Red Peak

Route: Big Eyes Couloir
Posted On: 5/3/2025, By: slawrence2011
Info: Started from Willowbrook at 6:15. Trail is mostly dry til low 9K, then a nasty incomplete snow mix til high 9k. No fun to skin/ski or posthole. At the third junction around 10,2, snow is mostly continuous. I was moving very slow due to this, stickiness of the snow, and all older tracks being pretty much covered. Got to the base of the apron at noon, and it was surprisingly dry, not wet affected. Booting conditions were good all the way up, got to the ridge at 3 (skipped unranked summit 100ft up due to lateness, though snow was fine), skied powder all the way, though some of it has a crust. I side slipped through the two rock cruxes due to there not being another sole in that whole wilderness and no service. Got back to the car at 8:45, starting from Willowbrook is stout! 

Route: South Face / Big Bad Wolf Couloir
Posted On: 4/13/2025, By: slawrence2011
Info: I skied this peak both Friday and Sunday. Friday, I started from Buffalo Mountain TH, and skirted the E side of Buffalo Mountain, and went up the South Face. Then dropped into Big Bad Wolf Couloir at 12:30. Fortunately there was some residual dry snow that made it somewhat soft, the snow that had previously been warmed was still very hard. I was surprised by a couple steep cruxes given snow conditions Tried to ski out to Buffalo Mountain TH, but Gore trail 60 S of Willowbrook was untraveled, and thin snow with a lot of obstacles, so skied out to Willowbrook and got an Uber. Sunday, same route up, but dropped off the South Side (my ascent route), first pitch from 13K to 12K was totally bulletproof even at a 1 PM drop. Second pitch from 12K-11K was glorious corn. Continuous snow back to Buffalo Mountain. Reason I went twice was I lost my BD ice axe Friday somewhere between Buffalo Mtn TH and the junction with the Gore Trail 60. I looked for it numerous times but couldn't find it, I think it is somewhere in those deep woods, let me know if someone finds. 

Route: Big Bad Wolf Couloir
Posted On: 4/6/2025, By: jeffh7
Info: Did a linkup between the Deming Drop Couloir on Deming Mountain and the Big Bad Wolf Couloir on Red Peak. Both couloirs were very filled in with no notable choke. Heavy powder in Deming Drop, blower powder in Big Bad Wolf, no tracks on 4/5 other than ours. Did a belayed snow assessment in Deming Drop before skiing the line. Started at Meadow Creek TH and ended at Willowbrook TH. Broke trail essentially the entire day. There was an existing skin track going up the south side of Red Peak from another group earlier in the day but we opted to take the south ridge from Red Buffalo Pass to avoid avalanche exposure from the snow warming on southern/eastern aspects. We observed one wet loose avalanche that came pretty close the existing skintrack late in the day, so we were happy with our decision. The south ridge was intermittent snow and rock, but we were able to keep on skins on for 95% of it but unfortunately did some damage to our skins. We stayed on the western side of the ridge because the eastern side had large cornices for most of the ridge. The "ski" back to the Willowbrook TH was as tedious as I had heard, especially for my splitboard partner. 17.15 mi & 7,321' gain in 15hr57m according to Strava. 

Route: Red Buffalo Pass
Posted On: 1/31/2025, By: Veory
Info: Didn't summit, did get a ways up from the pass. Was surprised that the buffalo loop had no tracks on it, set the trench the whole way to red Buffalo Pass except a little section at the beginning when I accidentally got too high and skied back down to the route. Probably didn't do the best job route finding though, but not the worst either. Getting back on trail was a lot of ski bushwhacking and I fell in a creek. Approach felt pretty long and I kept sinking into baby tree powder traps. Section directly below the pass was gorgeous. Went up the ridge towards Red as far as I could on skis, ditched them when it made sense and hit 4 shoulder height trap doors in the snow in about 200 yards. Figured another 1000' of that was more likely to end up as a broken ankle than a successful summit so I turned around. Had a few minutes of excellent skiing, then everything glopped to my skins and skis, requiring me to knock snow off every few steps with no gliding for miles. Was relieved to find a snowshoe track eventually to get some speed in the lower valley, but it ended up not going where my car was so I had to schwack again to get to the trail. Unfortunately the back connection of my skin broke and the other one got some snow in it. Ski straps only held it on for a bit, after which nothing seemed to work. I resorted to side stepping through the forest with one ski crampon and the one skin held by tension, eventually gave up and crawled for about 15-20 minutes to get back to the trail. Had myself a proper solo mini epic, for the love of all things good do not follow my tracks on the way down lol. At least it was beautiful and warm today. 

