Grizzly Peak

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 7/29/2016, By: jayhawkADV
Info: Got turned back by guy on a side by side that says this is Private Property and the owner Jay had been fighting lawsuits with the Forest Service for 2 years on this. We begrudgingly turned back after only hiking about 20 minutes. Take that for what you will. To clarify, no where was it posted private property but we did go over the chain locked on the gate (not very hard to get around). The guy said it has been posted but people tear the signs down and also people "Destroyed his cabin". If we would have got an alpine start it would have never been an issue ;) 

Route: Grizzly Chute
Posted On: 7/7/2016, By: yooper10
Info: Climbed Grizzly Chute from the lake, summited, and skied about 1800' of good July snow on the descent. A great day with friends! Snow reaches about 75% of the way down to lake. Spring snow conditions were amazing for downhill turns at noon (although a bit sporty due to runnels & embedded rocks). Shady area of couloir was icy at 10am. Skier's right of upper 50' of chute is underlayed by ice sheet. We set off a small wet slough slide on the first ski turns. We also experienced a scary near miss with three head-level, whizzing rocks about 2/3rds way up couloir on ascent. Beware of the fall line when climbing. Bring crampons & axe. 

Route: North couloir
Posted On: 6/27/2016, By: SnowAlien
Info: Still pretty good conditions on Grizz A for climbing and skiing. About 2k vert skied (snow line ends @11.8k). Most of avy debris in the couloir is avoidable. 

Route: Grizzly Couloir
Posted On: 7/11/2015, By: Wildernessjane
Info: Climbed up the Grizzly Couloir and descended via the western slope after tagging Garfield. The Grizzly Couloir is still fat, continuous and in great shape for climbing. One member of our party skied down the couloir and said it was fun but she had that dilemma of the snow being a bit too firm up high and a slushy mess at the bottom. We had a fresh dusting of snow and some verglas on the ridge over to Grizzly from the couloir, but it was dry on the climb down to the saddle and over to Garfield. The wildflowers are absolutely spectacular right now (I've never seen fields of columbine before). 

Route: Grizzly couloir ski
Posted On: 6/28/2015, By: SnowAlien
Info: Still pretty good conditions on Grizzly A for climbing and skiing. Couloir is in pretty good shape, smooth upper section, and some avy debris in the lower half. Snowline was near 12k, so we got 3.5k of climbing and 1.9k of skiing. Didn't use skins. Probably will be good another week or so, possibly longer. Lincoln creek road is definitely tough for Subis. Doable, but pushing it. 

Route: Grizzly Couloir
Posted On: 6/20/2015, By: benglish
Info: Left Portal CG at 3:30am. The trail was mostly dry to the (extremely high) stream crossing at 2 miles. The snow was sun cupped breakable crust all the way to the base of the couloir (~6am). I still broke through several times despite the snowshoes. The bottom half of the couloir is covered with old slide debris. The upper portion was ice over soft snow. The ridge from Grizzly to Garfield was mostly dry. The West gully descent was mostly deep and soft snow to treeline. Lincoln Creek Road was closed at the Portal CG. Great views. There is a LOT of snow up there. 

Route: Grizzly Couloir
Posted On: 6/15/2015, By: Chicago Transplant
Info: Trail is mostly dry at the beginning with some patches of snow in the first mile. Snow patches get more consistent in the tree groves in between avalanche paths once in the main basin. Appx 2 miles above the trailhead snow is consistent and we put on the skis at this point. You can skin earlier if you ford the creek, but not really any good places to cross. All snow to the base of the couloir from this point. Unfortunately the area has had a lot of wet slides off of the rocks above, and pretty much everything has peeled at this point, including the couloir. The lower 2/3 of the couloir are runnels and old slide debris, but the top 1/3 had good snow. Not a good freeze the night before so our ski was heavy. Not the best descent, but certainly not the worst. See the pics and judge for yourself if its worth the trek in their this year, or wait for a year with less wet slide remnants. Ridge to summit from top of couloir is too dry to ski, some patches of snow to cross. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 12/8/2014, By: dillonsarnelli
Info: Here's a few shots and a link of the snow conditions en route to Grizzly from the LaPlata trailhead. Hope it‘s helpful! www.flickr.com/photos/dillonsarnelli1/sets/72157649249510327/ 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 9/3/2014, By: Kitten
Info: Perfect day for a hike up to Grizzly. There is no snow in the entire standard route. Took this picture on the way down looking back. 

