Mt. Guyot

Route: Northwest Ridge/Slope
Posted On: 4/29/2023, By: sarahmariekirk
Info: Summited Mount Guyot today; snow was variable, used snowshoes from the beginning of the trail after leaving the road, all the way up to about 300ft away from the summit. Switched to microspikes and had some bulletproof sections throughout the rocks. Coming down, the upper slopes were fine with snowshoes and an ice axe for stability, but crampons would have worked better. Saw some skiers today going down the gully - we took the ridge up and was a fantastic day. 

Route: Swan Dive
Posted On: 4/29/2023, By: Posthole Pete
Info: Took the long way up. Snow was fantastic, things were a bit firm right off the summit and then everything else was very edgable. Wind should refill most of the tracks tonight. Get it before warm up this week! 

Route: Northwest Ridge/Slope
Posted On: 3/25/2023, By: artemavovk
Info: Skinned up the ridge to 12400; after that it's all rocks on the ridge to the top. Lots of cornices over the east-facing slope of the ridge, but the powder was stable enough to ski up and down (although it was hard to tell if it was me whomping or the breck's howitzer's in the distance). I went back down the ridge to avoid terrain traps. 

Route: Northwest Ridge/Slope
Posted On: 2/19/2023, By: Svobatron
Info: Took the road for a bit before cutting through the trees and trailbreaking straight to the ridge. There were 3 of us so there is a good snowshoe trail in place now. We removed snowshoes just beyond treeline and used microspikes from there. Wind made the ridge a bit more challenging but it was a fun day! 

Route: NW Ridge Direct
Posted On: 12/21/2022, By: the_hare
Info: Wanted to try out a route I put together after looking at topo, satellite and slope angle but it ended up being way less feasible than I anticipated. On satellite I noticed a cleared-out strip on the NW ridge proper that started halfway up the ridge and went all the way to treeline. I left the plowed and packed-down road where the Little French Gulch creek meets the road at 10,600ft and headed SE up to the ridge. I had hoped that this would be a safe & direct way of summiting but I didn't account for how much deadfall and deep wind-drifted snow there would be on the ridge. Snow had variable consistencies but was mostly a thick soft crust with a weaker layer below that I punched and slogged through over my knees even with snowshoes with every step. Made it up to 11,280ft before calling it--I had started pretty late, it was getting dark and I was done hurdling logs. This is probably feasible with more time in the day but definitely one to earn. There were some ski tracks heading out from the standard NW ridge/E slopes route turn-off to Little French Gulch, might be a better option to follow thru the trees just to avoid deadfall. 

Route: Northwest Ridge/Slope
Posted On: 12/18/2022, By: Cereal
Info: Flotation 100% needed in order to gain the NW Ridge from 11,300. I ended up wearing snowshoes from 11,300 to 12,500, and barebooted to the summit from there.

Another group of two skinned from TH to 12,100 on continuous snow. 

Route: Northwest Ridge/Slope
Posted On: 10/30/2022, By: IHikeLikeAGirl
Info: Road was snow packed from the start, slick in the morning. Had to break trail starting at the turnoff from the road. I broke trail for a very short section, but my other 2 partners took on the rest...for once, being the slowest in my party paid off :) (thank you d_baker and Kimo!) Sugary snow the entire way up, 4-8" on the trail, then mostly mid shin deep, ascending to and on the ridge. The talus hop portion was...taxing, nay miserable with the snow conditions. Even with following the footsteps of my predecessors and cairns, there was many a banged shin and surprise hole; and took far too long. Microspikes helped on the ascent and descent, but still much slippage.

In the afternoon, the snow softened from ~11,200 on down, but remained sugary above that. 

Route: West Ridge from French Pass
Posted On: 10/16/2022, By: madmattd
Info: Inspired by supranihilest's TR from 2019 via the South Ridge, we took the West Ridge from French Pass. Great trail to the pass, initially tundra from the pass, but soon into a fair bit of talus and gravel, and fairly steep most of the way. We cut more or less straight up to Pt12902 from the pass, through a small gully near the ridge. From there there are use trails most of the way to the summit either on or just West of the ridge, though they fade out here and there. You can bypass the upper part of Pt13005 on these use trails. Lots of talus, some loose, most reasonable. On the way down from near Pt13005 we followed a fainter use trail traversing down towards the ridge we ascended from the pass, while it faded out eventually, it did avoid the worst of the loose stuff we had climbed earlier. There is a little snow on the North side of Pt13005, enough to need to take some care on the descent but none of us used spikes/other traction aids. Dry otherwise. The upper summit ridge of Guyot from this side is pretty impressive, sheer cliffs on the East side. We recorded ~10mi/3500ft gain round trip on this route. A loop of the West Ridge and the South Ridge should be pretty doable. 