Route: Southwest slopes via Gore Range Trail
Posted On: 5/4/2024, By: Camden7
Info: Started from the Willowbrook TH and climbed the southwest slopes of Red Peak B then skied the south face. Low on the South Willowbrook Trail the was a mix of short snow patches and mud. Not in good condition for any form of travel. Once on the Gore Range Trail it was possible to skin up mostly consistent snow. Coming down it was very soft and the long flat sections were tedious. Above the junction with the Buffalo Cabin Trail there was no evidence of any human travel, so we broke trail. Luckily the freeze was pretty strong and we didn't have too much trouble. The trail was a little hard to follow in places and provided some interesting skinning to get above the waterfall. Above 10,400 the basin is holding on to a very deep and healthy snowpack, just gorgeous. We saw incredibly fresh wolf and bobcat tracks in the dusting of snow that fell overnight, but sadly didn't get to see their owners. Many of the ridges on and near Red were heavily corniced with evidence of frequent and catastrophic collapses. We chose to ascent the relatively low angle slopes in the small basin west of Red's south face. The snow was sticky on the surface, adhering frustratingly to our climbing skins, but just below that was a VERY slick windslab. This made the 30+ degree slopes frustrating to ascend on skis. We bootpacked the upper part to the summit but found the postholing to be very arduous. Summit was low 20s with 45+ mph wind (as forecasted) so dealing with skins and skis was a cold hand job. There is continuous snow to the summit on the southeastern side, and it provided a glorious ski down very fun spring corn all the way down the south face to where we rejoined the Gore Range Trail at 10,800. On the narrow 500 ft 45 degree couloir at the bottom of the face I triggered a small wet slab and a few large snowballs but nothing of concern. Beautiful area, great ski, tough snow for climbing though. Cool to see wolf activity, one of these days I am going to see one in the flesh! Feel free to PM me for any specific questions or pictures of neighboring peaks. 

Route: From Red Buffalo Pass
Posted On: 10/24/2023, By: HikerGuy
Info: Dry, as expected (for now). Had the entire place to myself and spent a windless half hour on the summit. Good day. 12.23 miles, 4,380 feet and 6h 18m round trip. 

Route: Southeast face
Posted On: 5/9/2023, By: SchralpTheGnar
Info: Climbed and skied southeast face on red peak b, continuous snow from buffalo trailhead to summit, long day to get back there, find the trail lose the trail, gpx track was helpful but still got off route a few times. No real easy miles on this route. Incredibly consistent consolidated snow the whole way, never before have I seen such similar snow conditions from 9,500->13,000, that was a pleasant surprise. 

Route: Buffalo MTN Trail head to south slope
Posted On: 5/6/2023, By: VeraUndertow
Info: Climbed and skied Red today from Buffalo Mountain Trailhead (the same one you use to ski silver couloir). I thought it was gonna warm up and be corn skiing but instead it was snowing from 6 AM start to 11:30 AM when I summited and was ready to ski. Total accumulation of 2+ inches made for some very nice dust on crust skiing though I'm sure it's all melted into the corn cycle now. I skinned down the hill following the exit of the silver couloir skiers from days prior and then skinned on the south side of the river hugging Buffalo to avoid the water fall area to the best of my ability. I did have to put on ski crampons here as it is steep and was icy this morning. Then once I passed the waterfall area I switched to the north side of the river where convenient and skinned onward for 2 miles in mostly nearing white out conditions as it snowed heavily on and off which made me feel like it was winter again but warmer. Once I approached the wider of the the two steep south couloirs which had minimal wet slide debris from previous days (marked with pink dots on the caltopo) I switched to booting for the 800' of steep snow. Once I crested this chute I was able to switch back to skinning as the slope angle tapers off dramatically and skin to within 100 feet of the summit. I could have put ski crampons on for the last bit but I figured it'd be just as easy to boot the thin ridge since the snow was deep, soft and there was already a boot pack in place here. I summited at 11:15 after taking my time on the way up knowing the snow wasn't in a rush to warm up. The ski down was quick about 5 minutes after dropping I was down to the bottom of the good skiing and then spent another hour traversing my way back to the silver couloir exit skin track where I switched to skins and was back at my truck by 12:45 PM, a total elapsed time of 6:25 minutes for the roughly 10 mile round trip. I wish I had more pictures but it was mostly gray the whole time until I was skiing out. 

