop. I arrived back at my board, gathered all my gear, and took off downhill looking for a decent place to drop in. Around 13,240' I finally found a spot that looked to be continuously filled in and subsequently strapped in. After a few ski cuts across the top of the slope, I took off. The upper 600' were glorious - the best part of the day. The remaining ski down into the basin was also great, even though the light was extremely flat and I could barely make out features in the snow. The snow in this area felt solid, consolidated, and had just a little bit of soft blown in pow to make it ride like a dream. I never used microspikes or my axe on any portion of the climb, and never felt they were necessary. Around 11,880', I strapped my board to the pack and began the approximately 330' climb out the basin, back to the saddle on Beaver Ridge. The snow was perfectly supportive half of the time up this hill, and the other half left me crawling on hands and knees to minimize the post hole misery. Upon cresting the hill, I needed to drop down 100' or so in order to find continuous, skiable snow. I strapped in again and thought to myself "sweeeeet, I'll be back to the car in 5 minutes!" HA! An hour and a half later I arrived back at my car. The first stretch from the top was fast and fun. But it didn't take long for me to be cruising, then immediately the snow would collapse below me and I would sink into the snow. 6" of crust with knee to nipple deep sugary, crystally, loose snow. Keep in mind, I ride a 1" setback, flat-as-a-pancake rocker 162 CM board with bindings set another 1" back - it's not like I'm riding a baby board, a cambered board, or I weigh a lot or anything (6' 1", 165 lbs). I had no idea that crap could even happen to that degree. At one point it took me 10 minutes just to dig out the snow, unstrap my bindings, pack the snow down, and stand back up/strap in again. After a couple of these incidents, I took the board apart, put my skins back on, and resigned myself to "snowshoeing" out of Scott Gulch. The crust was unsupportable all over the place. I got a lot of practice skate-skiing and practicing my pizza-french fry (I've never skied), but they always came to an abrupt and uncomfortable ending with snow cracking and collapsing everywhere. I was pretty glad I was in low angled terrain, because the huge cracks in the snowpack were terrifying, even on near-flat terrain. Note to self: even though the terrain is low angle, there is still a chance of getting buried under crap like this. I eventually regained the skin track a few hundred feet above the trailhead. However, this late in the day there were still sections where I'd punch several feet through the trench. At 4:35 I finally made it back to dry ground and the car. This was before the multiple feet of snow fell this weekend. I think it'll be a LONG time before the snow settles and consolidates enough to make this route not a complete sufferfest. That being said, in good condition, I bet this route would be a lot more fun. 

Route: North Spur from Hoosier Pass
Posted On: 2/29/2016, By: transplant_hiker
Info: The beginning of the route is in good shape in the early morning. There is a pretty defined path that is packed in well enough that you do not need snowshoes. At treeline and slightly above, the snow is horrible no matter what time of the day. The snow is very faceted and I am not sure that flotation would help much. We were reduced to crawling and post-holing for about a quarter of a mile until we got higher up in the basin. Once on the ridge, the rest of the route is in good shape. There is a pretty large cornice on the south side of Hoosier ridge that will prevent you from cutting the corner towards the north spur. Most of the connecting saddle is snow free on the windward side, but there are a few patches that are easily avoidable. The North Spur has a few patches of snow on it but they are easier to climb than some of the rocks. All in all, the route was in good shape. No traction or flotation was used and I am not sure how good snowshoes would do you down low. Ski's may be a different story but everything is useless once you get on top of Hoosier Ridge and for the remainder of the route. 

Route: North Spur from Hoosier Pass
Posted On: 11/22/2015, By: fakejox
Info: Scurried up Silverheels this morning from Hoosier Pass. Snowshoes were useful for the first mile as we gained Hoosier Ridge. After that, it is so windswept that we were fine in gaiters and hiking boots (brought microspikes but didn‘t use them). We postholed through a one or two sections in which snow had accumulated, but otherwise we were mostly hiking on rock and dirt dusted with 1-2" of snow and ice. It was quite blustery and cold up top, but it warmed up considerably on the "descent" to the pass. There was 0 avy danger on this route today. 

Route: North Spur from Hoosier Pass
Posted On: 3/23/2015, By: adamjm
Info: Hard packed snow up to the radio towers and on to the first point on the ridge...No flotation needed in the morning but was necessary in the afternoon (3 PM or so). Some sketchy looking/feeling south facing slopes prevented us from cutting over to the saddle between Hoosier Ridge and Silverheels early, so we followed the ridge up to 13K and turned north towards Silverheels. The north spur itself is relatively dry, and the snow that is up there is pretty shallow. 

