Gladstone Peak

Route: East face
Posted On: 6/28/2026, By: PedroCO
Info: Amazing what difference a week can make. No snow in the basin unless you want to find some. Was able to climb without getting on any. Chose more 3rd and 4th class options to get on better rock for shits n giggles. Even the talus rubble sections were pretty stable. Chose a bit of snow on the descent to glissade and bootski. Great route in an incredible setting. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 6/25/2026, By: notidealbutfine
Info: Started at Navajo Lake at 4:00AM after a horrible night of swarming mosquitos. Not much to report on trail until the Rock of Ages saddle. From the saddle, I scooted up Wilson Peak's southwest ridge, which went totally dry and summited around 7:15AM. Back down to the saddle, I dropped pack and got started with the north ridge to Gladstone. The traverse to Gladstone went totally dry as well, with the exception of maybe 4 or 5 steps on the top of a snowfield with good handholds on the nearby cliffs; certainly no need for traction or an axe. The traverse is pretty long and committing, but the rock quality was actually much better than expected. The rock does, however, get worse near the top. The whole traverse took me about 3 hours to out and back to the saddle. Marmots chewed my pack, I hiked down to the lake, packed camp and made my way back down to the TH, and drove to Yankee Boy for Sneffels the next day. Long day but very rewarding. Gladstone > Wilsons, imo. 16.34 miles / 4,485' gain / 11 hours, 8 minutes 

Route: East Face from Cross Mtn TH
Posted On: 6/23/2026, By: rmcpherson
Info: We did this the day after Thunder Pyramid. What a contrast! A beautiful hike on trail through the trees up to Lizard Head Pass, then dropped into Bilk Basin. Still good snow coverage from near the bottom of the basin to the ridge and we made good time with axes and traction. Once above the snow, we stayed on fairly solid rock for the remainder of the ascent. An all-around beautiful climb and one of my favorite centennial routes. 

Route: East Face from Cross Mtn TH
Posted On: 5/30/2026, By: Joey_parm
Info: Followed the 7/23/19 TR and GPX by HikerGuy. Quite helpful. From his two paths to/from the ridge around 13,300, I recommend taking the one climbers left both up and down. Easier scrambling. For the summit pitch, remember to not take the first snow gully you see. Walk towards ridge proper and there should be a C2+ scramble to the summit. Amazing glissade from just below the ridge all the way to the basin (make sure you watch where you're going since there are small cliffs). Brought snowshoes but didn't wear them. Only postholed a few times on the way out of the basin. Dry between the TH and the pass. 

Route: East Face
Posted On: 5/26/2026, By: jfm3
Info: I attempted Gladstone via the east face, approaching via Sunshine Mesa and Bilk Basin, on May 24. The trail is mostly dry to 11,400', at the split with the trail that goes up to the Rock of Ages pass. There are some areas of standing/running water and there are some short snowdrifts on the switchbacks after crossing the creek. The crossing can be done without getting wet, but it requires some careful foot placement on partially submerged rocks and logs. I wore snowshoes from 11,400' up to 12,200' Bilk Basin is still mostly covered in snow. I switched to crampons and ice axes at 12,200'. The snow was mostly firm with a wet upper layer maybe 2" deep. I turned around without summiting at 13,100' when multiple storms and snowfall arrived quickly. I'll post pictures in the next 1-2 days when I go through the photos I took. 

Route: North Face
Posted On: 5/13/2026, By: Jcinco
Info: I chose this based on very promising satellite imagery. Just goes to show the limitations of relying on that kind of data sometimes. The NF couloir has pretty decent snow conditions and booted really well. At the top of the couloir right now, you are faced with two options for gaining the summit ridge. To your left is a quite exposed 4th-class step on solid rock (not obvious it goes from below). To your right is a sketch rising traverse on thin partially consolidated snow over rock steps. I went right to gain the ridge to suss out its feasibility for a continuous ski. Not feasible this year. I was able to ski the east face from 50ft below the summit and back to ridge, and since I’m not too OCD about continuous skis, I down climbed the rock step. As I mentioned, surprisingly good snow in the couloir and all the way down to 12k. Below that it was junk due to the weak freeze, which was too bad since there is great coverage down to 11k. If you don’t mind getting a super early start, the east face right now offers the best option for a continuous ski and it’s way tamer at the moment.

