Clinton Peak

Route: Monica’s Descent
Posted On: 6/15/2025, By: austin132435
Info: Went early and climbed couloir, was in fine shape. Used snowshoes in parts of basin, very hot. 

Route: Monica’s Descent (partial)
Posted On: 5/31/2025, By: MidsizeAl
Info: Early start, hit the base of the couloir just after sunrise. In spite of this, the snow was very soft and did not get a good freeze overnight. Lots of recent slide activity throughout the basin. Bailed about a third of the way up off to the South on one of the cliff bands and made our way towards the standard route. Completed the traverse to McNamee and Traver and descended via the E ridge. The cornice between Clinton and McNamee has somewhat fallen, but be careful on the snow on the ridge. It was very punchy and difficult to tell what was above solid rock. Mashed potatoes the whole way back down towards the base of Clinton. Then, things got pretty spooky. We were on snowshoes headed down towards the lake around 11:30 and I heard a collapse behind me that travelled a couple hundred meters. Didn’t see anything move, but it was alarming. We moved cautiously and stuck to as low angle terrain as possible, but triggered several other audible collapses/wumphs that moved across the slope behind us. Definitely kept us on edge, especially as we traversed past the lake below the more dangerous slope angles. 

Route: South Slope
Posted On: 4/7/2025, By: notidealbutfine
Info: Started at Montgomery Reservoir. Wore ski boots for the first .5 mile, switched to skins up until the last .25 mile below the summit. Back to boots on windswept rocks to the summit. Skied from the summit back to the basin via the south slopes, then followed my skin track back to the car. Skis on 95% of the day! A snowmobile track goes almost all the way to the lake making for nice gliding. Low wind on this bluebird day! 

Route: South Slope
Posted On: 3/28/2025, By: aksean22
Info: Quick ski up Clinton yesterday from the Montgomery reservoir. Despite the forecasted warm temps there was a good freeze overnight and some cloud cover and a light breeze kept the snow locked up all morning. Good coverage from car to summit, no signs of any avy activity. Had to switch to booting in a few spots (ski crampons would've been helpful) but no postholing. 9.5 miles, 3200'. 

Route: Combo Clinton/McNamee/Traver
Posted On: 5/18/2024, By: backcountrybrodes
Info: Climbed the 3 peaks and it didn't feel like enough, so I added on the south face of North Star Mtn. and then an epic glissade down. Strava says 11.4mi, 5,492ft, 8:07:20. Road is gated at the winter closure. Dug an avy pit on Clinton (see photo) - there are 3in of hard slab, followed by 8in of thin dust, followed by 4in of harder packed wet snow, followed by a paper-thin ice layer, followed by more thin dust. Wore snowshoes for 90% of the day, mashed potato snow started at around 12:30pm. If you make the decision not to pack them because the road is completely dry from the parking lot... think again because you'll be walking back to your car to get them at about 0.5 miles in haha. If I would have done anything different I would have started about an hour earlier than my actual start time of 6:15am. Saw no other hikers the entire time and I was the only one at the lot. Wildlife I saw was only birds. Sweet views out there of all the snowy 14ers nearby!!! Go get 'em! Start early finish early! 

Route: South Slope
Posted On: 5/12/2024, By: k_fergie
Info: Skied Clinton today with Breanna. Terrible flat light, great snow. Skied car to summit to car with minor billy-goating on the road between the gated winter TH and summer TH at Montgomery reservoir. The lower road will melt out soon, upper road and slopes had great coverage and will for some time 

Route: Combo Clinton/McNamee/Traver
Posted On: 4/24/2024, By: Belchfire
Info: Solo Skied the Multi-pak deal from Montgomery today. Left car at 615 on mostly frozen snow. S Clinton was wonderful (dropped about 9), N Traver was a fun little face (1015), E McNamee (11) was creamy beauty. Exit was mashed but not horrible. God bless the determination behind the 3ft snowshoer postholes. Wet slide evidence on solar aspects, great views. Everything seems to be in right now- go get it! 

Route: Combo Clinton/McNamee/Traver
Posted On: 11/12/2023, By: Sbenfield
Info: Hiked along with Traver & McN. Spikromikes were helpful up to wheeler lake (large ice sheets are slippy). From Wheeler lake I used snowshoes to access the upper bench but only since I brought them. Definitely possible without. From the upper basin, south slopes to Clinton, then traverse to McN & Traver, then descend Traver back to the basin. Watch out for the many trap doors underneath sugary snow. 

Route: South Slope
Posted On: 10/22/2023, By: 14ercooper
Info: Mostly dry, a few snowy patches above the lake, but not spikes needed (did wind up walking on the snow in spots since that was easier, but you could probably find ways around all the snow). Super pretty basin with a dusting of snow, and some great views on the way in and from the summit. Great weather for my centennial (post-LiDAR) finisher and my half-way point for summits between 13,000 and 13,999! 

