French Mountain

Route: French/Frasco/Casco Combo
Posted On: 4/25/2026, By: notidealbutfine
Info: Parked and camped at the unofficial TH at the beginning of FR100J Sunday evening. Got started Saturday morning at 5:30AM. Pretty intermittent snow drifts along the road all the way to tree line, though I was able to stay on top of the snow without flotation all day even on the descent. The climb up French is bone dry so I was able to keep on the trail runners on all the way to the top. For the traverse, I switched to boots, crampons and axe, which was a little overkill. It could definitely be done with spikes and poles if you wanted to get spicy, however there are a few steep, run out slopes you have to cross along the way. Summited Casco @ 10:30AM and descended the standard route (which would be a fantastic ski right now). Had fun glissading to the basin and beat the incoming weather by about an hour or two. 11.39 miles / 4,639' gain / 7 hours, 14 minutes 

Route: French/Frasco/Casco Combo
Posted On: 4/19/2026, By: Geckser
Info: Today I skied (Arthurspiderman is living it up in Iceland) French and Casco. I was tempted by some reports showing powder skiing in the Sawatch. Coverage was good and the freeze very solid but ski quality was limited by a crust.

I parked where 110 splits off from the main road. I forded Halfmoon and started up the road. The road has about 3 miles of intermittent snow drifts at the start, luckily it was a solid enough freeze I wasn’t sinking either direction. This would be heinous with an incomplete freeze, miles and miles of small drifts separated by dry road. Either get a solid freeze or wait for the melt.

At around 11,800, snow became consistent and I switched to skinning. It was easy going to the bottom of Casco, where I started booting when it steepened up. The new snow was hiding many sharks so I made sure to ski down the way I came and still hit some rocks. I’m not sure if any lines will be in from the summit by next weekend. Skiing was pleasant but crusty, especially after entering the large couloir.

I traversed towards French from the base of the couloir and started booting up the South face at around 12,600. Pretty tedious with all the little rocks just barely covered, I hate boot packing solo. I skied the big North East face and was rewarded with more crust slowly transitioning to corn down low. The snow ran out entirely at 12,000, at which point I walked down to the road with skis on back. It was in an old slide path so easy bushwalking conditions and this section went quickly. I’m sure you just ski this section on a normal year :(

Blessedly, the snow still supported my weight on the road at 12:00, when I was walking back down. Overall a lot of road walking, but two pretty cool ski descents. Both are worth doing and would be even more worth doing on a passing snow year. I hope someone can use my booters. 

Route: Up French S side>Boarded down E side
Posted On: 3/30/2026, By: Posthole Pete
Info: Trail runners from river crossing to summit.
Once across the first river, mostly stable patches of snow until the 3rd river crossing. Snow avoidable from 3rd crossing to the summit.
Snow was pretty darn close to the summit.
1,5k of continuous riding from the "summit"
No snow from Elbert th to the 110J turnoff. 

Route: South Slopes
Posted On: 11/4/2025, By: Corndiggs
Info: Just after crossing Halfmoon creek/the sign for the Iron Mike trail, the road is a several inch sheet of ice as you start climbing up to the switchback on the road; microspikes needed here and at the couple of creek/ice crossings up higher. The rest of the 4 miles on the road to Iron Mike are mixed dry, a few inches of snow and a few more (flat) icy sections. No snow from Iron Mike until very top of Frascol and then very little on the ridge to French. On the ridge to Frasco, there's a little more snow as you near the summit but nothing major. Wind was minor and overall pleasant weather day.
On the way in and out of the Halfmoon creek road, I saw ZERO people, ZERO cars and ZERO campers in any of the 400+ campsites you drive by. Now that's what I call elbow room! 

Route: French & Frasco from North Halfmoon
Posted On: 8/17/2025, By: sehessler92
Info: The peaks are in excellent condition. We started at 4 am and made it back to the car in just over 6 hours, including a couple of longer breaks for food and rest. I actually enjoyed the road walk out, as the basin and surrounding area are beautiful. Both summits were completely empty aside from my hiking partner and me.

For the first stream crossing, I brought water shoes, while my partner managed to hop across the rocks without getting his boots too wet. My dog handled the hike really well too!

At the junction parking area before the first stream crossing there were some mosquitoes at night, but nothing like the notoriously relentless Crestone mosquitos 

Route: French/Frasco/Casco Combo
Posted On: 6/30/2025, By: Trailrunner
Info: Parked at the 110/110J junction where most vehicles are stopped due to a stream crossing. This crossing requires wading through knee deep water. Multiple logs were present at the 2nd stream crossing making for an easy crossing. A few steps in snow are required at the French/Frasco saddle, but otherwise the route is snow free. 

