6/13/2025 Route: Rainbow Lake Posted On: 6/13/2025, By: malogos Info: Summer conditions and no snow. Remarkably good track from the lake up to treeline. Road is particularly horrendous, even in a Jeep. |
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2/22/2025 Route: NE Ridge Posted On: 2/22/2025, By: madmattd Info: Yet another Eagle Peak CR. I parked at the lower Rainbow Trail junction, which is ~3/4mi above the Rainbow Camp - I could have probably made the upper Rainbow junction, but I'd had enough of that road! The road is mostly snow covered above the upper Rainbow junction, but generally only a few inches other than a couple spots up above the reservoir. Lots of ice under a thin layer of snow, and likely to get worse with the coming week of warm, sunny weather. Snowmos have traveled above the 9800' switchback - I'm guessing at least to Rainbow Lake. I freshened up the trench starting at the 9800' switchback - there were 2 skiers that recently skinned to treeline, I'm assuming they are the 2-19 party in the register. Generally a trace to an inch or two in their trench, and most of it was pretty solid. I suspect they were able to mostly follow Daway/Cloudkicker's trench based on that (no recorded visits between 2-8 and 2-19). Their ski down looked interesting - the woods are kinda tight in there. The couple of times I deviated from the broken track was knee-deep or more even in snowshoes! Some chucklehead postholed the hell out of the skiers' trench from the road turnoff to 10.2k (ankle to knee deep depending on the spot), before they randomly veered off to points unknown. I cleaned up what I could, but one set of snowshoes can only do so much. From treeline to ~12.7k is pretty dry - early fall-like spotty coverage that doesn't even slow one down. The upper 500' talus field has a fair bit of snow in among it, but generally shallow except along the final ridge - I used spikes in that section as there was a lot of wind-packed sloped snow in there. Best to stick to ridge proper there imo. Overall a tougher day than planned, but that might just be my conditioning. Gorgeous out - upper 20s on the summit with just a light breath of wind, and not a cloud in sight. Props to all the trench-layers on this one! |
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2/8/2025 Route: NE Ridge Posted On: 2/8/2025, By: daway8 Info: Trio went up Eagle Peak NE Ridge - cloudkicker, myself and Herman the Screaming Goat. Me and Herman made it up to Balman Reservoir in the 4Runner while cloudkicker got bonus points by hiking up later from a lower parking spot. Hiked up the road from Balman (would need a snowmobile to drive much further). Intended to turn off the road where Will_E and various others put in a track earlier in the winter but accidently overshot. Doubted the trench would still be there anyways so went ahead and turned off the road at the next switchback at about 9,816ft. Cloudkicker and I traded trenching duty at the start (Herman was no help), but I eventually led the charge up the steeper sections. Trenching provided a robust workout. Not too terrible overall but did occasionally get a bit vigorous. Occasional trap door issues but not too bad. At 10,856ft finally saw visual signs of an old trench. Soon lost all visual signs but was able to use the blind man approach of poking trekking poles into the snow to find the firm spots hidden below. This worked pretty well and really eased the effort from there up. Above treeline almost totally windswept so we stashed snowshoes there. Summit was fairly breezy but not as bad as OpenSnow predicted. Followed our tracks back down so there's now a pretty good trench once again. |
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1/5/2025 Route: NE ridge Posted On: 1/5/2025, By: yaktoleft13 Info: Fought a cold to chase Brandon up Eagle. Able to boot the entire route with no gaiters. The trench through trees once we left the road meanders a lot, but eventually gets to the right spot. Once above treeline, almost everything is windblown. Some snow to navigate between false and real summit, but was easy. Near bluebird day, chilly but wind was very manageable. 8.5 miles, 4k very from our parking spot |
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1/1/2025 Route: Rainbow Lutheran Camp Posted On: 1/2/2025, By: sarahmariekirk Info: Conditions are still similar to when Will climbed on 12/23; snowshoes required after the turn off from the road, and then able to stash them right above tree-line. No traction needed from treeline to summit. Extremely windy today. |
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12/23/2024 Route: From Lutheran Camp Posted On: 12/23/2024, By: Will_E Info: Good conditions on Eagle today. I started at the Lutheran Camp, there were vehicle tracks up to around 9300', then ATV tracks a little further. I broke off the road at 9700', used snowshoes from this point to treeline. The trenching was tougher than average, seems like a lot of the rocks and logs that are normally buried are just shallow enough to create trap doors and tripping hazards. From treeline to summit is windblown, no traction needed. Nice day. |
