Gray Wolf Mountain

Route: South Chicago Creek TH
Posted On: 3/29/2026, By: hatterasdunton
Info: Intermittent snow below tree line. Above treeline snow is entirely avoidable. Wore boots but no traction or flotation needed. A bit too soon for trail runners 

Route: from guanella pass
Posted On: 3/20/2026, By: Laxer04
Info: hiked from guanella pass. the road is mostly snow packed. took the bierstadt trail and eventually cut over and was able to do this without snowshoes early in the morning. it was miserable at times getting through the willows with intermittent snow and mixed conditions. once above treeline, it was mostly snow free to the summit. i wore snowshoes for the majority of the descent below treeline with the soft snow.

no summit register that i could find. took me 6 hours total, 11.7 miles 3500 ft of vert 

Route: South Chicago Creek
Posted On: 11/3/2025, By: sehessler92
Info: Just to add a little bit to the report from 11/1. When driving in you’ll have to turn slightly right about a half mile or so from the TH which will lead you into an area where a bunch of water has been frozen over so it is a bit icy so take it slow. My car slid slightly going to and from the TH and it’s an area where on one side there’s a deep rut/hole that wouldn’t be ideal to slide into. Other than that the hike was great! 

Route: South Chicago Creek
Posted On: 11/1/2025, By: ProfetaP
Info: The road in was fine - My Volvo SUV had no issues and very little snow/ice on the road to the TH. Roughly 1-2" of snow in the trees, but areas seemed to be melting quickly - Once above treeline, almost no snow and any patches could be avoided. I did not wear spikes and don't believe they are needed. Also, I saw a beautiful bull moose in the willows! 

Route: Northeast Slope via South Chicago Creek
Posted On: 9/14/2025, By: Willy the Kid
Info: Dry all the way up, willows and forest are easy to navigate. First half of the trail is steep and rocky, second half to treeline is easier but less defined/maintained. Minor snow and/or ice above 13k, especially above 13.5k. Fall foliage is coming in nice!

Anyways, posting this more to warn about snow on Blue Sky and the Sawtooth. Looks like a few inches are holding that could make stuff difficult for a few days, especially if it stays cool and wet like it's supposed to. Bierstadt had less snow, didn't look like a problem for the standard route. 

Route: Guanella Pass
Posted On: 6/27/2025, By: Danger_D
Info: Definitely a little boggy after leaving the Bierstadt trail, but not nearly as bad as I feared. Glad I brought boots instead of trail runners, but if you're smart you can stay mostly dry. No snow, and tons of wild flowers! Lots of traffic on Bierstadt but I was the only one on Gray Wolf 

Route: East Couloir
Posted On: 5/24/2025, By: BiggasPanda
Info: East couloir still goes and there's no cornice at the top. Was a long day since Summit Lake is closed, but this mountain was calling me. It's a beautiful line. 

Route: Summit Lake TH
Posted On: 7/3/2024, By: Ssgustafson
Info: Only a couple small and easily avoidable snow patches on Gray Wolf above the saddle with Spalding. Otherwise summer conditions. 

Route: From Guanella Pass
Posted On: 3/7/2024, By: Will_E
Info: Good conditions on Gray Wolf today, in the morning there was a trench along the road with just an inch or so of fresh snow. I didn't need snowshoes until leaving the road, I followed a skin track that went toward the gully up BS, I branched off towards GW, the willows weren't terribly bad, just a few post holes. Kept snowshoes on until probably 12,800' or so when the rocks started popping out. Went over to Spalding as well, hadn't been there before. On the way down a snowmobile had put in a track along the road.

Day started out warm and sunny. Clouds, snow and sun came and went off and on all afternoon, but not much accumulation on the way down. Very little wind today. Nice day. 

