Mt. Arkansas

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 6/29/2023, By: blazintoes
Info: Dry. Enjoyed the east side scramble up more than the west side down. Also Moonshine is in. Easy couloir. 

Route: Moonshine Couloir
Posted On: 6/22/2023, By: EthanSpessert
Info: You can drive on the 4wd road well past the trailhead with ease, this cut about a mile from my approach. Moonshine Couloir still has a cornice guarding about half the entrance (though I went bottom up). It does not appear to be skiable from the summit, as the snow looked discontinuous near the top. Lots of runnels and avy debris in the couloir, and thin snow coverage down low. I stopped about 2/3 the way up and skied down. The couloirs lookers left from Moonshine I think offer easier climbing and better skiing. I skied an unnamed one two left of Moonshine. I descended Moonshine (from 2/3 up) around 8:50, with snow in good skiing down condition, but the ascent had gotten a little tough. I descended the couloir two lookers-left of Moonshine at 10:15. It was bulletproof on climbers left on the way up due to how inset it is and shade. Approach: If you look at my Onx track, my exit path would make for a pretty good approach (my exit is the one that spends more time on the road and is more easterly than my approach path). On this exit I dealt with zero Willows. The only down side is I spent more time on the road which itself is basically a stream. I think this time of year the ideal approach would get off the road sooner, but then link up with roughly my exit path to avoid willows and rock scrambling. https://share-backcountry.onxmaps.com/iLRVAoKqQAb Approach for next drainage/cirque over: You can drive the road all the way to 39.34462, -106.15814 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 5/21/2023, By: PeakMiller
Info: Skinned up the north ridge from the pass. Ran into two skiers doing the North Couloir which is definitely still in. I decided to continue to Tweto. I reached the summit, but couldn't tell if the bottom cliffed out so I walked back down to the saddle and rode off of that instead. Lots of snow still in the basin. 

Route: Moonshine Couloir
Posted On: 5/14/2023, By: VeraUndertow
Info: Started from the turn off for Fremont Pass South TH around 6am (1 hour later than intended due to some brain malfunctioning). Snow was mostly supportive on the skin track as we headed around the first shoulder of the north ridge following the road. We were able to skin all the way to the bottom of the actual couloir at ~13k on varying depths of fresh snow between 4 inches and a foot. Once we switched to booting the race against warming was on as we climbed and swam thru the soft snow, heading up the climbers left side to avoid rock fall and snow fall coming off the right side cliff face. 14er user Belchfire (Cam) and I took turns leading the booter and spent most of the time climbing in high dagger with a whippet and axe for more surface area plus it is properly steep. Clouds and a light breeze were instrumental in giving us the time we needed to summit and ski before the snow got too wet. There is a large cornice at the top of this line but luckily the exposure is minimized by climbing on the left until you go thru the choke at the top and cut left to avoid the cornice. Some neat rime ice on the summit which is 15 feet higher than the top of the couloir. We summited around 10 am and transitioned to ski back down. The top is very steep and spicy so bring your a game or take a slice of humble pie and just side slip thru the crux before it opens up. The turns below this point were phenomenal, slightly heavier pow. Once we reached the bottom of the good skiing we tried to contour north so we could easily make it out without going uphill any more than necessary. The ski out from here was a little wallowy in places but overall we stayed in the ski track and made it out by 11:30 with out much hassle. Truly a hidden gem of the Mosquito Range 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 1/9/2023, By: NittanyLion14er
Info: Deep snow to ascent (trench established). Slopes holding snow, but mostly avoidable . Ridge corniced but can avoid staying climber's right. Crux area covered in snow on summit side. Snow shoes, spikes, and mt ax came in handy. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 5/9/2022, By: astranko
Info: Intended on climbing the Moonshine Couloir but decided against it because of the large, overhanging cornice on the route. Went up a spur ridge to reach the North Ridge Route from the main basin. The cornice is incredibly rotten and detached from the main face. I would not climb under it. This was determined when I punched through the backside ~20ft back from the edge and there was no snow connecting it to the edge. 

Route: Moonshine Couloir
Posted On: 5/8/2022, By: CheapCigarMan
Info: Truly an epic couloir. Snowshoes and crampons. Postholed on the approach. At the couloir's entrance witnessed two small avalanches through the cliff bands to climber's right. Postholed through skiers wash in the entrance. Warm wet snow stuck to my crampons like Gene Simmons' platform shoes adding 5 lbs to each boot. Met a beast of a skier and his dog Celeste. I owe him a steak as he booted up ahead of me providing much needed relief from the postholing and crampon sticking snow. Celeste was truly amazing to watch as it fearlessly navigated the steep exposure of the couloir. The cornice was the gnarliest I've seen. 20 - 30mph winds and 18 degree windchill on the summit. Took the North Ridge back with 40 plus mph winds. Postholed down the slope. Postholed all the way back through treeline. Even taking baby steps all the way back didn't seem to help from postholing 2 - 3 feet and falling time and again on my face. Such a sufferfest, even worse that Silverheels via Scott Gulch. Probably great conditions for skiers but needed a much harder freeze for climbers. Truly an epic and beautiful couloir. 

