Gladstone Peak

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 8/6/2023, By: daway8
Info: Only a few trivial snowfields going up towards Wilson Peak (see reports for that peak). After that, the traverse to Gladstone is totally dry. Lots of snowfields left on the north slopes of the El Diente-Wilson Traverse but from the looks of it (and what I've heard) the Traverse itself is dry. Mt Wilson East Face route had a surprising amount of snow left but is no longer continuous. Ridge proper from Wilson to Gladstone was fairly solid overall but, as others have reported, there are some very large rocking horses on this route that will get your heart pumping if you step on one unawares. Route quickly goes from class 2 to 3 to 4 if you stay ridge proper, with a couple isolated class 5 moves with easy bypasses. Agree with the note in the route description that you're typically better off staying on or near the ridge crest, but it does get tiring by the time you go there and back (especially if you just did Wilson Peak before going over to Gladstone). 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 7/24/2023, By: Veory
Info: Summer conditions. I thought that the looseness of the route was overhyped, aside from the start of the ridge from the saddle with Wilson. Thought the scrambling was enjoyable, although it was a bit hot with a lot of direct sun and this recent heat. 

Route: NE Face
Posted On: 7/22/2023, By: slawrence2011
Info: Started from Sunshine Mesa Th at 4. Dry until upper Bill Basin, great trail, but glad I had the beta for crossing Bilk creek .2 miles past the main crossing, running high! Almost climbed snow to the ridge, but entry to col is getting thin, and took a couple crampon steps on rock. The snow was quite cohesionless by these rocks, but better rest of way til ridge. Class 2 on ridge was cruiser. Skied down from ridge, took off skis to cross bare spots, then took off skis several more times to link snowfields down to 11,8. Much more cruiser when snow covers loose rock! 

Route: East Face
Posted On: 7/2/2023, By: _coloradical
Info: Trail up to Lizard Head pass is in great condition currently.

This route contours around Cross Mountain until you gain the eastern slopes. Despite my 6 am start time, the snow was still hard and easy to move across. I highly recommend an ice axe and crampons for the snow section, I noticed I forgot mine at mile 4, when I went to grab my crampons and it made the last portion of the climb a little tougher.

The slopes before the ridge are holding some nice snow at the moment. Once you gain the ridge, its got a couple of snowy areas youll need to bypass but mostly dry rock.

I havent climbed the North Ridge, so I dont know if the rock is better then how Roach describes it. Followed a similar line on the descent, but a pole collapsed and went for a short slide.

Overall it was a great route, conditions are good right now.

One other person made summit today that was behind me. Overall great day for Gladstone. 

Route: East Face
Posted On: 5/28/2023, By: dcruz654
Info: Snow begins a half mile from the trailhead. Seems like the freeze has been doing well recently. Snow stayed firm enough to stay mostly solid even down low at 10am.
I started at 4 am. Was on a split board, but walked for about 1.5 miles before switching to skinning, honestly could have easily walked all the way to the pass between Lizard and Cross. Once at 11,900 there are some spots were there was no snow, so I booted to the saddle, this was avoidable however if you really wanted to stay on snow.
The face gets sun early, but held up pretty well while I was climbing it after 7.
Summited around 830, then dropped at 9. There was just barely enough snow to ski off the top with a bit of billy goating just 50' vert from the summit. Bit of sloughing in the steeper sections near the summit and the cliff band, but was manageable.
Back at car just 1:45 after leaving the peak.
East face is good right now, maybe not so much for skiing (it was ok, Wilson looked GREAT though), it seemed walkable from bottom to top and back with minimal post holing 

Route: East Face
Posted On: 7/3/2022, By: frigidridge
Info: East face is nearly entirely dry. Snow can be avoided. 

Route: East Face
Posted On: 4/18/2022, By: Geckser
Info: Just the perfect day up there, conditions could not have been better. Snow was firm in the morning and made for great skiing by 9:00.