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10/22/2023 Route: FS 198 - Rainbow Lake Posted On: 10/23/2023, By: B_2 Info: In case you were planning an approach from the East: FS 198 is a literal nightmare for any form of human travel. It is reminiscent of Lake Como Rd. You need high clearance and tolerance for being shaken not stirred just to get to Rainbow Lake. Please refer to my Cottonwood A conditions report from 10/21/23 for more detail on the road above Rainbow Lake to Silver Lake. If I did this again (I wont, lol), I would have camped and walked from Rainbow Lake, there are many nice camp spots on the north side. There is a trail to gain the ridge for Eagle from Rainbow Lake that I did not find on a map. Look for cairns on the right a couple hundred feet beyond the lake, then follow blue paint blazes to tree line. The trail is steeper than bushwhacking the ridge-proper as we did on the way up. Its debatable which way was more enjoyable, but the trail was very nice for about a mile through the forest once we came across it up on the shoulder. |
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10/21/2023 Route: NE ridge Posted On: 10/21/2023, By: Trotter Info: Still summer conditions. Maybe 3 steps on snow all day. |
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10/10/2023 Route: Northeast ridge Posted On: 10/10/2023, By: rachel Info: Mostly dry. Minor, avoidable snow above treeline. I think that is a mountain lion print. Can anyone confirm? |
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9/4/2022 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 9/8/2022, By: kwhit24 Info: Parked just above the campground before the road gets a little rougher. The road walking all the way to the lake. There is a trail on the north side of the lake that makes getting through the steep tree area much easier (route link below). What really disappointing is all the blue spray paint on the trail through the trees. Has to be in about 30-40 spots where cairns should be instead. Most were rocks but some trees were spray painted You'll continue to contour along the ridge until you complete leave the trees. Once you get out of the trees its a clear route to the summit. https://www.alltrails.com/explore/trail/us/colorado/eagle-peak-trail--2 (14.00 mi; 4,752' gain; 6:34:31 total time) Start at TH 6:40am; Rainbow Lake 8:10am; Eagle Peak A 10:10am (20 min on top); Back to TH 1:15pm |
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1/9/2022 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 1/10/2022, By: supranihilest Info: The road to Balman Reservoir is about half dry, half thin snow. There's ice under the snow, so beware. You may be able to drive to the reservoir if you have the right vehicle and tires though (and balls). I booted the road to about 9,700, then to 10,200 where I put on snowshoes. I established a trench from there to treeline. Left the snowshoes at treeline and booted to the summit. The hike is straightforward, with the talus and boulders near the summit being the worst part - tipsy and covered in tractionless powder. I beat the trench in on my way down. Good weather all week means the trench will stay until the next storm! |
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7/23/2021 Route: east ridge Posted On: 7/23/2021, By: ScottLovesRMNP Info: 4WD required above the Rainbow Trail Lutheran Camp. I started from there (8,300 ft) and followed the 4WD FS198 road to 9,850 feet, then left the road for a direct bushwhack up Eagle's east ridge to the summit. On descent, I discovered a nice trail that led down to Rainbow Lake. From there, followed FS198 back to the car. Nice loop. Full summer conditions. |
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1/2/2021 Route: Northeast Ridge Posted On: 1/3/2021, By: hr011242 Info: Calf to knee deep sugar snow after departing the road @~9974. Deep, soft snow was continuous until we hit the wind-scoured ridge above tree line @ ~1140 where we switched to microspikes. There should be a nice trench through the trees now. Recommend parking at the 198/Rainbow trail junction as the road conditions deteriorate pretty quickly from that point. There is a signed trail and space for maybe 2 vehicles to park. |
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6/25/2020 Route: NE Ridge Posted On: 6/25/2020, By: tjf242424 Info: We were surprised to find a well defined trail from Rainbow Lake up onto the ridge and all the way to treeline. From the NE corner of the lake, there's an obvious cairn at the edge of the forest that marks the start of the trail. It continues with multiple cairns and blue/yellow paint markings until you reach the tundra. |
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11/14/2018 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 11/14/2018, By: desertdog Info: We were able to park above the Lutheran Camp although other vehicles had driven further up the road. The road had truck tracks which we hiked and then put on snowshoes when the tracks stopped at about two thirds of the way up. There is a foot plus of snow on the road. We hiked up to Rainbow Lake and gained the ridge from there. It was tough going to get to the ridge. There is a couple feet or more of wet snow on the slope to the ridge. Once out of the trees on the ridge it is mostly wind blown. It took us 12 plus hours round trip for the climb. We worked hard to put in the track up the road and to the ridge. I hope someone gets to use it before the next snow. |