Route: Buffalo Trailhead to Red Buffalo Pass tonridge
Posted On: 2/18/2023, By: Geckser
Info: Arthurspdierman and I skied Red Peak B today oweing to the green avy conditions in the Gores. It was extremely windy and the snow was extremely wind affected making for middling ski conditions off of the South face until about 12,000. The ascent up to Red Buffalo Pass was super nice, even the 400 feet of descent. But from the pass upwards the snow was pretty unconsolidated and the wind was some of the worst I have experienced this winter. Luckily it was otherwise warm and sunny. Quite a few people doing Buffalo Peak (Why?) but we didn't see anyone after the turn off. It was windy enough our tracks were covered in places only 3 hours after being set. Overall pretty cool, intermediate winter 13er with some awesome views. About 6 hours RT. 

Route: Ryan Gulch/Red Buffalo Pass
Posted On: 9/20/2022, By: JasonKline
Info: It's getting cooler in the mornings, but still free of snow and ice for now. 

Route: Zodiac traverse
Posted On: 7/19/2022, By: blazintoes
Info: A genuine traverse begins and ends on a summit and we chose to approach from the west to climb up Red Mtn B and traverse to Silverthorne aka Willow BM along all the technical towers and eventually end on Zodiac View which is the official terminus of the traverse. I brought one of my 60m twin ropes, a small rack of .3-#1 cams, stoppers, webbing, rap rings, rock climbing shoes, harness, helmet and my mini Jul belay device for the skinny 8mm rope rappels. We hustled 7 miles on the Gore Creek trail to Red Buffalo pass where we got wet feet from willow and creek crossing. Also you must walk 2.5 mph to avoid mosquitoes. We were on pace and summited Red Peak by 8 after a 0415 departure. The gorgeous day afforded time to enjoy the summit and plan our traverse of the 9 towers. Red is such a nice easy peak with good views of Dillon Lake, the Tenmile, Sawatch, and Front range. Once down Red we got our gear ready and started the class 4 scramble of Cancer our first tower followed by a 40' down climb to the first anchor. The webbing was in good shape and I rapped first but pre rigged my partner's making sure we would all get down safely. Also approaching from the west allows safe bail out options if weather or anything else stymies progress. We 3 rapped without issue and I coiled the rope and off we scrambled up the class 4 Capricorn tower. Another down climb to another good anchor and short rap followed by the one free hanging long 85' rappel. Wheeeeee! The next scramble up the twin Gemini towers was excellent and we found the north chimney up between the two and again the rap anchors were in good condition. At last we're starring headlong at Taurus' intimidating face and this was by far my favorite scramble of the day at a solid class 4 scramble. This reminded me of the Partners traverse with CarpeDM a couple years ago. Super fun! Another rap that was somewhat junky and my rope was getting abused. There is potential for slicing through the rope and I explained to my crew how to help ensure we don't do that now onward because we have the crux on Scorpio. Scorpio is the smallest of the towers and after the 80' rappel off Taurus you scoot east then hook around to Scorpios north side where there is a more technical face with positive holds and many places to put gear. I slung a small pinch of rock with a mini sling and stepped right over the face with excellent holds. Above the sling I placed my # 1 cam and continued up the west lichen face. The lichen was very thick but the climbing was low angle and I didn't place anymore gear. The summit anchor was in good shape and I put my partners on belay. They looked good on the summit and we were all happy to be done with the crux. The next tower Libra has a fantastic knife edge and Andrew looked good up on Libra Prime that is a short quick but loose class 5 move up and down. Sagittarius is a longer class 2/3 east ridge scramble and the old piton raps were rusty but again solid and in good shape. After this final 10th rappel we are looking at Aires the final tower that is a class 2/3 and decided to put all the gear away and put our hiking shoes back on. Aires goes quickly and the afternoon sun is hot. We choose the class 3/4 gully up to the saddle between East and Silverthorne because why not and our scrambling cups are filled. We hoot and holler at the top then decide to skip East because it's 1730 and we have a long way to go. We find the Willow BM and cruise down the ridge to our final summit of Zodiac view. The descent is littered with alpine flowers and we finally got annihilated by mosquitoes when filled up our water at a small creek at 11,000' We quickly bushwhacked backed to Gore Lake trail with Andrew's excellent navigation and finally back on Gore creek trail by 10pm for a successful Zodiac traverse, party of three. Nice job team! Muah! 

