2/13/2022 Route: South ridge Posted On: 2/13/2022, By: gluckhikes Info: Followed the winter route from the road that passes Buckskin Joe Mine. The road was well packed with snowmobile and skin tracks, no flotation needed. Snow stayed hard packed through treeline (spikes useful in spots) where it quickly disappeared almost completely as the south ridge is battered by constant strong winds. It was a real effort to push through to the Loveland summit, where the wind became absurd and impassable. Did not continue to Buckskin as planned. |
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12/18/2021 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 12/19/2021, By: CheapCigarMan Info: Road dry all the way to the locked gate. Started from the gate and took the slope up the saddle direct (just north of the ridge and just south of the summit). Postholed to my knees and groin through the willows but dry above them on the slope to the saddle. Didn't need to take the ridge as conditions were so dry. Frigid cold. My contacts in their solution froze solid during the night (that's a first). 40mph winds all night long. Very cold and windy during the day. Beautiful bluebird arctic air skies. Very dry. No flotation. No traction. SAR woke me up the night before. Apparently a couple was lost in the DeCaLiBron area. |
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8/28/2021 Route: North Ridge from Mt. Buckskin Posted On: 8/28/2021, By: mtngoatwithstyle Info: Wind, sunny and a beautiful day on the mountains. Dry conditions from Buckskin saddle to summit. Tundra is already changing colors. Fall is here. |
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11/28/2020 Route: North Ridge from Mt. Buckskin Posted On: 11/29/2020, By: jbealer Info: Parked at gate, road is dry. Used spikes starting at the bathroom, took summer trail up buckskin. Broke trail never sinking to deep to warrant snowshoes. Steep section up we rock hopped between snow patches. Ridge you can avoid most snow, route to NW summit had more ridge snow, again only spikes were used. Couple came up after us so good trail in snow now. Made our way over to loveland, no spikes, route is almost dry. We descended off loveland, put spikes on halfway down making our way to the car at the gate. Snow much deeper in places, up to knees in the willows. Still found it better then retracing our steps back to buckskin. |
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10/6/2020 Route: North Ridge from Mt. Buckskin Posted On: 10/9/2020, By: wolfgangstiller Info: Route is in good shape. No snow or ice to deal with and the final trail to near the summit is in good shape. (The ridge is much easier that it looks due to this trail) The road to Kite Lake is in the best shape I have seen but I wouldn't take a low clearance vehicle the last half mile. |
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9/26/2020 Route: North Ridge from Mt. Buckskin Posted On: 9/26/2020, By: daway8 Info: No snow in the way but it might be worth noting that out of a trek from Tweto to Arkansas and back over Tweto to Buckskin then Loveland Mountain, by far the worst wind of the day was on the class 2 stroll from Buckskin to Loveland. Had to take a knee multiple times and walked hunched over most of the rest of the way. Trivial ridge but epic winds. This is lined up with Mt. Cameron, the other place where I was once almost blown off the mountain. Wind seems to like this corridor. |
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9/21/2020 Route: North Ridge from Mt. Buckskin Posted On: 9/24/2020, By: dhagan Info: Dry. |
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10/4/2019 Route: North Ridge from Mt. Buckskin Posted On: 10/4/2019, By: supranihilest Info: The ridge between Buckskin and Loveland looks harder than it is, as there's basically a trail the entire way. It braids at times but the route is incredibly obvious. Though it's irritating going back to Buckskin that might be your best bet for descending; I went down Loveland's east ridge/slopes and while it wasn't particularly difficult I ended up doing a lot of weaving and heading southeast instead of northeast, which was away from my car. I then had a heinous willow bash at the bottom. It didn't last long but it was willows, and you can avoid willows entirely descending Buckskin. I then walked back on the road, but I can't imagine doing so saved time or energy over simply traversing back to Buckskin and going down the way I came up. |
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6/13/2019 Route: ‘Hourglass’ gully Posted On: 6/14/2019, By: Tim A Info: Hiked the hourglass shaped gully on Loveland and traversed the standard route to Buckskin. Coverage is great on both peaks though the ridge is mostly dry. Snow up Loveland could have been bare-booted, and was soft enough to put an ankle-knee deep bootpack up the gully though I started at 530. Buckskin north slopes have great coverage Pic1: the ‘hourglass' gully at dawn Pic2: bootpack Pic3: passing the big cornice to climbers right, over a rock band at the top of the couloir Pic4: the steep crux near the top, looking over at Democrat Pic5: top of gully looking towards Loveland summit Pic6: buckskin from Loveland Pic7-8: looking back up Buck after dropping down to the basin Pic 9: the hourglass and a parallel snow slope to climbers left |
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12/16/2018 Route: North Ridge from Mt. Buckskin Posted On: 12/16/2018, By: WildWanderer Info: See Buckskin Conditions report for information to saddle. From the Buckskin/Loveland saddle no traction needed to summit Loveland, but if you have crampons/snowshoes you can use them to climb the final push to the summit instead of using the dirt trail. |
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10/14/2016 Route: North Ridge from Mt. Buckskin Posted On: 10/14/2016, By: jasayrevt Info: Clear and very nice enjoyable trip w/ reaching summits. Invigorating, Inspiring Hobby. Buckskin County Road 8 Okay. Great, beautiful 13er mountains. This quality, classic route is a unique undertaking and lightly traveled. Incredible views of Mosquito Range Peaks. Prime, excellent, and bluebird fall conditions up high for navigating slopes and ridge line extremely well. Trail runners and light pack were good. Climb safely / swiftly in the hills folks. Pictures included as beta |
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7/24/2015 Route: North Ridge from Mt. Buckskin Posted On: 7/25/2015, By: JasonKline Info: Plenty of 2WD, four-door sedans made it to the Kite Lake trailhead. You can avoid the remaining snow on the route to Buckskin and Loveland. |
