11/27/2021 Route: Northwest Ridge/Slope Posted On: 11/27/2021, By: stomblin7 Info: Road is packed snow past parking lot. Trail turn off from road is punchy and would recommend flotation, especially later in the day. To gain the ridge we encountered thigh to waist deep unconsolidated snow (really wish the snow shoes left the car). Ridge was mostly snow/talus mix (ankle breaker quality). |
|
7/12/2021 Route: Northwest Ridge and North Ridge Posted On: 7/12/2021, By: dbarnes Info: Comparison of two routes: Yesterday I hiked the standard Northwest Ridge route and today I went back and hiked the North Ridge route. Bottom line is that they are pretty similar. Here are a bunch of random comments that I hope might help if you're trying to decide which route to do. Ascent Hiking Time: Northwest (2:30hr), North (2:15hr) - so very similar in time/effort Drive to TH: NW (any car can make it), North (does require 4WD with some clearance - TH at 39.487551, -105.965880) Routefinding: NW (Very tricky, especially in the talus there is no obvious route for the last 500 Vfeet), North (Shockingly, I felt like I was on a "route" much more through the talus with this route - mostly goat trails. But still a little tricky at a micro level - it's always obvious where you are trying to get to on a macro scale). Both routes have horrible talus for the last 500 Vfeet - it is medium sized and ALOT of it moves. Take gloves. BONUS for the North Route: What I really liked about the North route is that for the first 1.2 miles you are following a gorgeous single track MTB trail ("Little French" find it on the free REI MTB Project app - the portion that you will use is 95% green with a touch of Blue. On the App it is listed as Black because of the southern leg of that trail which you will not use in an out-and-back mode.) I would LOVE to go back with my bike and ride the trail to the horseshoe turn which is where you will leave the MTB trail and begin climbing. That is a great option that I definitely recommend if you like a mixed activity day. Second Bonus for the North Route: On the return hike instead of dropping back to the MTB horseshoe turn, I followed the upper ridgeline (which did add about 100 Vfeet) but it was a nice alternative to a standard retrace. I had no trouble navigating back to the TH with this option as there were very obvious animal trails to follow for all but a VERY short section. This ultimately dumps you back onto the "Little French" MTB trail most of the way back to the TH. Standard Northwest route: 2894 Vft, 8.78 miles RT, 4:30 roundtrip. North Route: 2171 Vft, 7.6 miles RT, 4:00 roundtrip. Hope this helps! |
|
6/11/2021 Route: Northwest Ridge/Slope Posted On: 6/11/2021, By: crb443 Info: Trail is dry tio the creek crossing and then intermittent patches of 1-3 foot deep snow that are 3 - 15 feet long. I made it to where trail pops out into the alpine around 11,400 but could not readily discern a snow-free route to attain the NW ridge. |
|
6/3/2021 Route: Northwest Ridge/Slope Posted On: 6/3/2021, By: dogfuzion Info: Skied the north facing bowl of Guyot. The coverage was great, there was a wide finger of snow up to at least 13,000 ft. We didn't quite get that high because it was warm and the snow was softening faster than expected for a north facing bowl. So we got to around 12,600 and turned around. The slopes were well covered, easy to avoid any patches of rock. You pretty much had to walk from the trailhead, with some post holing, until the creek crossing. After you crossed the creek you could skin the rest of the way. |
|
6/2/2021 Route: Northwest Ridge/Slope Posted On: 6/2/2021, By: Jorts Info: Skinned up to the west summit from Little French. Snow became continuous about half a mile up the trail. Still over a foot. A lot of snow on the NW ridge. North ridge looked drier. The skiing on the tongue was creamy. |
|
5/22/2021 Route: Northwest Ridge/Slope Posted On: 5/22/2021, By: soundchaser2112 Info: The French Gulch road is dry all the way until the trail splits off to the left, then there's continuous deep snow all the way to treeline. I went up the ridge route, snow was mostly avoidable once gaining the ridge. I just wore spikes up to the ridge then booted the rest of the way. The summit is heavily corniced, I couldn't tell where summit ended and cornice began, so watch out for that. I didn't bother with snowshoes on this trip so it was a little messy on the descent but honestly the postholing wasn't as bad as I'd expected, considering I'd done some occasional postholing on the ascent. I started at 4:30am, summited at 9am, and finished at 12:20pm |
|