We left at 5:20 A.M. and were back at the car by 11:00 A.M. We skied up to 13,300 where we dropped our skis put on crampons and summited. The snow above 13,300 was supportive but probably had 3 inches of give making for great hiking. The much discussed rock band was easy to find a line through and the summit “couloir” was in great shape.

In the morning we were accompanied by a bright moon and it was easy going to lizard head pass (though we took a bad route up). From the pass we probably lost 300 feet before pushing up the east face.

The ski descent from 13,300 was awesome with some borderline corn snow for the entire face and some great turns on the other side of Lizard Head Pass. Coverage is perfect.

Very, very fun day and if you want to bag Gladstone conditions are not getting much better. 

Route: From Lizard Head pass
Posted On: 1/17/2022, By: blazintoes
Info: Cruiser Cross trail tracked via skis and snowshoes to 3.5 miles then you're on your own. Some dry spots up by Lizard Head so stashed my skis at 11,700'. Circled all the way to the pass then cruised down 400'. And then steep is the name of the game all the way up Gladstones east face. There's a steep 40 degree col right up to the summit for 500'. The snow was absolutely perfect! Muah!
I'm on the summit now.
Anyone wanna do Vermilion with me tomorrow via Hope Lake? 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 8/8/2021, By: Skimo95
Info: Summit needs new pen/paper. Packed out old cable, and left register. Judd D. likes South Maroon more than LB. Kiefer, Whitley, and Brad were on the list before the paper got ruined. Holla! Crest direct can go at low class 5, rock was sturdier than expected, still have to look for holds. 

Route: East Face
Posted On: 7/29/2021, By: lfishsays
Info: East face is dry. Big thanks to HikerGuy for the GPX file that was extremely helpful as we were crossing the basin in the dark. Really enjoyed this route! 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 6/21/2021, By: Will_E
Info: See my Wilson Peak conditions report for info on ROA approach.

From the start of the ridge to summit, just a few firm snowfields to cross. I stayed ridge proper to avoid snow along the east side go the ridge. 

Route: East Face
Posted On: 5/23/2021, By: supranihilest
Info: I climbed Gladstone's east face from Cross Mountain trailhead. The first .6-.7 miles are mostly snow free, but very muddy. In some spots the trail is literally a stream. Snow begins at this point, and while it was marginally OK in the morning it was full of annoying boot postholes. On my descent I left a nasty trench of snowshoe postholes. At least route finding will be really easy now. Take the trail to the Lizard Head/Cross Mountain saddle.

The route from this saddle is all pretty straight forward. Descend on snow into Bilk Basin and make your way towards Gladstone as you see fit. Currently the rock glaciers are completely covered in snow, which made travel significantly easier. I kept my snowshoes on until the base of the Class 3 cliff band, switched to crampons, then scrambled up one of the arbitrary breaks in it. It was definitely Class 3 and snow and ice upped the difficulty some; crampons worked great in the frozen turf. Most of the rock is good but select holds carefully. Above the cliff band is an easy snow section that leads to a couloir to the summit. This couloir was the spicy part of the day since it is very steep (50 degrees at least) and was full of super hard, icy snow. Most steps I had to kick 5 to 10 times to make a comfortable enough divot, which was exhausting. Exposure in this couloir is also extremely high, a slip would probably be unarrestable on such hard snow, and you'd go flying over the cliff band and all the way to the bottom of the basin. Climb with extreme care. I found using the rock along the right side of the couloir beneficial.

I only stayed on the summit for a minute or two since the sun was rapidly warming things up. I reversed my route as best as I could, facing inward and reusing my steps. I scrambled down a slightly easier section of the cliff band slightly farther to descender's right, collected my snowshoes, and headed towards Cross Mountain, which I bailed on because of deteriorating snow. By 10am I was sinking to my ankles; 10:30 to my knees; 10:45 to my thighs. I returned to the Lizard Head/Cross Mountain saddle and snowshoed back to the trailhead. Snow below treeline was hard if it was in the shade but super mushy and wet if it was in the sun. Again, because of the awful postholing you'll have no trouble route finding to the saddle above Bilk Basin.

