Mt. Buckskin

Route: Northeast Slope
Posted On: 6/6/2026, By: swilson753
Info: Summer conditions 

Route: Northeast Slope
Posted On: 5/29/2026, By: usfgal
Info: Road is closed about 1.3 miles below Kite Lake. I was able to avoid any snow on the mountain. I tried to take a shorter route down than I had taken up, but that kept leading to the tops of large snowfields, so I’d have to reroute. I only did Buckskin. 

Route: Democrat to buckskin traverse
Posted On: 5/23/2026, By: Ethansil
Info: Lots of snow which made route finding hard but nothing crazy. Kept close to ridge which was almost all class 3 maybe even class 2 and class 4 if I wanted to go out of my way for it. No micro spikes or axe required. I descended down buckskin off trail following electrical poles until I reached the kite lake road basically. 

Route: Tweto to Buckskin Traverse
Posted On: 3/30/2026, By: 5meodimte
Info: Very fun route. Good class 3 action. 2 or 3 small patches of unavoidable snow. Didn't need spikes or axe. Summit register appears to misplaced on the small sub-summit of Buckskin. I didn't relocate it. Didn't reverse the traverse due to increasing winds. I found a reasonable descent route down from the Buckskin-Loveland saddle back to Mosquito TH 

Route: Loveland to Kuss traverse
Posted On: 3/24/2026, By: rivrrapids
Info: Traversed from Loveland Mountain to Kuss from base of Mosquito Pass. Snow was deep in spots below tree line. Most snow on traverse was between Buckskin and Tweto, here an axe was handy but snow was soft enough to not need any traction. There was some easy snow travel throughout the rest of the ridge if you wanted. 

Route: Northeast Slope
Posted On: 12/29/2025, By: notidealbutfine
Info: Road is open, plowed and dry all the way to the winter closure about 1.5 miles below the Kite Lake TH. Even with the recent snow on Saturday, I'd say you could drive it all the way in a 2wd low clearance sedan with no issue still. Camped at the TH Sunday evening but didn't get started on trail until about 8:30AM since the winds were absolutely horrendous all night and the morning of. Probably the coldest I've been all year due to the wind chill. The road to Kite Lake is totally dry, I hiked it in trail runners, then switched to mountaineering boots and gaiters once I started on the Emma Lake trail. Broke trail to the upper basin with only the occasional post hole or trap door. I brought snowshoes, but the snow wasn't quite deep enough to warrant putting them on. The northeast slopes were totally dry, but I worked my way up the east ridge and followed it to both summits. Clear skies, but truly atrocious winds. Would have liked to bag Tweto or Loveland, but it was just too damn miserable out. 5.4 miles / 2,667' gain / 3 hours, 47 minutes 

Route: Northeast Slope
Posted On: 10/19/2025, By: madmattd
Info: Virtually no snow from Kite Lake to the ridge, and any that is there is less than 1" deep and avoidable. A few patches along the ridge on Northern aspects here and there, but nothing consistent or worth worrying about, and all easily avoided if desired. I never even considered putting on spikes. What I could see of the DeCaLiBron loop looked to be in similar conditions.

Hit both Buckskin summits and then Loveland. Nice newer register (2024ish) on the Western Buckskin summit (looks like that's the higher bump per LiDAR?). Breezy ascent at times to Buckskin, but the wind really ramped up on my descent to Loveland and until about 1/2-way back down the NE slopes. Sustained winds were generally 5-10mph. But the gusts were intense and required intermittent stopping, crouching, bracing - I figure some had to be in the mid-50s mph, and I did get knocked over once or twice thanks to ill-timed wind gusts. Thankfully sunny and not terribly cold (30s along the ridge), but a reminder that winter is coming for sure! 

Route: From loveland mtn
Posted On: 9/6/2025, By: ericahlstedt
Info: Summit register paper is wet and moldy. Those plastic pvc pipes seem to make poor registers, I always find them either exploded into smithereens or with the insides wet. Anyway, could use new paper. Also no pen or pencil 

Route: Northeast Slope
Posted On: 7/2/2025, By: GSODJA
Info: Summer conditions. One snowfield just below ridge. Can cut across just below it. 

