Route: Forest Service Road 437 Posted On: 11/18/2023, By: greenschist Info: Started at the bottom of FS Road 437. The road to Puratoire Campground had only a few patches of snow. Road 437 was similar, with almost no snow until I got above the aspens into the shadier evergreens. None of the snow patches were more than an inch thick. The road leads to treeline and is definitely a high clearance 4WD road, with lots of steep sections with loose rock and soil. The ridge above treeline was almost totally dry. A faint trail at the end of the road leads into the krummholz. There are some cairns but they don't seem to go anywhere specific. At the end of the trail you can just continue north into the grass then turn west to start ascending the ridge. Prior TR's about the ridge are largely accurate: mostly class 1 or 2, with a couple of very short sections of class 3. There are a few rock towers on the ridge, and staying to the south of them (climber's left) makes the route a bit easier. This morning, the rocks on the north side were a bit slick from a very thin layer of ice so I mostly stayed left anyway. I continued from Maxwell to Cuatro and Leaning South. A storm was on its way in so I didn't go for Leaning North and Trinchera. I also had to hike down Road 437 which I knew was going to be a slog. It began snowing lightly just before I returned to treeline. A storm is forecast for Sunday into Monday, but whatever snow falls will mostly be landing on bare ground. Total for the day was 12.9 miles, 6300 ft gain, 7 bighorn sheep, 1 grouse, and zero other people. |
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Route: Forest Service Road 437 Posted On: 10/15/2023, By: denvermikey Info: Dry. Few small pockets of snow on northern/shaded spots. 100% avoidable. FS437 dry as well. Good 4wd gets you to about 11700'. |
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Route: Forest Service Road 437 Posted On: 6/25/2023, By: IHikeLikeAGirl Info: Summer conditions. Drove to the end of the road at 11,700 in a Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk. Only issues were on the steep loose sections. Had to back up and make a better run at it. A Subaru Forester was parked at 11,500. |
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Route: Forest Service Road 437 Posted On: 5/31/2023, By: HikerGuy Info: Started from the bottom of FSR 437. Road is dry and passable up to 11,155 where the snow banks start. There is parking space at the previous switchback if you wanted to start higher up. Mostly snow covered in the trees from the end of the road to tree line. Had a good freeze and all snow was supportive. Dry from tree line to summit. Continued on to Trinchera from Maxwell. |
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Route: Forest Service Road 437 Posted On: 5/29/2022, By: montanahiker Info: Nearly summer conditions. The minimal snow is avoidable. 437 is the most significant obstacle on this route. The forest service has cleared a path through downed trees for the first 1.1 miles but that's as far as you'll be able to drive. The last two miles of road have multiple trees down that you'll have to go around, some with fairly significant detours. |
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Route: Forest Service Road 437 Posted On: 5/17/2021, By: supranihilest Info: Still tons of snow near treeline. I turned around near 11,500 feet since I didn't bring flotation and was sinking up to my waist by 7am. Above treeline looked snowy from a distance as well, but I didn't get high enough on my hike to confirm. |
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Route: Trinchera to Maxwell Traverse Posted On: 7/21/2019, By: JasonKline Info: Loop involving Purgatory Campground, Trinchera road, Trinchera to Maxwell traverse, and Maxwell ridge back to Purgatory Campground is almost entirely free of snow. Only had to cross one small snow field just below the summit of Trinchera, and microspikes/poles were more than sufficient. You can easily bypass the cornice on the Trinchera summit just to its north/hiker's right when ascending. It's probably easier to bypass the remaining snow on the ridge when traveling Maxwell->Trinchera than Trinchera->Maxwell, because the clear route is much more obvious going south to north. |
