10/5/2024 Route: tomahawk mine Posted On: 10/6/2024, By: zootloopz Info: Recorded 7.5 miles and 3.8k gain via tomahawk mine. True summit of lavender felt like it had a class 4 step. |
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9/16/2023 Route: Tomahawk Basin Posted On: 9/18/2023, By: Jorts Info: A dusting of snow over 12.5k. Some frost hoar and rime on the shady areas below that. Sunny areas were completely dry. Last season's snow remained in the high couloirs on the Babcock massif. |
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9/5/2023 Route: Traverse to Hesperus Posted On: 9/5/2023, By: SnowAlien Info: Traverse is super fun, not even loose and goes at Class 3 or less with careful route finding. If staying ridge proper, difficulty could increase, but the rock gets better. Incredible rock colors. 3 summits, not sure which is higher, tagged them all, but no register atm. |
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5/21/2022 Route: From Tomahawk Basin Posted On: 5/23/2022, By: supranihilest Info: The La Plata are very dry right now, especially anything south facing. There's still a good base of snow in the floor of the basin, which is good because it speeds up the ascent/descent that would otherwise be on super loose and annoying talus. Get up to Mount Moss' south ridge either on snow or rock, then either ascend Moss or traverse under it towards Lavender. Lavender consists of three summit blocks of nearly identical elevation, the western block is the true summit. There's a Class 3+ gully to climb between the western and middle summit. The rock is generally solid but there is some loose stuff; we had fresh, powdery snow and a little bit of ice to deal with. Exposure is moderate and the scramble is short, 20-30 feet. Traverse west around to the back of the summit block to reach a one-move Class 3 scramble to the very top. Gear: nothing special needed, climbable up and down in trail runners right now. Traction was nice for the snow but not necessary. Be careful not to slip on snow on the descent off Moss' south ridge, there's cliffs at the end of the snowfields. Helmet strongly recommended, there's tons of loose rock in the La Plata. |
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9/3/2014 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 9/4/2014, By: TravelingMatt Info: The standard route (and that in Dave Cooper's book) uses the gully halfway between Lavender and Moss to gain the ridge between the two summits. This gully is steep, loose and still contains snow. By any measure it is technical. Instead I ascended about 100 feet to the right (north) on Class 4 rock. This rock was fairly stable and reasonable on descent, although test all holds. The scree approaching it was unpleasant and loose, but at least wasn't packed dirt. Once on the ridge, Moss goes Class 2 and Lavender goes high-end 3 with some exposure but solid. Consensus is the westernmost summit of Lavender is highest; that is where the summit register is. |