5/6/2021 Route: Northwest Ridge/Slope Posted On: 5/6/2021, By: artemavovk Info: pretty much the same conditions as previous report; new layer of powder that's quickly slabbing; if you're in/out before ~11AM - you'll have great skiing conditions |
|
5/1/2021 Route: Northwest Ridge/Slope Posted On: 5/2/2021, By: mbnat Info: Skied Mt. Guyot via the NW slope on Saturday, 5/1/21 in excellent conditions. While this day was extremely warm with near record high temperatures, a better than expected overnight freeze (owing to clear skies) gave us a long window of safety. We started at around 6:20am, walked the 1.25 miles of the road to the trail, and then were able to skin all the way to the top of the snowfield continuously. Ski crampons might have been helpful for some of the upper slope for added security, but I got by without. The snow ends maybe 200' short of the summit, and we bootpacked up the rest of the way and left the skis behind. Due to very solid conditions on this relatively shady (in the morning) slope, we took our time and summited around 10am. We saw another group drop into the Swan Dive soon after on pretty soft but supportable snow. We hung around the top of the snowfield a little to wait for the snow to soften, and descended to the bench around 10:45am. We went back up and did a second lap on the upper snowfield as it still hadn't gotten too soft. The snowpack around 13,000' on a N/NW facing aspect we skied still hasn't seen much of spring. There appeared to be about a 2" crust, and then dry winter snowpack below that. We started descending the lower snowfield around11:30am with excellent conditions. It was possible to ski all the way back to the road continuously, but one section was almost gone and might only have a few days left before you have to walk (about 100' long). Got back to the trailhead a little before 1pm. All in all, an excellent day to be out there! |
|
4/29/2021 Route: NE Ridge - Variation Posted On: 5/2/2021, By: rudi32 Info: Hiked up the NE Ridge of Guyot, standard NW Ridge had obvious avalanche danger. Similar difficulty / mileage / elevation as the NW Ridge route, but was more safe / windblown. |
|
4/24/2021 Route: Northwest Ridge/Slope Posted On: 4/25/2021, By: CheapCigarMan Info: Road is snow free. Snowshoed almost the entire way from the road cutoff to the summit. Mashed potatoes through the woods coming back. Lots of skiers. |
|
4/21/2021 Route: Northwest Ridge/Slope Posted On: 4/21/2021, By: bergsteigen Info: Skied the NW face today. Nice cold powder off the top, got heavier as we descended. Skin skied right off the top. Sucked to walk the plowed road out instead of sliding it like last time. |
|
4/18/2021 Route: Northwest Ridge/Slope Posted On: 4/18/2021, By: Sglm14 Info: Condition was good on the NW slope today and weather wasn't too bad with mild winds on the summit. Used traction a mile after the little french gulch trail to the summit. NW ridge was sketchy with cornice on top of the ridge above the trees so we went up the center of the slope. Glissaded close to a 1000' |
|
1/1/2021 Route: Northwest Ridge/Slope Posted On: 1/1/2021, By: gluckhikes Info: Road is well packed and accessible. A good skin track follows the trail and switchbacks up to the ridge at treeline. Still some snowshoe postholing for me, the snow is very unconsolidated. Climbing the steeper parts of the ridge is tricky with loose talus half-covered in powder. Takes some time to get through. Prerty unique views from this isolated summit. |
|
12/5/2020 Route: Northwest Ridge/Slope Posted On: 12/5/2020, By: angry Info: Trail to Little French Gulch is well trenched and packed down. Once you turn up the slope to gain the ridge, prepare for post hole city. I didn't use flotation, but if you don't like swimming you may want to. Snow was unconsolidated and I punched through from 4 inches to mid-thigh. On the ridge there's crap sugar snow over loose talus all the way to the summit. Descended the gully in hopes of glissade opportunities which were non existent but provided good plunge stepping. |
|
11/22/2020 Route: South Ridge Posted On: 11/22/2020, By: habaceeba Info: Beautiful day for it. The morning was windless and it picked up from the south in the early afternoon but was at my back. The Michigan Creek road to the blocked FS 805 closed turn off is maybe passable without 4wd, but there is a long section of road on a N aspect that I was happy to have 4wd on. In the woods on the way up, the snow was sometimes 1' deep, but most snow was avoidable until descending E from summit. This is a great route and the 2+ finish after the long ridge was an excellent challenge. The ridgeline after the intermediate E ridge has a spectacular drop into the valley. I took spikes, but never pulled them out. I highly recommend this route in dry conditions |