Route: French/Frasco/Casco Combo
Posted On: 6/20/2025, By: blonde_dinosaur
Info: We had a late start (7:30am) past the first creek crossing given the beautiful forecast with no rain. Both big creek crossings were deep (up to my knees and I am 5'5') and raging. IMO, poles are necessary for this hike both for the creek crossings and other elements. I brought crocs to cross and was fine in those, others in the group went barefoot or just crossed in their shoes. It is possible to cross the first creek crossing in a capable vehicle - my friend did so in his 4Runner. But you will have to cross the second on foot. No snow on the approach to the basin. Limited snow on the ascent to French, our party split and some went to the right of the snowfield in the gully, others to the left. Both options work. There is still snow on the ridge between French and Frasco. If you are getting an earlier start, I'd recommend spikes for this section. After Frasco, the ridge becomes more time consuming to Casco. It is technically possible to keep this Class 2+, but you have to drop from the ridge on steep scree to do so. I'd recommend taking ridge direct whenever possible for some fun class 3 scrambling. We dropped to the left of the ridge to summit Casco and I would not do this. It was loose and not fun - stay ridge direct. From the descent of Casco, we went down the ridge a fair bit and descended in steep grass to avoid the snowfields (we did not bring axes and only half the group had spikes). With the right equipment, it looked like you could glissade down sections from the ridge but you'd have to evaluate. Having poles for the steep grass was extremely helpful. Overall wonderful day out, beautiful views, and very few people out on this route. 

Route: French/Frasco/Casco Combo
Posted On: 8/27/2024, By: NotTimid
Info: Once you are past the first crossing (right at the trailhead) there is a fair amount of water running down the road especially in the first mile or so. Waded the first crossing in my chacos, the others were manageable with boots/poles though I was glad I was in boots and not in trail runners. 

Route: French/Frasco/Casco Combo
Posted On: 7/6/2024, By: jsykes
Info: There was a little snow on the ridgeline near the summit of French, but no unavoidable snow other than that. I didn't have microspikes along and used my poles. The crux of the route might have been fording Halfmoon Creek twice on the ascent. I used sandals and my feet got super cold. It took a minute to warm them up in the morning when I was starting out. Not as bad descending when it was warmer. The water is flowing pretty good. Only saw one other person the whole day on the trail. Great views of Elbert especially, but also Massive and La Plata. 

Route: French/Frasco/Casco Combo
Posted On: 10/8/2023, By: donovanrice
Info: Basically still summer conditions except for North Ridge of Casco which had plenty of snow. Would encounter snow if descending from Casco ridge back to road. 

Route: French/Frasco/Casco Combo
Posted On: 9/24/2023, By: sarahmariekirk
Info: French / Frasco / Casco combo today. Still completely summer conditions (thank God - I am not ready for winter yet). Lots of changing Aspens at the trailhead and along the way up. From the summit, it looks like the mostly all ranges are free of snow except specific peaks: Antero, Shav/Tab, & Princeton. Gorgeous views and fun route. Very minimal wind today! Also, the road crux is no joke. 

Route: French/Frasco/Casco Combo
Posted On: 8/6/2023, By: swilson753
Info: Summer conditions. All snow is avoidable. Flowers are still going strong. 

Route: French/Frasco/Casco Combo
Posted On: 7/12/2023, By: PikaSteve
Info: Snow is almost entirely gone on the route to the French Mtn summit. There is only one unavoidable moderately sloped snowfield on the ridge to Frasco Benchmark. No snow remains between Frasco and the saddle with Casco. The last half of downclimbing to the Frasco/Casco saddle was trickier than I expected, so I suspect I wasn't on the easiest route. I bailed at the saddle, so I don't know how much of an obstacle is created by one remaining snowfield near the Casco summit or by snowfields on Casco's east ridge.

The first creek crossing (Halfmoon Creek) has a hiking option less than 50 yards downstream from the ATV crossing with a collection of trees for tighroping across while the second crossing (South Halfmoon Creek) has more stable logs immediately upstream from the ATV crossing. On the way back, I waded across Halfmoon Creek--it is currently less than knee-deep. I really appreciated having hiking poles to have three points of contact for both crossings.

Plenty of flowers in bloom at all elevations. Gorgeous summit views in all directions. No one else in the basin. 

Route: French/Frasco/Casco Combo
Posted On: 6/28/2023, By: PeakMiller
Info: Started around 8:15am from the junction of Halfmoon Rd. Used the old crocs for two creek crossings. With the wind being so rough I decided to do Casco first and have the tail wind to combo the other two. There were small sections of snow that could be easily avoided to the summit. The wind was so heavy on the summit I decided to drop from the ridge down the west slope and regain the ridge before Frasco. This was a tough climb on loose scree, but it seemed better than getting blasted on the ridge the entire time. Frasco to French still had large sections of snow, but it stayed pretty firm into the afternoon. After French, I glissaded the Friscol back to the road. 

Route: French/Frasco/Casco Combo
Posted On: 6/24/2023, By: stomblin7
Info: Road to 2wd TH clear. Do not recommend trying to drive higher - the creeks were raging with a lot of volume of water pushing through. Creek crossings added significant time to our approach. The first creek was too strong and deep for our comfort level to walk through. We opted to hike a bit downstream to find a few log crossings. The 2nd creek was flowing stronger than the first, we hiked probably .15 mi downstream and found a thick log to crawl across - a slip in that one is not advised. For the remainder of the hike, floatation not needed. The snow crossings were firm in the morning and the postholing was not too bad in the afternoon. If you want to ascend the snow up to French Id advise crampons and an axe still. We were able to cross the snow without traction and skirt up the grassy/scree slopes towards summit. We put on spikes to descend French and follow the ridge towards Frasco. After Frascos summit, no traction needed. Mostly stayed ridge proper over to Casco. Enjoyed a nice glissade off of Cascos saddle. Will add pics soon.