Mt. Arkansas

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 4/25/2021, By: dwoodward13
Info: Took the North Ridge Direct variation. Used snowshoes from TH to treeline. Choice of rocks with light dusting of snow or all snow depending on how close you are to ridge top proper. The full snow option has lots of trapdoors, especially on the descent with softening snow. Used crampons and ax from just before the towers section to the summit. Quite a bit of snow here and wouldn't want to proceed without them. Saw two parties of skiers, but not sure of their descent. All the visible couloirs looked in good condition. High winds all day created noticeable wind slabs in sections upon descent. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 4/8/2021, By: Sbenfield
Info: Went up the whole ridge. Be careful of a lot of trap doors between snow & rocks. Thought my ice axe was handy in 1 or 2 places. Wore snowshoes in the forest part but didn't sink very much. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 1/3/2021, By: gluckhikes
Info: No summit - the final quarter mile of the ridge is very rough, definitely not class 2 in these conditions with loose snow covering loose rocks and exposed boulders. Otherwise I found a strong trench through the trees and then romped through shallower patches up to the ridge, a ways north of where the summer route should be. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 11/27/2020, By: Agstrohmeier
Info: Flotation is required between the trailhead and the ridge; we didn't bring it but our hips are feeling it, a lot more snow than we expected. Be careful in the rocks on the ridge, lots of trapdoors and postholing. We ascended the ridge very early on and it was fun but tricky in the rocks. ascending the western face would be easier. We did not make it to the summit so I can't speak to the end of the hike, but it was a good day today, absolutely no wind. There are some wind slabs so be aware on the open faces, 1-5 inches thick with soft snow underneath. Thickest on the north aspects but still present on a lot of western aspects. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 9/26/2020, By: colin j
Info: Dry to summit; Ridge walk to Tweto also dry. Wind was breezy in the morning but bearable. Conditions deteriorated throughout the day and wind was very gusty in the early afternoon which made narrow spots on the ridge pretty spicy. Looks like wind in the Mosquitos is predicted to be similar tomorrow. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 9/16/2020, By: Gumby65
Info: Almost all snow from early September is gone. You can hike ridge without encountering snow 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 9/4/2020, By: angry
Info: Dry to summit. No register. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 8/4/2020, By: Veganbutcher719
Info: The non existent trail is in great shape. Don't even bother trying to find a path, just blaze your way through the trees. Once you get to the meadows above treelike its pretty straightforward as far as where you need to be. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 6/17/2020, By: BeckyYoung89
Info: North Ridge is completely summer conditions. There are a few snow fields hanging on, but they're avoidable. For anyone traversing to Tweto, there is one unavoidable snowfield along the ridge where an axe was useful for cutting steps across (see pic). Skiers, this field still looks ski-able. About 500ft of continuous snow, the sporadic into the lower basin. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 6/6/2020, By: kwhit24
Info: Deep snow patches from railroad to to the end of treeeline. A gentleman in front of us postholed all the way through and we followed the footsteps both ways through the trees. PM for GPX if you want it. Made the walk through the trees much easier considering some postholes were almost thigh high. Once out of the trees the snowfields were manageable on the ascent but some postholing and glissading was needed on the way back to the trees. 

Route: North Couloir
Posted On: 5/17/2020, By: Thevirtualsherpa
Info: Echoing James' report from previously (thanks for the Beta btw!) TH: 4:30 topped out around 8 back to car around 11:30. Not a great freeze over with some precipitation in the area the night before. Postholing at 4:30AM is never ideal and thats what we dealt with until reaching the hill before basin. Basin was firm snow until base of Couloir where sluff runoff was VERY soft. Conditions in the couloir are far from ideal skiiing but certainly still in- sluff city with a number of sharks starting to show up. Top entrance has a cornice free entrance but LOTS of bigger rocks starting to get exposed up top. Way down had mostly dry ridge with some postholing near and around trees but not nearly as much as we expected. Last 1/4 mile back to car was rough though. Snow is melting VERY fast up there. 

Route: Moonshine couloir
Posted On: 4/30/2020, By: Ptglhs
Info: Attached is the photo of the Moonshine couloir as seen from Mount Democrat. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 4/5/2020, By: bludwig
Info: Upper ridge to summit is one long cornice. Stay to climber's right. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 3/8/2020, By: BKS
Info: Good trench in place all the way to summit. 4 shoers and 4-5 skies on Saturday. Flotation needed to treeline. Traction needed above. Some slide activity noted on north to NE aspect of slope east of ne ridge. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 2/23/2020, By: crowdsurf
Info: Came back for this one with 14ers.com member r_grizz. Variable snow conditions made this a long day. From the TH to the ridge was deep powder requiring flotation. Ascending the ridge was breakable crust not suitable for crampons, so it was easier to skirt to the rocks and grass. Once on the ridge, there was great styrofoam snow to walk on until the ridges intersect. The summit ridge involved multiple small snow field crossings if you stay low while bypassing the crux and mixed climbing if you stay a little higher. Staying high seemed to be a better choice as snow field conditions were sketchy to cross. Axe dry tooling was helpful but the rock definitely isn't the greatest. Photos 3, 4 and 5 are of the crux bypass.