Grizzly Peak

Route: North Couloir (hourglass)
Posted On: 5/16/2026, By: Geckser
Info: Arthurspiderman and I skied the North couloir (or hourglass couloir) of Grizzly Peak. He bravely drove about half way up the Grizzly Gulch road parking near the turn off for Emperor.

From there the road was mostly dry till 11,000 with inconsistent snow until the road crosses the creek one last time. Continuous snow from there to the summit. There was a good enough freeze we made it to the base of the couloir with trail runners + skis on backs.

Couloir had intermittent sun at the top and bottom through clouds that came and went. The sun was hot and whenever it was out rocks came tumbling down. Consistent hard pack made crampons mandatory and I was glad to have my ax. Couloir was steep with a decent amount of runnel + wet slide debris. Not too bad of a booter though! We took the left branch of the Y, the right branch may go but somewhat doubtfully.

We topped out around 9:00 where we got some unexpected snow. This made us doubt if the snow would soften so we skied it, still largely frozen. Conditions were tricky for the line but we made it down in fairly good form. We then skied easily back to the river crossing and walked back to the car. Around 3.5 hour RT.

Beautiful line which I could imagine hitting in better conditions. Still, a fun day on a close peak in a beautiful place. Included some photos of Torrey’s lines which largely look out. 

Route: Grizzly and Cupid from Loveland Pass
Posted On: 4/1/2026, By: ejfred
Info: zrsimpson and I tackled the mighty Cupid and Grizzly "D" this past weekend. As expected, very little snow on the trails, and no flotation or traction needed at this point. If you take the "Cupid Scenic Byway" below the ridge trail, you'll run into a snowfield about 200 feet long, (which provides some nice knee-high postholing in the afternoon sun). Hopefully Will Erickson puts a trench in there soon. Grizzly's north face has pretty good trail segments, but was a bit steeper than this lightweight was imagining, reminiscent of the north faces of Geneva or Flora. Overall, a really nice day, in spite of the lack of snow. 

Route: Grizzly and Cupid from Loveland Pass
Posted On: 3/21/2026, By: ekalina
Info: Any snow of consequence is avoidable if you stay ridge proper. We used microspikes on one short snowfield that could have been scrambled around, and half the group briefly used an axe there. Neither are needed with a few small adjustments to your route. It's really dry up there. 

Route: Grizzly and Cupid from Loveland Pass
Posted On: 1/2/2026, By: ColoNativeGal
Info: Ridiculously dry, almost summer conditions. This is the safest this peak will ever get in winter with zero avy concerns. I had more dirt/dust on my gaiters than I did snow (you don't need gaiters). Carried spikes, but didn't use them. They would be helpful on the final ascent/descent of Grizzly. I just took it slow in mountaineering boots. Super cold, windchill was in the single digits. Winds approached 40mph on my way back from Cupid to top of the ridge. I wanted to take the shortcut on the way back instead of regaining the ridge, but left my ice axe in the car and didn't want to risk the snowfield just in case. Weather moved in, but it never really snowed. Got a great pic of Greys in the clouds. 

Route: Grizzly and Cupid from Loveland Pass
Posted On: 12/24/2025, By: stevebillig
Info: Conditions were 90% dry ground with intermittent hard packed snow. 

Route: Grizzly and Cupid from Loveland Pass
Posted On: 11/9/2025, By: ProfetaP
Info: From Cupid over is almost completely dry, and then going up there are a few spots of snow. Didn't wear spikes at all, as most patches of snow could be avoided. 

Route: Grizzly and Cupid from Loveland Pass
Posted On: 6/5/2025, By: nilaoire
Info: Some snow fields, most easy to avoid. We started at 0630 hrs and postholed very little. 

Route: Grizzly and Cupid from Loveland Pass
Posted On: 5/31/2025, By: MaryinColorado
Info: Didn't do it, just looked at it from Cupid. Thought some of you might find pics to be helpful. We started late enough that any of the traversing of snow below was probably going to be a mushy mess by the time we had to come back through it, and we'd already postholed a little on Cupid. So, we just went over to Sniktau instead. 

Route: From A Basin
Posted On: 5/29/2025, By: Christensenje
Info: Still in. Skis on from and back to car, though not ski in ski out much longer. Attached coverage pics. 

Route: Hourglass from Grizzly gulch
Posted On: 5/12/2025, By: slawrence2011
Info: Late start from winter grizzly gulch TH at 8:25 due to wanting to recover from Keplinger attempt day prior. Couple missed turns on Grizzly gulch road delayed me. Big one, at the huge fences, I should have gone right over the creek rather than going straight following a track. Worth skinning about 100 yards past grizzly gulch junction. I took off my skis 6 times between the junction and the first creek, and 4 times between the first and second Creek. After that, there is a snow bridge for creek 3, but a dry spot is almost there at 10,9. Ascended the couloir around 1 pm, summited at 3:20. Snow was surprisingly supportive, never sunk below my ankles, which made me really surprised to see a wet slab barrelling toward me a couple hundred feet from the ridge. Next day's avalanche forecast showed wet slab, but it had not been there Sunday. I moved to the side rapidly and it missed me, thank God! It looked to be half a foot deep and draining the whole couloir. I will report to Caic. It made a great bed surface to ski. Back to the car around 6. 

Route: North Face from US 6
Posted On: 5/12/2025, By: SchralpTheGnar
Info: Started at the lot across the road from the A basic last chance lot. Skinned up the first half and boot packed the 2nd half to the summit of grizzly, the snow in the gully was frozen but not consolidated so I would punch through if I got off the bootpack.

From the summit of Grizzly I skied down the ridge a bit and then dropped into a chute, heavy spring snow but skied pretty well, some sluffage. From about 12k in the basin skinned up Cupid, glorious weather and snow conditions.


From the summit skied Cupid back down into Grizzly gulch close, stellar snow off the top of that, delightfully consistent. Skinned back up to the top of Cupid and then skied Dave’s Waves more or less back to the car.

Nice tour of an area I have surprisingly never been despite this being my 27th year of spring skiing in the mountains, I think it’s because I ski in summit country so much in the winter by the time spring time comes around I’m looking for pastures anew, either way I’d do that again 

Route: Grizzly and Cupid from Loveland Pass
Posted On: 5/11/2025, By: jschneider256
Info: Mountain is still 90% snow covered. Tried climbing with trail running shoes, no spikes or snowshoes - while this worked, traction and flotation are still highly recommended. Mountain is still more suitable for skiing than hiking at the moment 

Route: Grizzly and Cupid from Loveland Pass
Posted On: 4/28/2025, By: Piotr
Info: No spikes or snowshoes necessary. Just a few spots postholing between Cupid and Grizzly. 

Route: Grizzly and Cupid from Loveland Pass
Posted On: 4/12/2025, By: Annaluz
Info: Spikes were nice but not absolutely necessary. Not a lot of snow left and what was there was solid enough to not be falling through too often. 

Route: Grizzly and Cupid from Loveland Pass
Posted On: 4/12/2025, By: whenisdinner
Info: Not much snow left on the western side, much of the trail is clear. Spikes are nice for the final ridge but not needed elsewhere. Pretty windy. Still a good amount of snow on the approach to sniktau but it's bulletproof