8/24/2023 Route: West ridge via Willow Creek Posted On: 8/24/2023, By: Istoodupthere Info: No snow, no mosquitoes, almost no people. Very enjoyable peak. Mostly easy class 3 by staying on the ridge to the summit. The best route up to the basin from the lake had a cairn at the junction. Its about .25 miles from the Challenger/Kit Carson sign. Only cairn I saw all day. My garmin said 13.6 miles round trip. |
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8/11/2023 Route: NE Face via Horn Creek Posted On: 8/13/2023, By: cdgibbons Info: Grateful for the great trip reports from BirdMan and WildWanderer, and the recent report from bsiegs. A couple of additions. The deadfall has been cleared or trails built around it, so no longer notably different than any other Colorado approach trail in a forest with beetle-kill. As everyone has said, there is no "right" way to reach the ridge. On the ascent, I took WildWanderer's route, leaving the trail at a break in the trees that my GPS marked at 11,730' and 4.8 miles from the car. This leads to 200' of steep bushwacking through the forest, but after that 1000' of steep grass; I did not go to the summit of 13,325 but instead did an ascending traverse to the saddle. This is steep, but has the advantage of all grass and no loose rock. On the descent, I went directly from the saddle to the lake, both for variety and to see the lake; this is a little less steep, but has some loose dirt and an annoying loose talus field at the bottom. There are occasional cairns on this route. The ridge itself is well documented and is great fun whether you take the ridge direct or the grassy ledges around or some of both. I have not climbed Adams from Willow Lake, but from photos and looking down on the summit pitch, I would suggest this route may be technically easier, though if so it's a small margin. I did not see a single human on this route; a family of 14 bighorn sheep showed me how to ascend, or not, the ridge, and showed off their comfort with exposure (see photos). I would rank Adams in the very top tier of views among peaks I have climbed in Colorado; the Crestones are stunning from here. |
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8/6/2023 Route: West ridge via Willow Creek Posted On: 8/6/2023, By: climbingyogi Info: No snow at all. Amazing views of the Crestones and Kit Carson area. We only got bit by mosquitoes at camp the night before, not on the hike. That was a huge surprise. Only saw 1 other person today. Beautiful hike! |
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8/5/2023 Route: West ridge via Willow Creek Posted On: 8/6/2023, By: kyrawhitworth Info: We were able to find pieces of social trail from the lake most of the way through the basin to the saddle. Headed up to 13552 first, down the saddle, up to Adams, then over to 13543 and down from the saddle between Adams and 13543. Adams summit block was great and the route had good scrambling options. Excellent views! |
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7/27/2023 Route: NE Ridge via Horn Lake Posted On: 7/28/2023, By: bsiegs Info: Pros: Ability to do Adams from the East, Can choose how long you want to be on the ridge for, Can choose what difficulty to keep the ridge (2+ to 5) Cons: There's not really a good way to gain the ridge once you're at Horn Lake...it's an unpleasant slog up loose scree/talus/grass no matter what line you choose. Thick willows near the lake area, some of which you'll likely end up just needing to plow through, LOTS of flies |
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7/13/2023 Route: West ridge via Willow Creek Posted On: 7/14/2023, By: cj85 Info: Summer conditions. There is only one small section of snow, if you stay on the ridge direct route, but you can avoid this by dropping below the ridge. The gully leading to the summit is snow free. As the previous post noted, the mosquitoes are out in full force from just above the headwall all the way to the ridge. |
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7/4/2023 Route: West ridge via Willow Creek Posted On: 7/7/2023, By: francescaandersen11 Info: Clear of snow, minus one small section! Did not used spikes, ice axe during the hike. Mosquitoes are awful during the entire hike, come prepared with bug spray. Route was pretty straight forward and easy to follow. |
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7/3/2023 Route: NE Ridge Posted On: 7/4/2023, By: mapreader22 Info: Started from Horn Creek TH. The Horn Creek trail up to the lakes has lots of downed trees, very wet/muddy in places, but all creek crossings are doable. Summer conditions from Horn Lakes to UN 13,325 and up the NE ridge of Mt Adams. Fun scramble up the ridge and gorgeous views of Kit Carson and the Crestones from the summit! |
