Grizzly Peak

Route: Northwest Couloir
Posted On: 7/9/2024, By: jfm3
Info: I climbed via Grizzly Lake and the northwest couloir. The trail is almost completely dry from the Lincoln Creek road to the lake. The creek crossing was tricky at 5 AM because all the rocks and logs were iced over. I did get one foot wet. On the way down, I was able to cross with dry feet. At the lake, stay left/east and cross the creek on a solid snow bridge or just step across where it's narrow. It is then a short walk up some loose gravel to the snow. I went this way on the descent. On the ascent I contoured around the north side of the lake on junk scree slopes. Don't do this. The snow starts at 12,700' and is continuous all the way to the top of the ridge at 13,950'. It was very firm and crunchy at 6:30 AM and took me an hour to ascend. I used La Sportiva Nepal boots with auto crampons and 2 ice axes and front pointed most of the way up. At the top I went to the right/west side and used the overhead pick-in technique with the axes. It does get steep near the top. The cornice is still there and there is no crevasse or peeling on the south side where the snow meets the ridge. There were a few small rocks that fell but nothing big came down. The final ridge to the summit is dry. The snow was still quite firm at 8:30 when I descended the couloir. I faced in for most of it. The snow was starting to warm and soften in the bottom of the couloir at 9:30. 

Route: Grizzly (NW) Couloir
Posted On: 6/24/2024, By: KC Aakhus
Info: Couloir was fully filled in, with lingering cornice at the top. There was continuous snow beginning at the trail's large switchback just above ~ 12,000 ft; would recommend departing trail there and staying east/south of the lake to gain bottom of couloir (was actually skinnable for that stretch). There was patchy snow starting around 11,300 ft, stream was flowing strongly at the ~ 11,400-ft crossing (crossable with finesse or disregard for wetness), and generally still a lot of melting in the upper basin, so the upper approach right before the snow was soggy and wet (consider waterproof hikers or a second pair of socks to keep dry for the skiing). 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 6/21/2024, By: higgy
Info: Snow patches on approach not problematic. Snow up toward the saddle is hard to avoid and it's soft. Should improve soon. Looks like snow on the ridge most of the way up. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 10/8/2023, By: mjohnson1960
Info: Fall conditions on the approach, with some thin snow patches on the East Ridge route above about 13,600 feet, easily avoidable. Somewhat more snow on the summit ridge, but again pretty easily negotiated without spikes all the way over to the summit. There appeared to be more snow on the traverse over to Garfield and on Garfield's north face (descent route) then on Grizzly, though I did not go over there. 

Route: Combo: Garfield from Grizzly
Posted On: 9/18/2023, By: rleclair
Info: Road from the La Plata trailhead to the 4WD trailhead was mostly dry with a large "pothole" section of puddles and mud prior to the 4x4 road to the gated trailhead. Late summer conditions from the 4 WD trailhead to the peaks in the McNasser Gulch basin. The approach to Grizzly Peak was dry with no snow. The traverse over to Garfield Peak was again dry with no snow and easy to follow with no GPS/pictures. The descent off of Garfield Peak was a bit more "interesting" with a few inches of snow on the top 400-500' down to the boulder field areas. Microspikes could help here for stability. Great Fall hike! 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 8/26/2023, By: Istoodupthere
Info: Started from La Plata trailhead which was completely full at 3:30am. Almost no visibility made finding the correct route up to the ridge interesting. Clouds broke up as soon as I started descending at 9:30am. Plenty of thunder over toward La Plata but I only had to deal with a few sprinkles. 15.65 miles round trip. 

