Grizzly Peak

Route: North couloir ski
Posted On: 6/24/2026, By: SnowAlien
Info: Long past its prime. Probably was ok a month ago, but the Lincoln creek road just opened on Monday. Snow in the couloir starts around 12,800 feet and is of poor quality - sun cups, runnels, mini-craters from rocks (some rather large), the apron is missing (melted). Snow for climbing was mostly supportive until just below the topout when it suddenly went to mush with ice underneath. Might be ok as a snow climb, but would save skiing it for a better snow year. Rather poor air quality today from the fires. 

Route: Combo: Garfield from Grizzly
Posted On: 6/21/2026, By: dellwoodlegend
Info: Summer conditions. If descending steep slope from Garfield I would stay on the loose dirt all the way down the slope, I would *not* try to exit the slope on a high line through the scree 

Route: North Couloir
Posted On: 5/23/2026, By: KC Aakhus
Info: North Couloir looks plentiful, with some signs of recent slide activity. 

Route: From Graham Gulch
Posted On: 4/20/2026, By: Will_E
Info: I was following a couple skiers until the start of the ridge, never ran into them, they went to the next basin over then up a couloir west of Grizzly.

First few miles of the Graham Gulch trail have intermittent snow, well tracked. I put snowshoes on at the creek crossing, really easy trenching today, even in late afternoon coming down. Left snowshoes at the start of the ridge, got up to the first tower without much hassle, put crampons on there, kept them on the entire ridge and back. I didn't like the snow much towards the end of the ridge, the top layer kept balling up on my crampons, with a bulletproof layer underneath. Stayed mostly on the ridge towards the end of the ridge to avoid dealing with the snow on the steep part, worked out fine.

Nice day, lots of sun, warm and light wind. 

Route: From Graham Gulch
Posted On: 12/22/2025, By: Will_E
Info: Nice day getting Grizzly and Garfield, wind wasn't nearly as bad as forecasted. I started at Graham Gulch, first mile or so was well tracked, then defaulted to an older ski track that got me to the willows, where I just stayed in the creek. Snow was really easy, barely felt worthy of trenching status. Left my snowshoes about halfway up the slope to the start of the ridge. That ridge was spicy, as expected, and long. I used ice axe for security on the steep slopes along the ridge, the last one was really steep and exposed, fortunately the snow was great. A few tough climbing sections along the ridge too, this was the toughest thing I've done in a while.

Easy walk to Garfield, was glad to be able to tack it on. Really got lucky with the wind being lighter than expected. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 10/20/2025, By: David Sandretto
Info: Road's dry to 4WD TH. Trail (or lack thereof) dry until the East Ridge. Snow up there is helpful if anything; no issue skirting the gendarmes. The worst part is after the left turn onto the short north ridge section: started out fine, but soon turned into not quite enough snow to microspike it, but enough to be annoying, imo. After a bit, I opted for ridge proper for the most part, given the steepness of the west side. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 10/9/2025, By: Corndiggs
Info: Trail is dry until you hit the North ridge and then again on the summit pitch which had patchy snow and some drifted areas that I postholed to my knee once or twice. Spikes didn't seem needed for the ascent but were helpful on the way down. Mostly beautiful day but it was very windy and much colder from the N ridge to summit. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 9/26/2025, By: cmarhanka
Info: Beautiful day. Perfect weather. The climb up Grizzly was almost all scree. I deviated slightly to the south of the route on 14ers, so maybe I was in worse scree than if I strictly followed that route. The traverse to Garfield was a lot of fun. Some snow but very easy to see and follow the route. Descent from Garfield was a slip and slide down the snow. I feel like the snow made the descent easier than if it was dry scree. Road in was a lot of dodging potholes with one really bad section with deeper potholes where I bottomed out coming and going. I was in a 2020 Subaru Forester. Would have been no issues in my stock F150.
Had the entire bowl to myself. I'm really surprised that there was no formal trail given that this is the highest 13er in the state. And surprised no one else was there on such a beautiful day. La Plata parking looked packed when I left. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 9/6/2025, By: sehessler92
Info: Grizzly (Glizzy Peak) and Garfield (Mount Pizza). 🌭🍕

We kicked things off with a chilly start! Frosty rocks, crunchy dirt, the whole “winter is coming” vibe before the sun finally showed up to do its job. We had a GPX track from the .com, but it wanted us to go on all these sketchy routes so instead we spent a good chunk of the day making up our own route.
Scrambling on Glizzy Peak somehow felt harder to me than on Mount Pizza. For the descent, we went with Garfield’s gully, and let’s just say it wasn’t great, but it wasn’t Casco gully carpal tunnel worthy either.
Whole trip took 6.5 hours, mostly because of the choose your own adventure navigation style.

Road to the trailhead: Technically Subaruable, but halfway up there’s a muddy/rutted obstacle course that definitely keeps things interesting. On the way in, my car survived unscathed. On the way out, a sneaky rock decided to autograph my bumper🫠. Without that mud pit, I’d rate the road a 3/6. With it, solid 4/6. Bring at the very minimum 8” of clearance and maybe a little bit of luck. I didn’t find the last bit when you turn right at the junction very hard. The road is narrow at times where you wouldn’t be able to pull aside if a car was coming in the opposite direction. There is a large-ish rock about halfway up past the junction that you should just drive over and not try to skirt around. 

Route: Combo: Garfield from Grizzly
Posted On: 8/31/2025, By: notidealbutfine
Info: Made it to the 4WD TH in my Honda Element (7.1" clearance). It's a little rough but definitely Subaruable. I'd agree with the last conditions update, if you can make it to the right turn about a mile below the TH, you can get there. Hardest section is the private property bit. Started late at 8am because of good forecasts and a short day. The road/trail continues up the mcnasser gulch for about 1.5 miles before petering out. The route up Grizzly looks harder than it is, but you can easily keep it class 2 with some care. I gained the ridge early and had fun climbing over the class 3 bumps on the ridge crest. Great summit views with deep blue alpine lakes punctuating the periphery. The traverse to Garfield is easy class 2 as you can stay on the west side of the ridge and hike to the top. Fantastic day with no 14er crowds on this Labor Day weekend. 7.75 miles / 3,045' gain / 4 hours, 32 minutes 

Route: Grizzly/NW Couloir
Posted On: 7/13/2025, By: colin j
Info: The Grizzly Couloir is still in and should be climbable for a few more weeks. From the approach/lake it does not look continuous but once you gain the apron you will see the line. The bottom half of the couloir is littered with rockfall and I would recommend a very early start to avoid. Above 13,500 there is a section that gets a lot of shade and required front pointing. Above 13,700 the couloir steepens to the top out but was in excellent climbing condition. Only other observation is that going around the lake on the south side rather than the north is definitely the way to approach. 

Route: Combo: Garfield from Grizzly
Posted On: 6/29/2025, By: rmcpherson
Info: We climbed Grizzly and Garfield from the McNasser Gulch trailhead today. Made it to the upper trailhead with an Outback, so it's subaruable with minor spotting helpful in a couple places. Straightforward, if slow, driving. McNasser Gulch itself is gorgeous and green, strewn with wildflowers and quickly-shrinking snow patches. The ascent, traverse, and descent were all straightforward. It all felt class 2, but then easy class 3 is not far off. No snow on the route that couldn't be avoided. There is snow below the gendarmes on Grizzly Peak East Ridge but it does not change the route or force climbers onto class 3. The descent from Garfield on the loose scree was quite like glissading while standing as we sank up to our ankles and were able to "ski" down with poles. Made for a quick descent back into the basin. 

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.