Route: Ridge from Wheeler, down south slope
Posted On: 9/18/2023, By: CarpeDM
Info: The snow that fell toward the end of last week had largely melted in the key places for the North Star-->Wheeler-->Clinton loop on Sunday. Most of what remained was between Wheeler and Clinton and was not a problem. No winter gear was used (spikes, axe, etc). I was pleasantly surprised by the North Star to Wheeler ridge; it was a bit higher quality than I feared. I personally thought the route-finding was intuitive, and the 4th class move was not scary or difficult under the conditions we had 

Route: Combo Clinton/McNamee/Traver
Posted On: 7/31/2023, By: Phill the Thrill
Info: Did this in "reverse" order: Traver-McNamee/Clinton. Beautiful basin, easy hike, didn't see any other climbers at all, but I did see about a dozen Jeeps making their way to Wheeler Lake. I had thoughts of traversing from Clinton to Wheeler, but weather moved in and I bailed out. Turned out to be a good decision as I saw thundershowers over Wheeler Mountain for 60-90 minutes. Fully summer conditions now, and the road is dried out enough that you can easily avoid the dozen or so large puddles by taking the well-established detours through the willows. 

Route: Combo Clinton/McNamee/Traver
Posted On: 7/22/2023, By: cougar
Info: Did the circuit starting with Traver, and adding on Wheeler. Mostly snow free, but had to cross a couple short firm fields, one ascending from the lake, and on descent from Wheeler in the basin above the lake. Road is awful, worse than Como but fortunately shorter and less steep. half of it is a river full of rocks and water, puddles with bypasses remain, and those are pretty developed. 

Route: Combo Clinton/McNamee/Traver
Posted On: 7/15/2023, By: sarahmariekirk
Info: Climbed Travers - McNamee - Clinton - Wheeler today! Entirely snow free on Clintons main route. We did see someone today that climbed up the snowfield to Clintons summit, which is still in. 

Route: South Slope
Posted On: 6/30/2023, By: Istoodupthere
Info: Didnt summit. Got the dreaded we need your signature email from work and had to cut my plans short. In a nutshell Id hold off doing this peak for a few weeks. A couple dozen areas of the 4wd road were either a river or a pond where you had to get into the willows to get around. There are use trails through most of these areas. Near the end of the 4wd road, the road becomes a true river. The stream draining Wheeler Lake also joins here and was impassable due to it being a waterfall. I had to climb directly up the hill to wheeler lake from here. Dont get too close to the waterfall as its all willows. Easier to head up a hundred yards or so before. In order to cross the stream near the lake, I had to cross a sketchy snow bridge that is probably already gone. If so, there is no way to get through this obstacle without getting wet. The trail after the old parking area is buried in snow. I walked along the edge of the lake a bit and decided to go straight up the hill to the left. It was a 40+ Degree snow climb on wet but supportive snow. I was able to do it with poles and no crampons but I wouldnt suggest. I was in too much of a rush to put on spikes. This section was about 50 yards in order to get to some solid rock. Did some class 2+ scrambling for awhile to about 12,500 until I realized it was just taking too long and so I turned around. On the way down a moose popped up from the willows around 11,500. Definitely a moosey area 

Route: Combo Clinton/McNamee/Traver
Posted On: 6/21/2023, By: -wren-
Info: happy solstice! climbed wheeler, clinton, mcnamee and traver today from montgomery reservoir. gist: still a lot of snow, but you can get by with just an ice ax and maybe spikes. 4wd road is very wet. lots of standing water, some spots that could be called small ponds, and higher up there are some sections that are flowing quickly with 4-6 inch depth. Usually there are bypasses but not the best approach for keeping your feet dry, and worse on the way back. One stretch a dozen or so meters long near the final switchbacks has become a segment of another major stream and has 2 feet of whitewater ripping through it. Then a few 50-100 ft patches of snow on the last switchbacks (mostly supportive even at 10-11 am on a warm sunny day) fully prevent vehicle access to wheeler lake. From wheeler lake to the ridgeline you will be on snow at least half the time, and that's if you zigzag your way up on dry patches. Could also definitely climb snow the whole way if desired. (Skiers, this whole area is very much in still...lots of pretty couloirs and bowls) I climbed the ridge direct to wheeler which was nearly 100% snow free and has some fun class 4 bits. The standard route you will still definitely want traction for as most of the gullies between rock ribs had plenty of snow leading all the way down into the opposite basin. Highly recommend just sticking to the ridge, fun route. Over to the other 3 peaks there's plenty of snow (70-80% along obvious route) and most likely some postholing unless you start very early. Postholed a couple dozen times but nothing too enraging. A day with no freeze would be quite miserable up there. Still some huge cornices in spots going to clinton and mcnamee that might kill you if they failed while you were standing on them, so give them room to breathe! Descent from traver was mostly dry until the final 300-400 feet of descent back to wheeler lake. Couple of safe options for glissading but i just cherrypicked a few dry grass ledges to get most of the way down. Postholed quite a bit from here back to the car on most of the snow I encountered, but lots was still supportive and definitely not worth bringing snowshoes. Never deep enough to strand someone.