Route: Combo: Garfield from Grizzly
Posted On: 8/19/2023, By: sarahmariekirk
Info: Climbed Griz today along with Garfield. Great day, minus the loose scree & talus on the ascent up Griz and the descent down Garfield - but cannot complain! Gorgeous views all day and wildflowers are still plentiful in the basin. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 8/13/2023, By: tcphoto87
Info: Perfect day to hike the tallest 13er! I didn't see a single soul the entire day, it was amazing. (until a couple came up right as I was getting back towards the car.) La Plata was very busy but down the road there were just people camping but no one here today. I have a Tiguan and drove it up to the upper TH. Theres some wet rutted sections that were the hardest to get over before the lower TH and some tall rocks to navigate around but anything with decent clearance should be able to make it if you navigate around the big rocks right. The trail itself only had a couple tiny water crossings and a faint trail after the mining road ends that I kept losing and then bumping back into. Once the grassy area ends (Around Photo #4 on the route description) it becomes steep and scree covered. I stuck more to the larger boulders and climbed up those to avoid it and I think I popped up to the saddle a little closer than where Photo #7 on the route page was taken. I skirted the obstacles on the ridge instead of going too far down or straight up over either. The rest of the way to the summit had quite a bit of scree too which didn't phase me on the way up but I took a tumble or two in that area on the way back down. With all the scree a lot of rocks were flying down on my way down so if you hike with people watch for that too! No snow anywhere on the trail. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 7/29/2023, By: kyrawhitworth
Info: Road was indeed subaruable to the upper 4WD TH. There were enough cairns and use trails to make navigation straightforward. Same for Garfield. Ridge to Grizzly and to Garfield was nearly all 2-2+. Definitely do Grizzly first so you are descending the scree slope vs slogging up it. Awesome views of the elks! Wildflowers still great but seemed to be tapering off. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 7/22/2023, By: bsiegs
Info: Full summer conditions. Didn't go over to Garfield because my knee was bothering me, but it was all totally dry. Road to McNasser Gulch had a few tough spots, but overall was easily subaruable. 

Route: Grizzly Couloir from the Lake
Posted On: 7/7/2023, By: Makbrad
Info: The couloir is in all the way to the ridge. Snow in the couloir is sun-cupped and rocks are starting to shed and litter the couloir in some areas (minimal currently, but we saw several rocks fall as we topped out). Good snow up top and overall still a great snow climb! Apron is melting out but still some snow to traverse from the lake. The ridge to the summit of Grizzly is dry. There are a couple snow patches on the approach trail. One lower between treeline gaps, one as you ascend toward the lake and another over the switchbacks to the lake. 

Route: Grizzly Couloir (North Face)
Posted On: 7/1/2023, By: cloudkicker
Info: Didnt climb this today but got a good view from Twining/Geisslers combo. Looks like its still fully in, and maybe for another week or so. 

Route: North Couloir
Posted On: 6/25/2023, By: vertical_volume
Info: Skied Grizzly Peak As north couloir on 6-24. We started at 5:41 am. The road is open and we walked to the lake in trail runners, theres some snow patches to cross but they were mostly solid. Finding a spot to cross the stream was more of a challenge than expected, but we kept following it until we found one, then we found a snow bridge across. I donned crampons at the lake. Theres avy debris in the lower half of the couloir but its not bad now, its gone thru a lot of melt-freezes and was very easy to navigate on skis. The upper portion is fantastic skiing right now. Began climbing the couloir around 8:20, it was softer on the bottom to start but I was only post holing once every 30-40 steps. When the couloir takes a twist, to face more northerly, it was solid from there all the way to the top. Topped out at 9:50, then switched back to trail shoes to go for the summit. Its dry up above the couloir to the summit. Dropped in at 10:40 and the upper 800 ft couldve used another 20 mins but the rest was nice. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 9/1/2022, By: PikaSteve
Info: Still summer conditions. With very little wind and bright sun, the day started out very warm despite 34 degree temperature. Mix of dirt, scree and crumbling rock to ascend to ridge. More of the same skirting below the second and third points on the ridge. Seeing the steep cliffs on the east face, I was relieved that the route on the final summit ridge stays slightly west of the crest and did not feel too exposed. Amazing summit views. Could see all Sawatch fourteeners, fairly close views of the Elk Range and distant views to Uncompahgre, Sneffels and Rio Grande Pyramid. No other hikers on the mountain. Still a few flowers out, mainly above 13,000'. A bit of red tundra and just a few golden willow leaves, but otherwise no sign of fall colors. 

Route: Combo: Garfield from Grizzly
Posted On: 7/16/2022, By: EndWillows
Info: Full summer conditions. The closed road for the first mile of the hike is getting faint and can be hard to locate after descending the slopes off Garfield. Can keep this hike class 2 up until the downclimb off Garfield with careful route-finding, though it will be tricky. I ascended towards the East Ridge early and took the ridge direct route which ended up being some enjoyable class 3/4 climbing. The traverse between Grizzly and Garfield was nothing tricky, only took me about 45 minutes-1 hour and I am not a fast hiker by any means. I believe the crux of the route (if you take the standard way up grizzly) was the initial downclimb off Garfield which requires some careful route finding to reach class 3 terrain. The slopes off Garfield back into the McNasser Gulch were awful, a bunch of sliding and falling. Route finding off the slopes back to the road was a little tricky. Overall, climb took me about 5 hours. More beta about the 4wd road will be posted on the trailhead tab.