Incidentally, Gladstone is the site of one of my closest calls in the mountains and certainly the most memorable. Quite a long time ago, I completed the traverse from Wilson Pk just as a horrendous T-storm hit. I quickly scooted down one of the west facing scree chutes to return to Navajo Lake. No more than 5 minutes after exiting the chute, lightning struck near the summit sending a torrent of rockfall flushing down the chute. Quite lucky indeed. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 8/4/2025, By: terribletigzy
Info: The route is totally dry and in good condition. This is an extremely long ridge and it is slow moving, do not underestimate it. It took me 3:30 round trip from the rock of ages saddle. I would budget 3-4 hours for the route for most people. There was good scrambling on the ridge proper, but more than enough loose rock to make me leery. I had several rocks dislodge that looked and felt solid upon initial testing. The loose rock had me constantly on edge and made it hard to enjoy the scrambling. I found the route very mentally taxing. I dropped to the east of the ridge a few times to avoid some harder parts, but you do not want to stray far from the ridge. Anything off the ridge is dangerously loose. Paper in the summit register is totally soaked, a new register is likely needed. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 7/26/2025, By: dcsheldon
Info: The only snow we encountered was on the ROA approach. I brought spikes but didn't use them.
The north ridge is difficult and time consuming. We had a good weather day. No wind and a little light rain near the end of the hike. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 7/29/2025, By: andy_legrunge
Info: To emphasize the route description - beyond Pt 13,341', terrain even a few meters below the ridge is dangerous. I cut some very large material loose when I got lazy and tried to avoid climbing over towers. Attempting to bypass obstacles, save elevation, or "keep it class 3" is not worth it. The ridge top is solid and rarely, if ever, exceeds airy and enjoyable class 4. RT from the Wilson saddle split was around 2:30 moving quick, and it took nearly the same amount of time in both directions. Be sure you have a good weather window before committing. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 7/1/2025, By: backcountrybrodes
Info: Ridge is free of snow, allow a lot of time for this one since you have to cross the class 4 ridge both ways. Harder than it looks. See my update from Wilson Peak on the same day for Rock of Ages approach conditions. TLDR is microspikes and an axe are highly recommended. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 7/13/2024, By: shapovalovm
Info: Did Gladstone on the way back from Wilson. No cairns, but there's a ton of options and hard to get lost anyway. On the way up mostly stayed to the left of the ridge and it was ok-ish. On the way back tried to be more true to the GPX and description and stay on ridge proper for the first 2/3 back to the saddle and more often than not it actually worked pretty nicely. So choose your own adventure :)

The route is no harder than class 3 (and quite a lot of it). The section marked as class 4 in the route description is not harder than a bunch of other sections on the route. Not sure by what principle this is supposed to be class 4. 

Route: East face
Posted On: 7/3/2024, By: gcook33
Info: Summit from Cross Mountain trailhead. Not sure why this isnt the standard route, it was incredible. Mostly class 1 and 2 on the approach. Then the last 500 some fun class 3, mostly solid. Snow on the route can be navigated with crampons or microspikes, but we had a guy without either and he just rock hopped around. Thanks to the trip reports written about this route, they were very helpful. 11 miles, ~4800 

Route: East Face
Posted On: 5/26/2024, By: kyrawhitworth
Info: Dry for the first mile from Cross Mtn TH then various levels of patchy and consistent up to and on the pass.(Obligatory stops to look at Lizard Head required.) We booted down from the pass into Bilk Basin and then very consistent coverage. We skinned up into the basin then transitioned to crampons. We left skis at the cliff band. There was a bit of weird scrambling over the cliff band then a more mellow slope to the final push. The couloir does truly feel steep and the rocks are exposed so theres not an easy option but the snow was thankfully about as good in crampons as you could ask for. Summit block felt truly epic (thank you to the awesome group on Wilson for the pics). Due to clouds we took our time overall on the ascent and thankfully it meant we timed the snow perfectly for some fun turns in the basin. full trip report as I felt this was a great snow route: https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=22525 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 10/4/2023, By: Jonathan Deffenbaugh
Info: Was snow free to final scramble, however did not use traction. Sticking near or on the ridge crest was the way to go, ended up doing the Class 4 crux following the route description. Used the trust but verify approach with hand/footholds, didnt fully commit till I knew the hold(s) were good. Had a helmet for protection. Long ridge though, especially since you have to do it twice 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 8/27/2023, By: swilson753
Info: As other reports have said, the route is in summer conditions. There's one 50 ft snow field to cross in Silver Pick Basin. It was a little slippery at 5 am after a bunch of rain the day before, but I was able to kick steps in hiking boots without any issue. I had more trouble with a couple spots up high in the basin (around 12.7k and 12.9k) where the trail to the Rock of Ages saddle appears to have washed out. It made for sketchy route finding in the dark. On my way down, I heard spontaneous rockfall above me as I crossed the washed out gullies. I'm glad I left my helmet on.

Overall the first half to 2/3 of the ridge to Gladstone is really fun scrambling on surprising solid rock. After the low point, the rock gets a lot looser/tippier, especially on some of the lower ledges we took to bypass some difficult sections on the ridge proper. Lots of the large flat plates will tilt unnervingly when stepped on. I thought the ridge would take 2 hours each way from the Wilson-Gladstone saddle, but it wound up taking just under 3 hours each way. It's a long and committing climb. We got rained on/graupeled on the way back. I was glad to be past the loose section when the weather rolled in.

Thank you to the two guys who let me invite myself along with them. You made today a lot of fun!