Route: Ryan Gluch/Red Buffalo Pass
Posted On: 9/18/2021, By: madmattd
Info: Easy trail conditions other than a myriad of half-broken bridges across numerous stream crossings near the Gore Range Trail/spur from Buffalo Mountain junction. Trail junction by the lake that heads towards Red Buffalo Pass isn't really visible until you are almost at it; hint: it's by the lake. Obvious options to cut up directly from treeline and cut off some distance if desired instead. I was surprised to find a solid use trail most of the way from the pass to the summit, other than the talus section half-way up. Stay on or just West of the ridge crest for the best going. On my way back I somehow ended up on a secondary spur of the Gore Range Trail just above treeline, which after following it for a while before realizing my error didn't seem like it would actually connect to the proper trail. Easy enough to cut down and join the correct trail but a bit surprising. I wonder where it goes? Tons of people near the falls that came down from the Ryan Gulch/Buffalo Mountain TH. That 400' reascent was unpleasant but short at least. 

Route: Via Red Buffalo Pass
Posted On: 9/14/2020, By: jfm3
Info: I ran the Buffalo Mountain Loop on September 13 and summited Red Peak from Red Buffalo Pass. There was minimal snow to cross in the upper basin immediately east of the pass, and some mud in the trees on the approach. There were a few steps of firm, cold snow on the ridge but these may melt out quickly. Photos: 1. Southwest view from the summit toward Holy Cross. Decent view of the upper ridge from Red Buffalo Pass here. 2. West view from the summit. The snow was never any more widespread than this on the ridge. 3. South view from the summit. There is snow on the north side of Eccles Pass but it was melting quickly. Unavoidable in some spots but no need for gaiters or spikes. 4. Red Peak, including the entire ascent ridge, from Eccles Pass. 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 4/5/2020, By: supranihilest
Info: From Buffalo Mountain Trailhead I took the South Willow Creek Trail to the base of Buffalo Mountain's Silver Couloir and then straight downhill to the creek where I crossed on a less-than-ideal snow/rock hop combo. I then made my way up to the Gore Range Trail and started heading west, following old cross country ski tracks and then once again blazing my own trail. I had intended to climb up to Red Buffalo Pass and take the south ridge but the entire ridge, miles long, was guarded by the most enormous cornice I've ever seen. I cut north prior to the Pass and took broad snow slopes up all the way to the summit. These slopes were beneath the slide angle but were still kind of uncomfortable. Fortunately the snow was stable, but there were numerous cornice falls throughout the day and by the time I descended the snow was softening and I was kicking down rollerballs and wet sloughs were releasing from rocky outcrops. If anyone ends up climbing Red in the next couple of days try and follow my lower track on the ascent; if you take the upper track where it splits you'll gain elevation that you're then forced to give up, only to have to gain it again. Also don't forget there's 400 feet of elevation gain coming out of South Willow Creek drainage. Flotation is necessary (I wore snowshoes from car-to-car), traction is unnecessary, and an ice axe is only nice if you aren't totally comfortable on moderate angle snow otherwise it's dead weight. 

Route: South Willow Creek
Posted On: 7/21/2019, By: RyanSchilling
Info: Snow-free until near Red Buffalo Pass, where it is easily avoidable. From there, the southern exposure has left the ridge clear all the way to the peak. Debris from a monumental avalanche covers the trail and creek for a section about midway up the valley, but the trail is pretty obvious coming out the other side. Astonishingly there weren't any mosquitoes. Have they not hatched here yet?