Grizzly Peak

Route: Northwest Face
Posted On: 7/10/2024, By: desertdog
Info: Summer Conditions (also for other peaks in the area). This is a little loose. I knocked a rock down the size of a large Yeti cooler. We walked in from Purgatory Flats. There are a couple of mud slides across the trail. Not a problem, but could be when the monsoon starts. Lost my sunglasses. Hope you find them and return to me. Thanks!!! 

Route: West to North to South
Posted On: 9/1/2023, By: blazintoes
Info: What a handsome peak. I hiked directly up Jupiters south ridge and dropped into Hazel Lake. The west ramps up to Grizzlys north face were a blast to climb. Playing hide and seek with the route and wind was fun. Summit views were great. Most of the time I dont care about summit registers but I was told this one was unique. Well, its a soaking wet disappointment. I decided to check out the south ridge for a descent and scrambled down the north then hooked around south over small towers and eventually took the grassy east ramps down to 13,000 and popped out on a weakness at the base of the towers and blazed down to Hazel Lake. This saved me a lot of time. I decided to go easy and took Columbine Pass back up and over back to camp. This was a super fun climb that I highly recommend! Id considered the traverse to Jupiter but there is one large tower that I didnt want to mess with. Also this is a low priority traverse for me so motivation is low. 

Route: West Ramp & North Face from Hazel Lake
Posted On: 7/21/2021, By: supranihilest
Info: Grizzly C looks pretty ridiculous from Hazel Lake, but it's only Class 3 via its easiest route. Hike up grass then talus until you're under the west ridge. There are two ramps seen here. The lower one looks easier but dead ends in a sheer cliff. The upper one is narrow, composed of crummy rock covered in scree, and is quite steep, but is the key to the route. Scramble carefully up it and around an exposed, loose corner to a broad and very loose scree and talus gully. Scramble up this gully being careful not to knock rock on climbers below, and eventually you'll end up in a notch between north and south faces. There are a few options here, we scrambled up a Class 3 slab on generally good rock to get out of the notch, and then continued on the north face. The north face holds a vast array of potential routes, to describe them all would be impossible. Fortunately the face is well cairned, almost excessively so, and most options are Class 3. Going more directly up (climber's right) will be Class 4, going towards the center of the face and scrambling up ledges is Class 3. The final summit scramble is very exposed to the south but the rock is stable. Be glad the summit is where it is and isn't the absurd, precariously balanced boulder 100 feet east. That thing appears to be balancing on the point of a needle almost. Reverse the route to Hazel Lake. 

Route: From Vallecito/Johnson Creek
Posted On: 10/11/2020, By: WildWanderer
Info: River crossing had water up to my knees in the deepest spots near where bridge 3 went out, but there are several deep pools in the area, so pick your crossing carefully. Summer conditions to Hazel Lake and up south ridge of Grizzly. North side is holding snow from the last storm the last 200-250' to the summit. I used spikes and kicked in steps in some areas, made a trench in others. Snow varies from sugary and 3 feet deep (mainly in gullies) to a thin layer of ice. There are sections of snow several feet deep I don't think will be gone before the next snow. There are many options to ascend, so with careful route finding you should be able to use the kicked in steps/make your way to the summit without the need of traction/ice axe. 

Route: Non-standard NW ridge after Jupiter
Posted On: 8/22/2019, By: CarpeDM
Info: I used Cotton's info to avoid carrying any snow gear into Chicago Basin. Worked out great! After Jupiter's standard west ridge, I was hoping to find the "easy" descent off of Jupiter's east ridge mentioned in an old benners/helmet report. Unfortunately, it looked like all the candidates for that route probably still held snow at the bottom so I descended Jupiter's gentle south ridge until I could find an east-facing gully without snow to descend toward Hazel Lake. I contoured around the cirque above Hazel Lake at about 12,700 before finding a non-standard gully/weakness to ascend that put me on the Jupiter side of the saddle with Grizzly at about 13,300 - further NW on the Jupiter/Grizzly ridge than typical. It provided more scrambling along the ridge before reaching the summit pitch. 

Route: From hazel lake
Posted On: 8/12/2019, By: cottonmountaineering
Info: Columbine pass is clear, summer conditions on the standard route. Just keep traversing! 

Route: Standard Ramp, SW Face
Posted On: 7/20/2019, By: tjf242424
Info: We approached via Columbine Pass from our camp in Chicago Basin. There are a few snow patches covering some sections of trail to the pass, but overall good conditions and many people were hiking to the pass. After reaching Columbine Pass, we traversed northeast above Columbine Lake on mainly dry scree and grass at around 12,600 ft to reach the small saddle north of Hope Mountain, and then again at a similar elevation above Hazel Lake on essentially continuous snow (utilizing crampons/ice axes) to reach the cirque beneath the obvious R-slanting ramp that is the start of the standard route on Grizzly. We left crampons/ice axes at the base of the ramp and found cairns along much of the lower route. The route becomes a bit unclear on the upper face, but we stayed generally below the ridge, continuing to trend right, until an obvious L-slanting groove led us to the ridge and the final bit of scrambling to the summit. The snow had softened on the traverse back above Hazel Lake, but we again used crampons due to the somewhat awkward traversing required to avoid losing elevation. The peak itself is fairly loose and the route is not all that inspiring, but the hike to Columbine Pass and the traverses above Columbine and Hazel Lakes were beautiful and this is a good Bicentennial once the bigger objectives have all been ticked. 

Route: Standard
Posted On: 8/19/2018, By: illusion7il
Info: From Vallecito TH. The crossing where the 4th bridge use to be is only ankle deep. The johnson creek trail had about 2 dozen trees down over the trail, most of them are a non issue. Plenty of carins lead the way starting at the ledge on the standard route. 

Route: Vallecito/Johnson Creek
Posted On: 10/16/2017, By: seano
Info: Ankle- to calf-deep sugar snow on north-facing aspects above about 12,000', but otherwise mostly dry. I suspect the same is true for the nearby Chicago Basin 14ers. Vallecito ford is knee-deep or less.