Organ Mountain

Route: Canon Hondo
Posted On: 10/12/2024, By: 9patrickmurphy
Info: The Canon Hondo trail is quite easy to follow for the first thousand vertical or so, then it gets super difficult to find for more than a few minutes at a time, then it comes back strong until a meadow just below treeline. Route above treeline is super obvious and easy. This is an okay route if all you're doing is Organ, but I didn't think the views were very interesting, and the bushwhack and frustrating trailspotting really brought down the quality. I would recommend combining this with other peaks in the area if you get the chance. 

Route: Tour de Organ
Posted On: 6/9/2024, By: mjlucarelli
Info: Summer conditions! Roach called the East Slopes route a classic, once out of treeline maybe, but below treeline it is a dead fall mess for a while. If you choose to do this route stay near the creek is all I can suggest. Above treeline the snowfields are avoidable and the views are beautiful. I decided to decend the North Slopes (also not fun) and hike out via the Stewart Creek TH to avoid the mess in the Canon Hondo drainage. Long story short, above treeline the East Slopes route is much better than the North Slopes, but Stewart Creek is more tolerable then Hondo Creek and both are dry, so pick your poison.  

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 6/9/2024, By: 13erRetriever
Info: Road to Stewart Creek and Cebolla trailheads is in great shape, but two river crossings are rushing. Those who choose to go up the Stewart Creek route make better life decisions than me, but can confirm that the bushwhack up the east ridge is snow free, and that snow is avoidable above treeline. Pictures of your favorite gold dog and surrounding peaks attached. 

Route: NW Ridge from Stewart Creek
Posted On: 7/4/2023, By: madmattd
Info: Sounds like dwoodward13 and I used the same ridge this weekend, a day apart - explains why a few footprints I saw looked fairly fresh. I did this as part of a backpack loop of San Luis and Organ via the CDT and Stewart Creek Trails. Leaving the Stewart Creek Trail from a small knob just East of where the trail ducks into a side gully to cross a stream coming off Baldy Alto near 12.1k, I stumbled across what looked to be an old, closed trail section leading down to near the creek that allowed an easy crossing. From there I found a series of overgrown paths through the willows that allowed manageable, though annoying, access to the Stewart Creek drainage coming down from the Organ-San Luis saddle. Followed this a short way upstream, then cut up to a small saddle on the NW ridge and followed the ridge direct for a while. I did eventually cut over to the saddle on the North ridge, staying below most of the talus fields, keeping this ascent mostly tundra until the final ascent of the summit from the saddle which is all loose talus. Hauling a full pack up this ridge was not the most pleasant thing ever, but the ridge goes, and offered a perfectly fine route for ascent. Ran into another hiker on Monday (7/3) who did the ridge traverse from San Luis, sounded like the bypass of the notch was as interesting as ever... 

Route: Stewart Creek
Posted On: 7/2/2023, By: dwoodward13
Info: Hiked up the obvious/prominent ridge that meets up with the San Luis trail near 12.1k. Worst part was getting down to/back out of the creek. Creek is easy to cross itself, but steep on either side. Standard mix of grass/loose dirt on the hike up the ridge. Sidehilled below the point on the northern summit ridge. Pretty stable talus, albeit a bit annoying. Might be worth it just to hit the point. Didn't get look at the south side of the notch if coming direct from San Luis, but the north side was caked with snow still. Wouldn't be surprised if the south side had bits of snow to content with. 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 6/25/2023, By: courtc43
Info: I followed the route in supranihilesta trip report. Organ, Baldy Alto, and Stewart were all summer conditions and the only remaining snowfields were around Column Ridge, Baldy Chato, and Willow Mesa (most could be an avoided if you try or go a bit out of the way). Willow Mesa was marshy at times from all of the snowmelt. 

Route: Canon Hondo
Posted On: 6/18/2023, By: artemavovk
Info: Trail relatively ok (increasing amount of deadfall) to follow until you get to a clearing with a bunch of boulders/talus; that's where I gained the ridge and after a bit more deadfall scrambling got to the ridge. No snow below treeline. Above treeline there's one patch of snow at the base of the final ascent to the summit. Ridge walk from Organ mountain to San Luis doesn't have any serious snow. The notch has a tonne of snow and it's relatively supportive and uncomfortably soft. I used traction because it was inconsistent. Outside of that, all snow is avoidable or in really short patches. 

Route: Stewart Creek
Posted On: 9/17/2022, By: gcook33
Info: Love fall hikes. No weather, late starts. Great trail and no major obstacles. 11.5mi 3500' 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 9/20/2022, By: dhagan
Info: Hiked Organ Mt via Stewart Creek/North Slopes route. I have not done the East Slopes route via the Canon Hondo but the extensive bushwaching with near absent to absent trail and extensive deadfall (per prior trip reports and peak condition updates) made this sound less than desirable. The North Slopes route via Stewart Creek is the way to go. Easy approach via the well established Stewart Creek trail. The off trail portion up Stewart Creeks southernmost drainage was easy to follow. Make sure to persist up the drainage until the vast expanse of the grassy slopes is well seen to the NE and East. One can then take a swooping less steep but longer grass slope to the NE then East or take a direct line, steeper, but shorter route up to the East. 

Route: From Eddiesville TH
Posted On: 6/5/2022, By: SionaRW35
Info: All summer-like here. No need for spikes, etc. We went up the basin from Eddiesville and it sorta sucked because deadfall was plentiful. We descended to the Stewart Creek trail and that was way more pleasant. 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 6/23/2020, By: MC.Ikema
Info: Snow free and dry all the way up from Stewart Creek/San Luis trail. 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 9/3/2019, By: supranihilest
Info: This is overall an easy route - if you follow it correctly. Don't get sucked into the full north slopes. If you find yourself on talus anywhere on the route except the top one or two hundred feet, you're in the wrong spot! If you find yourself on steep, loose Class 2 talus and climbing towards rotten, Class 2+ outcrops, you're in the wrong spot! The majority of this route is Class 1 trail to the cutoff, and then Class 1 grass to within a couple hundred feet of the summit where it turns into easy Class 2 talus. You essentially want to climb up the basin that makes up the west ridge of Organ to San Luis Peak. Descend the same way you came up unless you're taking the west ridge to San Luis or the east ridge back to the trailhead. 

Route: West ridge
Posted On: 7/23/2019, By: tdawg012
Info: Summer conditions until the tricky notch. There was a 1ft or so gap between gully walls and snow that enabled passage. Rock in and near gully gap is as rotten as Roach describes, take caution. 

Route: SL-->Organ ridge traverse
Posted On: 7/9/2019, By: B_2
Info: The creek crossings to get to the Stewart Creek and Eddiesville THs were passable easy with 4-Runner, and lower clearance would do fine. They were pretty high on the way out though due to heavy rains, so high clearance is still recommended. Approached Organ from camp about 4 miles in from the Eddiesville TH - Cochetopa/CDT/CO trail --> Stewart creek connector "trail" (not really a trail) --> San Luis/Organ saddle, minimal snow travel necessary. Water levels/creek crossings are high everywhere. Ridge east through notch area is as rotten and crumbly as they come. Snow crossings still necessary in gullies below the notch, spikes/axe required. Pitch on east side below notch is indeed about 30' class 4 climbing but is pretty solid. The final 500' face through the organ pipes is fun solid snow-free class 3. 

Route: East Slope from Canon Hando Trail
Posted On: 7/6/2019, By: Flyingfish
Info: Trail is dry up to about 13,500 where there are some snow fields to cross below the summit pitch. These were easy to avoid and the ones we had to cross were no more than a few feet wide and firm.