Route: South Chicago Creek
Posted On: 2/3/2024, By: Joshmduffy
Info: Hiked from Highway 103 as Hefferman Gulch road was snowed in. Bootpack 1.25 mi to South Chicago Creek, bootpack up trail approx half way to treeline, added snowshoes, some packed in and a couple of ski tracks down. Once the "trail" ends, it was post-holing thigh to waist deep snow breaking trail where the trail ends to above tree-line. Very slow going (1.5 hr to go 0.5 mi). Above tree line it was windblown, hiked to the top in hiking boots. Sunny and warm most of the day, breezy on top. 9.75 hours round trip, 12mi, 4,300 ft vertical 

Route: From Burning Bear TH
Posted On: 1/16/2024, By: 14ercooper
Info: Preface this as "this was before the crazy snow and wind this weekend", so the conditions could be wildly different now. Posting mostly since past conditions can sometimes be helpful even after a storm.
Parked at a pull-off near Burning Bear TH on the 285 side of the pass (didn't want to deal with any potential I-70 traffic), and skinned up the road to the pass. There was enough coverage, though some spots were thin and I wouldn't be surprised if the wind this weekend stripped them bare. Dropped into the trees along what CalTopo calls South Clear Creek and did a gear swap to crampons (a bit overkill, but my boots don't take microspikes and I wasn't entirely sure what I was going to hit up high thanks to it still being dark at this point), and started booting up the slope to the saddle between the two 12ers almost due west of Gray Wolf Mountain (both of which I did summit, though I think only one of them is ranked). I then followed the fairly windblown ridgeline to Gray Wolf Mountain, making sure to stay a little ways away from the cliffs in case one of the 120mph+ wind gusts knocked me over. The ridgeline was fairly dry, and I didn't need any flotation (and could have gotten away with microspikes or possibly no traction) above where I dropped my skis. Bierstadt didn't look particularly skiable if you like your skis. Return route was the same, skied down the road where possible with a few short walking sections over thin patches along the road. 

Route: SW Slopes from Guanella Pas
Posted On: 9/9/2023, By: cdgibbons
Info: daway8's trip report for this route is excellent; I followed it as closely as I could. Some slippery frost on the boardwalk early in the morning; fall is coming. Unexpected obstacle, and highlight of the day: right where the Evans trail splits off from the Bierstadt trail, I encountered five, very large bull moose grazing and making quite a racket crashing antlers through the willows. Took a long break until they moved on before continuing- certainly raised my level of alert and attention as I worked my way through willows that I couldn't see over. 

Route: South Chicago TH
Posted On: 7/18/2023, By: ColoNativeGal
Info: Summer conditions. Once the main trail ends about 2 miles from the TH, marked by the old rusty mining parts, you start your bushwhack, but there are social/animal trails to follow and some cairns along the way. Pretty simple to just stay left of the willows in the trees and keep making your way up to treeline. Once you break out of the trees the willows continue almost all the way up to the ridge. You have some options, cross the willows (doable, pick a line and there are trails through it) or go all the way up to the ridge and follow the ridge line all the way up to the false summit. A few snow patches up top, but completely avoidable. Saw one marmot, pika and a large herd of elk (50+) running down the other gully. Tons of wildflowers!

Based on other trip reports you can go up the west gully, so you would need to cross the willows down lower and make your way over to the other gully. We chose to stay in the east gully and loosely followed the route that All Trails shows. I had downloaded a GPX from a trip report on this site (tysm!) and they had gone up one gully and down the other. I tracked 9.5 miles RT and 3600+ ft of gain. 

Route: Standard
Posted On: 3/18/2023, By: sarahmariekirk
Info: Hiked Gray Wolf Mtn today with Kyra and Ryan - I snowshoed while they skinned. Theres a pretty decent trench in right now, but it was miserable for me in the willows and through the trees. Blowing snow today filled it in a bit, but its better than nothing! 

Route: Guanella Pass
Posted On: 3/18/2023, By: kyrawhitworth
Info: Skinned up to the end of the trees (thankful for the skis as we avoided the willow post holing) and opted for boots and spikes. One in our party had snowshoes and faired pretty well with only a few bad spots. Some fresh snow up high but rocks and grass still poking through. Very cold day but sun was shining! Followed the climb13ers route pretty closely and that worked out well.