Route: North Spur from Hoosier Pass
Posted On: 3/15/2015, By: Monster5
Info: Left the ridge up to Heartbreak around 12600 and did a descending contour down to about 12100 and booted up the north spur from the saddle. Stayed more to the ridge on the way back and regained my steps around 12350. Avy conditions good on route. Not much snow and a few inches of quickly melting fresh. Sort of pick-your poison as per the regain. The ridge from Heartbreak might be easier and less snow but longer. Snowshoes used from treeline to summit but not really needed on the spur. You MIGHT be able to get away without them by following the N ridge. About 5 hrs RT. A couple friends did Hoosier and the Reds after we split up on Heartbreak. 

Route: North Spur from Hoosier Pass
Posted On: 12/19/2014, By: fakejox
Info: Beautiful day on the mountain. Knee/thigh-deep postholing for appx. 1-1.5 mi until we reached the "heartbreak hill" ridge. Snowshoes definitely make for a better time. We skirted around the south face of the ridge and encountered variable conditions--rock and more postholing until we reached the powerlines. After the powerlines it was mostly windswept--got awesome traction with microspikes on the grass/thin snow on the summit push. Not sure how much snow has fallen in the past 36 hours but we left a pretty solid trench in the deeper areas. 

Route: 
Posted On: 6/23/2013, By: wildlobo71
Info: Dry Dry Dry... The route is fairly straight forward on the ascent but you will probably end up descending too far north - just keep working down the drainage and you‘ll be fine. The crossing at Beaver Creek is about 4-5 feet wide, no issues. 

Route: North Spur from Hoosier Pass
Posted On: 12/12/2012, By: B[3]
Info: Finally, some snow! I didn‘t take or feel the need for snowshoes--on the lower portion of the route, the snow was mostly slightly above my ankles. I post-holed several times in the willows, but snowshoes wouldn‘t have been much help. On the ridge, the snow was quite wind-blown; there are some cornices developing but these sections of deeper snow can be avoided. I didn‘t see any ice and didn‘t take my microspikes out of my pack. **I know the forecast is for more snow this weekend, but hopefully these pictures can give you an idea of where the older snow is.** 

Route: North Spur from Hoosier Pass
Posted On: 11/11/2012, By: forbins_mtn
Info: Beautiful day, with a horrible forecast. It was forecasted for 8" of snow and we didn't get anywhere close to that. Storms were coming in chunks separated by wonderful hours of blue sky and sunshine. However - white out conditions up top. Winds in this area were serious. As soon as we hit the summit ridge we couldn't see two feet in front our face and were constantly leaning into the wind. I wore microspikes the whole day and wouldn't have thought of taking them off. Snowshoes are unnecessary. At most, there was 1-2' of snow - but that only came in small patches. You can easily walk around the deep drifts and stay on solid ground 

Route: South Ridge
Posted On: 10/22/2012, By: jeremy27
Info: Snow free the whole way. Trails above timerline are hit or miss - just follow the ridge. Beautiful hike. 4x4 approach was doable in a stock Ford Ranger. Hunters everywhere so you might want to wear something orange. Good luck. 

Route: North Spur from Hoosier Pass
Posted On: 5/19/2012, By: JasonKline
Info: Snow was easily avoidable on the route. No snowshoes or microspikes necessary. There‘s still a great glissade down Silverheels. Pictures are at http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3977853335218.167486.1547160987&type=1 

Route: 
Posted On: 5/13/2012, By: mrickers
Info: Made it up Silverheels today before the weather hit. Silverheels‘ West Ridge is mostly snow free if you want to weave around small snowfields, with the caveat that it was snowing pretty hard at the Eisenhower tunnel on the way out. Any snow that is left is avoidable or very short/easy to cross. Did not need any sort of traction. 

Route: North Spur from Hoosier Pass
Posted On: 1/4/2012, By: BillMiddlebrook
Info: Hiked Silverheels from Hoosier Pass (via Hoosier Ridge) and never needed snowshoes or microspikes. Snowshoes could have been helpful for the willows near treeline, but I never put them on. Snow along the ridge was pretty firm and there wasn't much snow between Hoosier Ridge and the summit of Silverheels. 

Route: southern
Posted On: 6/24/2011, By: denvermikey
Info: Southern route is 99.9% free of snow. Very small pockets left that are easily avoided. 

Route: 
Posted On: 5/26/2011, By: ChrisinAZ
Info: Below treeline was patchy snow--the sort where you‘ll be forced to put on snowshoes one minute, then be forced to remove them the next! Snow was never more than a few feet deep, and the relatively treeless areas had lots of bare ground...the descent into the creek was consistently snowy, but not really steep enough for a decent glissade. I‘m unsure if the creek has running water under the snow, but I walked across it (and did so again later in the day when things had warmed up) without using snowshoes and didn‘t posthole there at all. Snowshoes can be ditched just past the creek, with the remaining terrain to the summit largely bare ground or fairly minimal snow that can be barebooted and doesn‘t require an ice axe. Probably one of the least snowy, most accessible, and least-avalanche-prone peaks in the area right now.