Route: Grizzly Couloir
Posted On: 6/16/2013, By: rpb13
Info: The Grizzly couloir is in great condition for climbing right now. I had good, firm snow for cramponing from Grizzly Lake all the way to the top of the couloir. The Grizzly Lake trail is pretty much melted out with just an occasional drift here and there, leave the snowshoes at home. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 6/9/2013, By: Marmot72
Info: Road from La Plata TH clear, could get up to about a half mile before the McNasser Gate before a large snowdrift blocked the road. McNassser basin about half snow, half melted - most snow was consolidated so that, coming down in afternoon, post-hole to thigh at start and finish of each snowfield, but walk atop the snow easily in between. The snow is melting fast, though. Grizzly couloir showed slide debris at the bottom and part way up, still has continuous snow though it looked icy & crusty. That basin was much snowier - consistent snow around Grizzly lake and stretches of snow further down. Road was closed (sign said it would open mid-June) which is why we did the route from McNasser. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 10/21/2012, By: CarpeDM
Info: TH: McNasser Gulch 2wd TH. See my TH status update: http://www.14ers.com/php14ers/threport.php?recnum=2898. Route: Followed McNasser Gulch Road to the terminus near the mine at about 12,050ft (per Roachs). But instead of following the Roach route, we headed straight up to the ridge to just left of Pt 13,441. This was steep but actually not bad / not very loose. Followed East Ridge to summit. Getting to the ridge early gave us some scrambling opportunities above the Roachs' class 2+ route. Then, over to Garfield. Down to the saddle that's east of Garfield, and back down to the McNasser Gulch road. Grizzly/Garfield Conditions: Wind was lighter than forecast. Skies were beautiful. Be prepared for patches of snow here and there - including some drifts where you might post-hole - and especially in shaded areas (and all that entails gear-wise), but we did not use any special equipment on this day. One of the four in our group brought an axe - but it was never used. One used gaiters. Three of four used trek poles. I used microspikes to come down Garfield - mainly for the steep scree, not so much the snow. One little snow crossing had me ever so slightly nervous, but I'm still kind of a weenie on snow. Based on what we could see around us, the conditions we experienced on Grizzly/Garfield are probably also applicable to most of the high peaks in the area. We have pics of a number of other peaks. If you're interested in a particular peak, let me know, and I'll see if we snapped that one. Pic1: Approach Pic2: Our route up to the East Ridge Pic3: Garfield/Grizzly traverse and basin Pic4: Grizzly East Ridge 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 5/21/2012, By: Monster5
Info: Basically the same as previous. Fallen trees had me park at the lower TH (junction). The morning snow (~2 in) melted off by the afternoon. Lost an axe cover (orange) descending Garfield. No snowshoes. Axe used briefly. Microspikes were nice until they broke. First half of here (includes captions): https://picasaweb.google.com/105978537438093356597/GrizzlyAndTheCord05212012 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 5/15/2012, By: Matt Lemke
Info: Road passable to the McNasser Gulch TH described in Roach's book. Snow free hike all the way to just below treeline. A few small snow fields to cross to the base of the steep slope at 12,600 high in McNasser Gulch. Steep south facing slope mostly snow free. Gaining the east ridge was a little harder with some snow fields though. Some class 3 I did to skirt snow. East ridge itself dry all the way to Grizzly Summit. Traverse to Garfield is loose talus but mostly dry. Descent off Garfield starts with loose scree but I was able to squeeze in a 500 foot glissade. Walking through upper McNasser Gulch to connect back to the old road there was some post-holing but mostly avoidable. No snowshoes needed. Spikes helpful. Calm day...warm...beautiful. As far as the Grizzly summit register is concerned, I am the first to summit it since last October. First photo shows the East ridge from Grizzly‘s summit Second photo shows the traverse to Garfield Third photo shows Grizzly from Garfield Forth photo is looking back up McNasser Gulch as storms build 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 7/25/2011, By: BillMiddlebrook
Info: Route was dry with the exception of some snow covering the Class 2 terrain below the last gendarme on the ridge (left of photo #3). I bypassed it by scrambling (Class 3) up onto the gendarme.