West Spanish Peak

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 6/14/2025, By: kyrawhitworth
Info: Dry/Summer conditions. No summit register. Busy day on the trail! 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 5/31/2025, By: dwoodward13
Info: Around 10 snow drifts over the trail. Longest maybe 10 feet long, all easy to get across. Brought spikes but never used them. Summer is here. 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 5/3/2025, By: Dan_Suitor
Info: Some areas of snow from the trailhead to tree line. In the morning the conditions were firm, but got more punchy midday on the return. From the tree line to the summit, it was mostly dry, with a few snow fields. No traction or floatation needed. Ankle gators would have been nice for the few times I postholed. 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 4/20/2025, By: 14er101
Info: Cordova was accessible 2.5miles from the pass despite the recent snow. A foot of fresh snow at least on alot of the route, pretty much entirely slushed by the end of the day. I skinned to treeline and climbed the ridge from there in ski boots. After a day or two of sun, the upper ridge will be dry, and only snow drifts will remain below treeline. 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 3/28/2025, By: ndomke
Info: Nice day out on West Spanish Peaks. The road to Cordova pass is pretty well snowed in about 2.5 miles from Cordova Pass coming from the Cuchara Pass side. A tracked vehicle has been up and down the road up to Cordova Pass, so it is currently good to skin or walk up. From the pass, there is continuous snow through the forest up to treeline and the base of the SW ridge. From the heavy snow on the road, it was almost 13 miles and 3,400 feet of elevation. 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 8/19/2024, By: draaronbrown
Info: Conditions at the top are excellent! I always say that I think 13ers are underrated in Colorado because its more "impressive" to hike 14ers. However, the views are just as breathtaking at 13,500 feet as 14,000 feet. July and August are great times to hike this mountain. It has been a bucket list for a few years and I finally carved out the time to hike it. The skree to the top is a little exhausting and the hiking coming down was hard without poles - be sure to take hiking poles with you! Nevertheless, it is worth the climb to have 360 views of rock ridges, mountains, plains, and mesas and buttes! Get out there! 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 7/28/2024, By: tlgold1990
Info: Summer conditions. $10 day use parking fee at TH. The route description says the trail ends after treeline. Not sure how old that is but the trail was pretty obvious except a few sections in the talus section. Plenty of cairns to find your way through those though. Very nice "easier" 13er. Awesome views of the Crestone group and Lake Como group 14ers. 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 6/19/2024, By: DixieFlyer
Info: For all practical purposes the trail is in summertime condition. There was one patch of snow about 10 feet long on the trail just below the treeline, but I just walked across it with no problem. You could easily walk around it if you don't want the soles of your shoes to touch snow. 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 6/11/2024, By: Istoodupthere
Info: Summer conditions except a few leftover snow drifts. Keep in mind there is no water on route. Hope the 5 people that were ascending in the afternoon got down before the nasty weather arrived 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 6/8/2024, By: dr_j
Info: Summer conditions, maybe 2-3 little patches of snow blocking the trail below treeline. Route above treeline is well-cairned, although still a bit easy to get off route. 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 6/5/2024, By: Egan Lambert
Info: Very little snow on the trail (a few patches here and there) leading up to tree line. After tree line, mostly no snow on the trail until near the top. Snow shoes were not needed and I brought micro spikes but did not wear. 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 6/1/2024, By: MidsizeAl
Info: FYI campground fee is now $10 instead of $7. Id echo everything Cide already said in their excellent CR on 5/30; things are melting very fast and it was darn near summer conditions today. Wore trail runners, spikes stayed in the pack. One last thing worth mentioning: for good food, stop by Legends on Main in La Veta on your way out. The green chili is outstanding. 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 6/3/2024, By: Athiel
Info: Approach has a few snow drift, easily avoidable. Route is easy to follow. Taking the ridge mostly proper avoids some snow patches. Lots of loose rock and scree, that's what the ridgeline is made up of. Snow also up top on the walk to the summit. I didn't use traction, but microspikes might be helpful. Overall great conditions. 

Route: West Peak Trail
Posted On: 5/30/2024, By: Cide
Info: Some small sections of snow, mostly 3-4ft wide permeate the trail at times below treeline. At the end of treeline, expect some small snow fields that can be pretty much avoided by staying ridge direct. Near the top, there is a short stint of snow that is unavoidable but easily can be done w/ just boots. Snowshoes are 100% not needed, microspikes are a preference not a necessity. I wore gaiters for the aforementioned small snow stints. 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 5/27/2024, By: bethyhewes
Info: The road is now clear of snow up to the trailhead at Cordova Pass Campground. There are still quite a few snow drifts along the trail below treeline, but they are all very small and with enough dry trail between them that they definitely don't warrant flotation/traction. Even on the way down, I was able to walk over all these drifts without postholing. I would imagine most of these drifts will be gone within the next couple weeks, but they are totally managable now. Trail is easy to follow. On the steep slope up to the summit ridge, there were still large patches of ankle-knee deep snow. These snow patches are completely avoidable if you take some time to pick your line, but I found the snow much easier to hike on than the adjacent loose rocks. I hit this section around 10:30 heading up and found the snow soft enough that I didn't use any traction, but traction would probably be helpful if you hit it earlier while the snow is still hard. Once you reach the summit ridge, there is still quite a lot of snow. Again, it was soft enough that I did not feel traction was necessary but met a group coming down that said it was solid ice when they hit it earlier in the morning and they decided to turn around at this point because wind was high and I'm assuming they may not have had traction. Coming down from the summit around 12, the snow was just solid enough to glissade/walk down but was getting pretty slushy towards the bottom and was starting to posthole. Again, you can avoid all of this snow on the slope up to the ridge but I'll take a glissade to loose scree any day! Overall, it was a gorgeous (though a bit windy!) day on West Spanish Peak.