6/14/2025 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. |
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6/7/2025 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. |
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5/18/2025 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. |
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6/19/2024 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. |
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6/16/2024 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. |
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6/16/2024 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. |
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6/1/2024 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. |
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5/30/2024 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. |
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11/4/2023 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. |
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10/15/2023 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 10/15/2023, By: Danger_D Info: a few small patches of snow here and there, but 98% snow free. Brought traction but never used it. It looks like the peaks further west got a little more snow, but the ones are Guenella are mostly dry |
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9/21/2023 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 9/21/2023, By: Old Hickory Info: Beautiful day; some patches of snow lingering on the flat area before the summit. Easily avoidable, but boot deep in places. It was interesting that there were very light snow flurries at times, although NWS said only "breezy" and "sunny." No mention of possible precipitation, but I don't think I checked the detailed graph. |
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7/12/2023 Route: Wilcox, Argentine, Square Top Lolly Pop Loop Posted On: 7/14/2023, By: FoxintheForest Info: Ran Wilcox to Argentine to Square Top. Challenging run with the lack of a trail most of the time but an excellent romp. Pretty much summer conditions. There's one small snowfield towards the top of Argentine that's unavoidable (photo attached). You probably don't need spikes but I'm a snow weenie (I've had to self-arrest) and I hauled them all the way up so might as well use them. Just stay left of the cornice. Snow is soft, trashed, and punchy. Coming down Square Top wasn't as straightforward as the rest of the route. You've got to avoid a big snowfield (walk around), but it tips you towards Square Top Lakes, so pay attention and plan on traversing over to the correct side of the gentle ridge. I found the descent off Square Top to be the crux of the day - kinda loose and crappy compared to the lovelyness of the rest of the route - definite vibe change. I ended up coming down a few easy cliff bands (Class 3 for a move or two) and somewhat traversing over from where the photo shows to avoid willows/snow patches. It was tedious but doable. I may have been "off route" a bit though. If you want to go light and fast, there's water on the initial steep up Wilcox, running off the snowfield on the way up Argentine, and on the snowfields off of Square Top. Also plenty of water on the trail. Just a few easy snow patches. FWIW I clocked 9.2 miles and 4,300 feet of gain. Probably splitting hairs there. Wildflowers are poppin' all over this thing though. Didn't see a soul until I was back on the main trail - had all 3 summits to myself. Mountain magic all the way! Wave to all the tourists on Quandary, Grays, and Torreys. GO GET IT! |
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6/25/2023 Route: From Argentine, descending standard Posted On: 6/25/2023, By: 14er101 Info: Part of Loveland to Guanella traverse, Argentine to Squaretop is mostly summer conditions, no traction needed. Square top standard route summer conditions. |
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6/11/2023 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 6/11/2023, By: xDoogiex Info: Lots of snow above 13,350ft on east slop and summit ridge. It was mostly still solid going up at 10am. A few snow patches lower including the turnoff to go to the ridge. Muddy. Also lost my marmot gloves and balaclava if anyone finds it |
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5/13/2023 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 5/13/2023, By: Laxer04 Info: Started at the Winter TH. The road to the actual TH is mostly dry. Snowshoes were super helpful the entire way after that. The ridge is dry in spots and we took our snowshoes off for a good portion of the higher sections. We didn't see a single person the entire day. My strava (not always the most accurate) came in at 10.9 miles 3500 ft of vert |
