Square Top Mountain

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 5/11/2026, By: brchristensen
Info: Muddy / slushy down low, intermittantly until the first lake. After the first lake, expect soft, shallow snow -- not enough to require flotation but spikes and poles are helpful. Snow should not last long but expect a muddy trail for quite some time. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 5/10/2026, By: HikesInGeologicTime
Info: Intermittent mud and snow up to Square Top Lakes, enough to warrant gaiters or hiking boots. Long enough walk to something resembling continuous snow that A-framing seemed the way to go. Could start skinning from the lakes, though while there was a little postholing after 10 a.m., snow isn't typically deep enough to make continued booting prohibitive.

Ditched pack and skis where the ridgeline narrowed into the rocky/false summit section. Probably would have been skiable from summit with some careful line choice/occasional sidestepping, but I personally am only willing to risk excess coreshots above 14k. And there was plenty of opportunity to prime my bases for a full tune once the slope opened up; shallow snow = sharks, after all. Still, I did manage to get some surprisingly good turns in and even managed to keep the skis on all the way back to just above the lakes with some extra cautious scouting for the last couple hundred vertical feet for a continuous line of about 1500' or so.

With the heat wave set to last for a few days, I am not optimistic that the snow will last long, so get it soon if you're looking to justify bringing the skis up this year. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 4/14/2026, By: colingoodman
Info: Almost no snow the entire way. Aside from the low temperatures it felt like early July. No microspikes needed. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 7/20/2025, By: M_Dundee
Info: The sign for Upper Square Top Lake is missing, so at about 1.9 miles from the trailhead go left at the tall pole, and after climbing to the small saddle at 2.1 miles go right onto the Southeast Ridge climbers trail. No snow, just some muddy areas through the willows. At 9 AM I was only sharing the summit with a marmot who was chilling on the summit rock pile. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/19/2025, By: EH974871
Info: There's a little bit of mud as you get nearer to the lakes. The rocks can get a little slick but you can get by without putting your whole foot in the mud. There are some small streams throughout the hike which makes some of the trail slightly soggy but it won't soak your shoes. There are about 2 small snow fields, one is before you see the first lake and the second is where Square Top Mt. trail and South Park 600 branch off. Both snowfields have a path so you don't really post hole at all. There are ways to go around but my friend and I passed through it around 8:00am and returned around 10:30am and we didn't posthole at all. There is one more snowfield that you can easily avoid in the last .5 miles before the summit. I stayed to the right and the rocks were dry and stable. Overall a beautiful day. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/14/2025, By: jtfoss1
Info: Hiked up from Guanella pass. Skied the top half of the East face, hiked over and took the East bowl down. There are a couple of continuous lines in the East bowl and the East face can be skied continuously with some creativity. Great corn at 9am.
Snowfields were supportive with a few exceptions when we left. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/17/2025, By: whenisdinner
Info: Other than a couple small and not very deep snow crossings (with very established trenches), it's summer conditions the rest of the way. A little muddy in some spots too. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/9/2025, By: sfreytag
Info: Quite a few small snow crossings. Brought microspikes but never needed them, would have spend more time putting them on and taking them off than actually walking on snow. Post holed maybe 3 times. Started 8:45, back to car by 12:30. 

Route: North Couloir
Posted On: 5/18/2025, By: slawrence2011
Info: Started from Guanella closure at 10,8 at 8. Snow started on the road from there. A few bare spots on the road and trail, but I managed to avoid all of them on the ski out, except a few by Naylor Lake to regain the trail. Couloir was in great shape for climbing, in all the way from trail to summit. Was not sinking too far, 6-8 inches most of the time, casual angle so did it in ski boots without crampons. Summited at 2. Snow skiing down was mostly powder, with some edgeable firm snow in the couloir. Below the couloir, a good bit of breakable crust, til around 12K when it became unsupportable on the trail when too close to trees/rocks. Back to car shortly before 4. 

Route: Wilcox, Argentine, Square Top Lolly Pop Loop
Posted On: 6/20/2024, By: AndrewJCraigie
Info: Attempted to do all three peaks (Square Top to Argentine to Wilcox), but turned around after Argentine due to bad weather. Hike up from Silver Dollar Lake to Square Top Mountain wasn't too bad. Briefly crossed a bit of snow so put on microspikes, but that was the only time I used them. Dry trail to Argentine, but looked like there was some snow patches to cross to get to Wilcox. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/17/2024, By: Ssgustafson
Info: Did a Square Top, Argentine, Wilcox loop from Guanella Pass. Near summer conditions with just a few small and inconsequential snow crossings going up Square Top. There are some bigger, but still largely avoidable snowfields near the Argentine summit. I did briefly don microspikes for the descent off Argentine, but in retrospect I didnt really need them. The ascent and descent of Wilcox is snow free. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/22/2024, By: letitbeirie
Info: Spots of mud (where you'd expect) up to the first lake, muddy mess from there to the turnoff to the second lake, mostly-consolidated snow from there to the turnoff for the summit (some postholing on the way down) but entirely dry from there up.

The top of the northeast ridge is still covered by steep snow. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/2/2024, By: jtfoss1
Info: First went up Amped on Argentine - the cornice makes it look like the exit is going to be spicy but there's a hidden ramp with no cornice. Snow seemed borderline most of the climb but was still ok for the ski descent down Voltage Drop around 10am.
Then hiked along the ridge to Squaretop to descend one of the furthest west of the north couloirs, which was in perfect condition around 1115.
Sloppy and wet postholing on the trail back down with few opportunities to ski. It's tempting to ski down to the lake and walk out on the road but there's no visible path around the lake and No Trespassing signs. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 5/30/2024, By: thurs
Info: If you want to ski Square Top, plenty of lines are in. A word about the approach -- right now the standard trail switches between dirt and postholing like two dozen times before you get to ST lakes which has more continuous snow (a few routes to the summit on snow).

Meanwhile, the east ridge is holding fairly continuous snow so you may wanna beeline it that way from the parking lot if you want to travel mostly on snow and not transition a billion times or posthole extensively. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 11/4/2023, By: MidsizeAl
Info: A few inches of snow on the trail, a couple of knee deep sections as well, but its all well trenched at this point.