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6/17/2023 Route: West ridge via Willow Creek Posted On: 6/17/2023, By: Ssgustafson Info: The Willow Creek approach is free of snow. The upper 2 creek crossings are a little tricky due to the high flow - bring extra socks! Some mostly avoidable snow patches remain after departing the Kit Carson trail. However, there is a short steep section at the UN13536/Adams saddle that made me glad I brought micro spikes and an ice axe. I would have put my crampons on here if they were in my pack instead of in my truck. The ridge is holding more snow, that is largely avoidable, but gets kinda icy and spicy at the class three area near the summit. I really wish I would have had crampons here! I decided on a different descent route opting to navigate to the South ridge to the saddle, which wasnt great either (scree-fest), but didnt have the couple sketchy sections on West ridge ascent route. |
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6/14/2023 Route: West ridge via Willow Creek Posted On: 6/16/2023, By: sdkeil Info: The trail up to Willow Lake is snow free and the Willow Lake area is more swampy than snowy. Plenty of snow free camping areas below the lake. It was too cold for the blood suckers to be out, but in a couple weeks it will be hellish nightmare of mosquitos. We combined Mt. Adams with 13,546 and 13,580. There was mostly avoidable snow in the basin above Willow lake and we were able to pick our way through the snow fields to make the summit of 13,546 without needing an axe or microspikes. The saddle between Adam's and 13,546 is still holding a good amount of snow and a fall here would not be a good thing. Luckily the snow at the top is low enough angle that an axe and microspikes were super good enough. Confident people could do it in boots and poles. The first 3/4 of the ascent up Adams was snow free and followed a faint climbers trail onto the Southwest face of Adams, but because the peak was still holding snow we wrapped around to the south side. The last 100-200 feet was snow and ice covered rock. When melted it would be a pleasant class 2+ hike, but in its current conditions careful route finding was needed. We were forced to chop away ice from some areas. I would definitely recommend at least an axe and microspikes for the next couple weeks. After descending the first couple hundred feet from Adams, the route to 13,580 was mostly on rock or inconsequential snow. We returned to camp via the Adams / 13,580 saddle. |
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12/27/2022 Route: West ridge via Willow Creek Posted On: 12/29/2022, By: MtnResident Info: Some ice in spots along the trail to willow lake where the streams cross over the trail. Traction helpful, but definitely not required, as it was easy enough to walk on or around. Trail was cut in and snow packed about 1mi before lake. Didn't need snowshoes as long as I stayed on the hardpack trail. Above the lake was mostly dry with some snow here and there covering the rocks in places. Summit block had some wind packed snow in the summit gully. Storm came in on 12/28/22, so conditions may be different now. |
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9/24/2022 Route: West ridge via Willow Creek Posted On: 9/25/2022, By: dcsheldon Info: No traction necessary. Summer conditions |
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6/28/2022 Route: NE Ridge Posted On: 6/30/2022, By: PeakMiller Info: Parked at Horn Creek TH and walked through the frozen forest up to treeline. Left my camping supplies near one of the upper lakes and followed some deer as we ascended the grassy slope to UN Peak 13,325. The NE ridge to Adams was completely clear of snow and the views to the south were beautiful. Stayed the night and awoke to a vibrant glow of Adams and the south ridge. |
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10/18/2021 Route: Horn Creek Posted On: 10/18/2021, By: Geckser Info: Getting snowy up there! Snowline was around 10,000 feet. The trail is melting quick but pretty slushy from their to treeline. The climb from the lakes to the ridge was very pleasant and generally snow free. The ridge was fun but snow added some difficulty, still very doable and enjoyable. Found some mittens on the way to the lakes if anyone needs it. Someone actually broke trail a few days ago to the summit, big ups. Awesome views towards KC and the crestones. Willow creek route on KC looks snowy on eastern aspects. |
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9/25/2021 Route: West ridge via Willow Creek Posted On: 9/27/2021, By: gcook33 Info: Fun route. Started at TH, went up to Adams and then traversed to UN 13580 A and down its easy ridge. Traverse is class 2, mostly stable. As you near the saddle, be prepared for a class 4 wrap around on stable rock if you stay near the ridge or stay a little lower for class 2 to get to the saddle. |