Route: Moonshine Couloir
Posted On: 5/7/2022, By: ClimberSkierDave64
Info: Climbed and skied the Moonshine as well as couple other smaller couloirs in that basin. Moonshine is skiing well, with variable hot pow, breakable crust, and corn as well as some debris. Quite a bit of sluffing on the descent. The cornice is pretty big, so just be careful to avoid it during the very warm parts of the day. Line is skiable summit to car with a little poling which is nice. 

Route: Unnamed slope to the north of the summit
Posted On: 5/7/2022, By: bangerth
Info: We wanted to climb the NE couloir, but there had not been a good freeze in the past couple of days and we were just an hour or so too late: The snow was already getting quite soft. There is also a large cornice at the top which we ultimately discovered has already separated from the mountain. Looking around, it's also clear that all sorts of slopes have been shedding snow in the last couple of days. So while standing in the high basin looking over to the couloir, we decided to instead ascend a slope on the right that leads up to the NE ridge. This turned out to be relatively straightforward, and we then followed the ridge to the summit. While the slope was just a snow climb on relatively good snow, the ridge turned out to be a mixed snow-rock climb. On the way back, we took the NW ridge. I would have loved to glissade from it straight into the basin north of Arkansas, but the ridge is guarded by a large cornice that required us to descend quite a long distance along the ridge before we could finally drop into the basin. We did so around 11:30 or so, and the snow was already very soft, arresting our slide frequently. It took a good deal of postholing despite using snowshoes to get back down to the road and back to the car by 12:30. My recommendation is to leave very early, earlier than the 4:45am we did. There were a handful of people who came up the couloir at around the same time as we were at the summit, but quite frankly I didn't think this was a great idea. Get to the base of the couloir before or by sunrise, or find a different way up as we did. 

Route: Moonshine C
Posted On: 4/27/2022, By: Buddyboy27
Info: Skinned to just above 13k no problem. A few sink holes on the north ridge, some 4' deep, be careful. Moonshine entrance has a few well hidden sharks. Entrance snow is wind loaded but felt relatively stable. Snow in the Couloir felt good and stable. Doesn't seem like it has much if any melt freeze, especially near the top. Was going to tag buckskin north face as well but doesn't look in at all unfortunately. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 4/24/2022, By: Scott P
Info: Horrid snow conditions to get to timberline. A shallow layer of powder over a breakable crust which sits on sugar snow. It's miserable when ever you bust the crust. Not fun and gave up. 

Route: North Ridge Direct
Posted On: 4/10/2022, By: LetsGoMets
Info: Did North Ridge of Arkansas direct. Started from the standard trailhead, and then followed an on-map railroad bed east to the start of the ridge. Flotation was mandatory from the parking lot to the base of the ridge proper, where we stashed snowshoes. Snow/ rock hopping up to the ridge proper, and from there consistent snow and rock hopping to the summit. A handful of brief class 3/4 moves are in season to bypass some snow along the ridge. Used an axe for safety in one place, and would recommend a helmet. Didn't use any traction. Off our route was some recent slide activity on the east face (observations and photos on CAIC site). 

Route: Tweto to Arkansas and down North Ridge
Posted On: 11/9/2021, By: zootloopz
Info: Snow is pretty unconsolidated. Knee deep drifts mixed with rock hopping. Used microspikes the entire way. Coming off the north ridge was a lot of fun and we stuck to climbing directly over the class 3-4 towers. An excellent amount of postholing once you start dropping off the ridge proper and all the way back to South Fremont Pass. 

Route: North Ridge - Variation
Posted On: 6/24/2021, By: rudi32
Info: Summited Mt. Arkansas yesterday morning 06/23! Car: 4:45am / Summit 8:00am / Car: 11:30am - Spent about 1hr 30min on the summit, perfect cloudy weather up there. Gained the ridge much sooner than the route suggested, it was such an awesome & scenic ridge. One can definitely make this ridge Class 3 or higher, especially around the crux. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 6/22/2021, By: madadraw1
Info: Summer conditions. And, w/ summer conditions in CO comes the smell of smoke and haze on your hike! View of Mt Massive was visible but very hazy.