Route: From Georgia pass
Posted On: 9/26/2022, By: Trotter
Info: Followed Jay251s TR up, and looped north ridge back. Quite a bit of traily paths on east ridge, and even some on north ridge. Almost all talus hopping, but pretty stable. Something to note, there is not a single aspen within 3 miles of this route, so its not a good fall foliage hike. 

Route: French Pass/Georgia Pass Loop
Posted On: 8/27/2022, By: dwoodward13
Info: Parked at the French Pass TH. Followed the trail up to the summit of French Pass, the headed up east to the ridge. There is a surprisingly good trail from the top of the ridge all the way over to the lowest saddle on the S ridge to Guyot. At this point the rock changes character and I lost the trail. Rocks were extremely slippery this morning. Area seemed to have got a quite of bit of rain, and it froze overnight. Quite a bit of exposure to the E of the ridge, but still Class 2/2+. Descended toward the two unnamed lakes S and W of the summit of Georgia Pass. Mix of rock and steep dirt. There is an old mining road (on USFS maps) I picked up from near the lower lake and I followed it back to the Georgia Pass road and walked down to my car at French Pass TH.

Clocked just over 10 miles and 3300' gain. 

Route: Northwest Ridge/Slope
Posted On: 5/27/2022, By: tracie_marie
Info: Snowshoes needed pretty much the entire way after you turn off the road. Ditched them towards the top and rock hopped. We went up the slope and down the ridge, super deep snow in the trees but you're not in them for very long. 

Route: Northwest Ridge/Slope
Posted On: 5/14/2022, By: ekalina
Info: A buddy and I climbed Guyot via the gully on the NW slope in great conditions. Started at 6:10, summited at 9:20, back at the car at noon. Continuous snow starting about a 1/2 mile up little French gulch all the way to the summit ridge. Snow in the gully was fairly firm the whole way up and even on the descent, perfect for crampons (though spikes would probably work well for most of it). On the descent through little french gulch there was some postholing, and it would have been worse later in the afternoon. Snowshoes were helpful there. As the weather warms, things will get sloppy. 

Route: Northwest Ridge/Slope
Posted On: 5/8/2022, By: Geckser
Info: Great conditions for skiing Guyots main Northwest Slope. The wind was, of course, blowing but it was nothing unbearable. The route was skiable 200 feet below the summit but you could probably connect the ridge's snowy region with the Northwest Slope if you were so inclined.

The road that you walk up was largely plowed and dried, making for quick travel. The main route up little french was totally in and skiable from the road. This will not last very much longer.

We missed this turn off on the way up. We had to gain the ridge on our own making for some unpleasant travel, but skiing up the Northwest ridge was quite enjoyable until we A-framed and
put on our trail runners from the approach. 

Route: Northwest Ridge/Slope
Posted On: 2/19/2022, By: daway8
Info: Trail starts on a gated road only open to private traffic. Plenty of snow on the road to allow for skinning or whatever. Then once the trail leaves the road there was plenty of ski traffic up through the valley. Tracks thinned out heading up the ridge to Guyot but by the end of the day there had been a few more pairs of skiers. I seem to have been the only one out there with just snowshoes. Several folks not going for the summit, just reaching the ridge to ski. Gets fairly rocky above about 12k so probably can't do an official ski descent right now. Above treeline the conditions were highly variable - occasionally patches of deep snow then lots of bare rock with trap door snow between then crusty hard snow at a high angle, then powder, then rock. It was impossible to have the right gear on moment by moment so I just left snowshoes on the whole way up - they took a beating but better them than me. Summit had basically zero shelter so knelt with my back to the wind to rest. On the way down I briefly switched to spikes, did some real brief glissades, then back to snowshoes. There were a couple times when I should have probably pulled my ice axe off my pack but didn't and a couple very brief sections where I almost wished I had my crampons. Beautiful day with dramatic views up top - will upload photos shortly. 

Route: Northwest Ridge/Slope
Posted On: 1/30/2022, By: Flyingfish
Info: Climbed the ridge, skied the slope. Well packed trail to 12k then we took skins off and booted to the summit. Mostly patches of loose rock and unconsolidated powder between made for tough work. Ended up hiking down to 12,800 before putting on skis. Slope is pretty well filled in but not packed well. Alternating between wind crust and 2.5 feet of powder. Need to apologize to my skis for the rocks.