Gear: flotation, ice axe, and crampons all mandatory. Microspikes will not be sufficient on such steep and hard snow. A second axe would not be a bad choice. Skiable from the summit right now as well, excellent coverage from summit to the cliff band and from the bottom of the cliff band to the basin. The cliff is the only place between the summit and the basin that is not skiable. 

Route: East Face
Posted On: 5/10/2021, By: jeffdmar
Info: From Cross Mountain TH, began hiking at 3:40am and was pleased to encounter pretty consistent runs of snow only approx 3/4-mile from the TH. Snow had some gaps so I kept my hiking-boots on instead of switching to AT boots and skins; I believe this to have been the right call. Although post-holing on occasion, the vast majority of the time I was able to find firm consolidated snow and made reasonably good time up to (and above) tree-line while staying in my hiking boots with the skis on my back.

Above tree-line the snow was excellent, and although I stayed boot-packing, skinning would have been easy and efficient, as well. There is a several-hundred yard run of dirt trail starting approximately 3/4-mile below the pass, essentially along a ridgeline. But at this point it was first light (just after 5am) and I could see that once past the dirt section there were ample snow fields that would take me to the pass without problem. Skinned up, achieved the pass, de-skinned, and dropped maybe 300-400 vertical feet down into Bilk Basin while heading west towards the obvious east face.

Skinning was fantastic up until the slope angle amplified to the point (maybe around 12,500-ft) where the skis were replaced with crampons. Then it was just a matter of choosing your line and slogging up to the rock-band. The morning sun was starting to loosen things up at this point already (7am) and if hadn't gotten overcast to slow down the melting I would have bemoaned the fact that I didn't get an earlier start. Dropped my skis below the rock-band after traversing all the way to looker's left.

Clearing the rock-band was fairly straightforward, and the route is along a nice ramp up and to the right to where a small couloir comes down straight from the summit. The couloir is longer than I anticipated, and relatively steep. I had just a whippet which was fine, but if the snow were any looser I would have wanted a whippet AND a proper ice-axe. Front pointed up the couloir to the summit, achieved at 9:15am under (blessedly) overcast skies.

To get down the couloir, turning face-in and front-pointing backwards was necessary. The snow stayed firm for me, but if the sun would have been out in full force I can imagine it would have been uncomfortably soft.

Below the rock-band I put on the skis and the ski descent was excellent; couple inches of perfect corn on a nice firm base. Bottoming out after traversing some in an effort not to lose too much elevation, had to transition to skins to get back up to the pass. Kept skins on at the top and linked the visible alleyways of snow, staying left, without losing too much elevation. Had to carry the skis through the portions of dirt trail mentioned above along the ridge.

Then the skis (without skins) came on again and the only task was to stay close to the ski/skin track so that I didn't get too far off and miss the trail. Skis stayed on all the way down the trail, although there were patches of dirt to either try and skirt, de-ski and portage, or simply waddle across (as one does). Again, having an overcast day here was incredible on the descent below tree-line, as the snow would easily have turned to mashed-potatoes on a bright sunny day. But the skin-line (the trail) stayed firm for me and greatly facilitated a comfortable descent. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 9/28/2020, By: jscully205
Info: Mostly dry with some east facing patchy snow as you get closer to the summit. I thought the snow was mostly avoidable. Rock on ridge proper was more stable vs dropping lower. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 9/7/2020, By: durkan
Info: Ignorantly took the route advertised in Roach's 13ers book. Gaining the ridge proved to be the crux of this route; highly dangerous without snow packed in. I suggest doing the entire ridge from Rock of Ages Pass. Not only is it safer, but way more fun.