Route: Buckskin-Democrat ridge
Posted On: 6/30/2025, By: MMAfightingClimber
Info: Did Loveland, buckskin and Democrat. Pretty much snow free on our route today. There’s not too much info on this ridge but it is pretty straightforward, we stayed pretty much on the ridge crest the whole time and it was pretty tame I thought. I will say the rock was pretty loose in a lot of areas and I didn’t trust a lot the rocks on this ridge. There are lots of workarounds on this ridge to the west if you don’t want to stay directly on the ridge though! I’d say it’s easier or similar to Kelso ridge 

Route: Northeast Slope
Posted On: 6/29/2025, By: ProfetaP
Info: The willows at the bottom kinda suck, but you can navigate your way around and through them ( I chose to stay high, go towards the power lines and then cross the creek). Once past them, I stuck to the power lines for a bit and then went up between Loveland mountain and buckskin. There is a very very faint trail, more of a choose your own adventure. It’s easy to get to the summits of both; short and steep tho until you hit the saddle. Be cautious for the wild flowers as they are everywhere, and it’s beautiful. Also there were no snow crossing unless you just wanted to do it. 

Route: Northeast Slope
Posted On: 6/23/2025, By: awpalmer27
Info: Summer conditions. No flotation or traction necessary. The snow field near the summit can easily be avoided above (by staying on the summit ridgeline) or below.

The crux of the route IMO is the marshy area where you leave the Lake Emma trail and cross Buckskin Creek. I couldn’t find a good way through on either the ascent or descent. Just had to bush bash and accept getting the boots wet. 

Route: Northeast Slope
Posted On: 6/13/2025, By: sehessler92
Info: You can avoid all snow aside from around the lake (short glissading opportunities on the way back) . You can also avoid snow up to the summit but it requires a bit more work ( just dealing with loose rock) so I put on my microspikes and walked on the snow on the descent. Other than that no other traction needed. Might not even need microspikes but I err on the side of caution. Did post hole a little bit near the lake/Th on the way to and from Buckskin, but nothing where I felt having snowshoes would have saved time.

Side note: looked like the gate was open at 8:30 this morning. Not sure if it is officially open or was just open for the town of Alma worker to get to the TH. Figured if the worker didn’t want people to go up to the TH he would have closed the gate behind him. 

Route: Northeast Slope
Posted On: 6/2/2025, By: L1zzz1ee
Info: Climbed Buckskin and Loveland. The road is closed at the winter gate. Started off with Buckskin because we didn’t see an easy ford for the creek by the parking lot. Wore snowshoes for a good chunk from about Kite Lake TH area with some postholing. The last 1000’ ft of elevation gain are clear with just a few small snow patches to the summit. Clear traverse to Loveland. Avoided snow on the way down until the very end when we snowshoed again through willow and tree patches. Ended fording the creek just below the parking. 

Route: From Loveland, loop
Posted On: 5/24/2025, By: d_baker
Info: Started at 6:20am from the closed gate next to signs for Fee Area.

Carried snowshoes, didn't use them.
Carried microspikes (in favor of crampons for this route) but didn't need them either.
Axe stayed on pack too.


Dropped from the road at the gate and ascended E slopes of Loveland. On firm snow starting off from bottom but quickly got on dry slopes to ridge. Patches of snow along ridge to Buckskin's former "summit" (pre-LiDar) but traction with boots worked well for us.

Descended NE slopes of Buckskin to the road, connecting a little below summer TH for Kite Lake.

Snow stayed firm on descent for most part for us. Tried staying in wideopen areas with snow vs. getting close to vegetation/willows.


~5 miles
~2500' gain, per gaia track

I was slowww. 6.5hrs.
2nd time doing this loop. (1st time followed Roach loop description for these two.)