Clinton Peak

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. Not that it's fantastic, but it's not on the Never Again list. 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: 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. 

Route: Combo Clinton/McNamee/Traver
Posted On: 6/11/2023, By: _coloradical
Info: Climbed on Saturday, 6/10/23.

Road leading up to Wheeler Lake has a lot of run off still, flooded in sections, and lots of snow heading up into the basin. Once in the basin, I opted to climb Clinton first. It was a nice walk into the basin and a decent climb up Clinton's South Slopes. I used traction and an ice axe for this, ice axe wasn't necessary (a trekking pole will be fine). You can see some avalanche activity along the face between Clinton and McNamee. The ridge was lined with cornices but can all be bypasses on the west side of the ridge, same for the walk over to Traver. From Traver, the ridge had snow on it until about 13,000, and from there you could get by without it. The walk out wasn't too bad, lots of additional snow melt, and a river running down the road.

Overall, nice day out. Total time car to car was just over 5 hours from Montgomery Reservoir. 

Route: Combo Clinton/McNamee/Traver
Posted On: 6/11/2023, By: cougar
Info: didn't climb, but posting a current picture showing lots of snow on peak and basin as seen from North Star. Looks like it won''t be melted out until July. 

Route: Combo Clinton/McNamee/Traver
Posted On: 5/20/2023, By: stomblin7
Info: Approach hike is in rough shape. The road is patchy with snow the first mile or so and has 6 inches of standing water in places you cannot pass without getting off the road. Around 11,500 ft we officially put on snowshoes as snow on the road became continuous. Ascended SE couloir of Clinton. Snow was very wet and heavy in general, but we were able to kick some solid but deeper steps in (Crampons and axe). Very cool and fun little couloir. I put snowshoes back on at summit for the ridge. The snow within 5 ft of the rocks was deep with snowshoes. Kept a wider distance and hiked over to McNamee. Very pretty Ridge - very loaded with snow and solid cornices at the top. I kept snowshoes on till last 50 ft to summit of Traver, where I removed them to navigate the rocks better. Plunge stepped Travers ridge back to basin and wore snowshoes back to about a mile from the cars. Will upload more pics tonight 

Route: Combo Clinton/McNamee/Traver
Posted On: 8/21/2022, By: kwhit24
Info: The road had the typically puddles I've seen on other reports and there was also a lot of water running down it. With rain the night before the bypasses through the willows soaked us in the morning but they dried up by the time we came down. Most of the rock was slippery on the route up slowing since they were wet and covered in lichen. Weather started to roll in during the hike down and we made is back to the car just in time before the rain

(11.45 mi; 3,301' gain; 5:54:39 total time)

Start at TH 6:05am; Traver Peak 8:55am; McNamee Peak 9:10am; Clinton Peak 9:35am; Back to TH 12:00pm 

Route: Combo Clinton/McNamee/Traver
Posted On: 7/3/2022, By: dcsheldon
Info: It was hard to keep my feet dry today. Up the 4WD road to Wheeler Lake there are a lot of large puddles with detours through willows. At the lake you run into snow along the shoreline. After climbing the gulley from the lake you'll run into 3 snow fields that aren't too hard to get through. I didn't use traction and didn't posthole. Spikes would have been useful. Once you are up in the basin it is really soggy with a lot of meltoff. You can mostly avoid the wet areas but easy to get feet wet if you wear trail runners like me.
After climbing the south slope of Clinton everything was dry up high. There is no snow on the ridge trail from Clinton to Traver 

Route: South Slope
Posted On: 5/7/2022, By: frigidridge
Info: The trail/road up to the mine is dry. Afterwards there are soggy, deep patches of snow with a few ponds on the road. Snow near the mine is melting fast. At higher elevation a fresh 5 inches was sustained with gusting winds and no sunshine to melt it. Clinton's south face is rocky but not dry, with the snowpack being inconsistent. I put on snowshoes starting around treeline and pretty much needed them on for the entire rest of the day. 

Route: South Slope
Posted On: 4/10/2022, By: funsizetiff
Info: Wheeler Lake trail is gated at the winter closure by Montgomery Reservoir. Snow starts 0.1 miles beyond the winter gate. With some creativity, you can skin most of the road. Past the slope above Wheeler Lake, we took off the skis and booted across a rock section, then booted up snowfields to 13.3k where we were able to follow dry rock to the summit. We did not use microspikes or crampons, though some may find them useful.

Summit descent is in right now - skiied down the ridge towards McNamee and chose a spot to drop into the bowl. The coverage in the bowl is excellent (no sharks), and showed no signs of instability. Clouds and wind kept things cool up high and the snow itself was firm.

Down lower, the snow turned into corn. The road was slushy, hikers we encountered heading up the road in the afternoon were postholing without flotation.