Mt. Hope

Route: Willis Gulch to Hopeful Couloir
Posted On: 4/5/2025, By: artemavovk
Info: You can bootpack for a couple of miles, basically until the second bridge.
Skinned from there until the apron - there's a semi-frozen trench that seems to have been made before the recent storm(s).
Couloir is loaded with powder all the way up. The climber's right side of the couloir has some wet slides. In steeper sections you can punch through to a solid layer of basically ice - I would almost recommend crampons: especially for the top out, unless you go left at the last junction.
Cornice is a concern.
Skiing down: the main drop had some powder but all that slid and left me on a bunch of ice, the alternative drop in as it holds good powder. The rest of the couloir is orgasmically glorious powder all the way down. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 10/1/2024, By: sccm
Info: Route is dry all the way to summit. Fall colors were stunning! 

Route: East ridge via Willis gulch
Posted On: 9/28/2024, By: Rampaging Baloths
Info: No snow on the route. Colors on independence pass are peak and are starting to wane.

Missouri gulch area looks fired up too.

Did quail as well and registered 5600 feet.

Great day! 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 9/24/2024, By: Ryspriggs92
Info: Snow free on trail, some patches after the pass 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 9/13/2024, By: Smurgu
Info: Started from Sheep Gulch. Trail was perfect until Hope pass- then unmarked and lots of scrambling- definitely class 2 for this portion. Very windy today but sunny the entire day. Fun hike- not crowded. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 8/4/2024, By: cdgibbons
Info: Hope & Quail from Willis Gulch. Summer conditions. I ended up staying pretty close to the ridge from 13,400' to 13,700'; there are cairned routes both there and in the gully of probably comparable difficulty. No other people on either peak; pretty consistent activity on the trail to Hope Pass; CT throughhikers, Collegiate West loop hikers, and a number of people training for Leadville. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 6/2/2024, By: vertical_volume
Info: Climbed Hope via the East Ridge, starting from Sheep Gulch and skied Hopeful; We took trail runners to 13.7k then switched to skins for the last portion to the summit. Dropped Hopeful around 10 am, really good corn but a tad heavy and the cornice was beginning to shed. 9-9:30 seems like the best way to go with a good freeze and clear morning similar to what we had today. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 6/1/2024, By: SCinthehouse
Info: Great conditions on E side of Hope and Hopeful Couloir-- Hopeful is all filled in still with minimal wet slide debris. Plenty soft in Hopeful by 9:30 AM. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 10/8/2023, By: HikesInGeologicTime
Info: Dry as long as you avoid getting creative by wandering over to the north side of the ridge. I had forgotten just how much looseness there is from about halfway up the ridge to just below the false summit - microspikes are a non-necessity for snow or ice but might be helpful to some for managing the sections of loose dirt.

Still a few leaves clinging to the aspens, but I imagine they will not be around for much longer. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 10/2/2023, By: sarahmariekirk
Info: Climbed Mount Hope today - was hoping to also tag Quail Mountain but we were stormed off of the summit with 60mph wind gusts, heavy snow with whiteout conditions, along with thunder and lightning - guess I will just have to go back next fall! Absolutely stunning fall colors today but not sure how long they will last after the heavy snowfall and wind we received today. Started snowing on the summit at 12:30 and did not stop at all. Rained basically the entire drive home, looks like a lot of the surrounding peaks also got a good amount of snow. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 7/17/2023, By: joannalee07
Info: Climbed Mount Hope on 7/16/2023. The trail is in summer conditions all the way. I highly recommend downloading the .gpx file from this page and saving the route description & photos. This is a challenging but stunning route and we only shared the mountain with a few other people on a busy Sunday in July.

Here is my full trip report: hhttps://www.coloradomountainpack.com/post/mount-hope 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 7/2/2023, By: jsykes
Info: Small amount of snow near the summit, but easily avoidable. No traction needed. There's a faint trail and a few cairns along the east ridge but you'll need to do a little route-finding and scrambling. The gulley near the summit was a little loose but is more gradual than the ridge, which would have also been an option for ascending and descending with some class 3/4 scrambling. 

Route: Hopeful Couloir
Posted On: 6/9/2023, By: Tim A
Info: Hopeful still in. Caught the route after a clear night and had perfect neve from bottom to top. Significant overcast to the east kept direct sun off the route into late morning. Descended the snowfields south of the standard se ridge around 930am and they were slightly overcooked but made for fun and controllable glissading. 

Route: Hopeful Couloir
Posted On: 5/14/2023, By: Snow_Dog_frassati
Info: Certainly some of the strangest weather I've ever skied a mountain in Colorado. Start it off with a mediocre refreeze and the warm ambient temps had me relatively concerned until we got up high. At around 12,000 feet or so the freeze started to be a little bit more confidence inspiring. Cloud cover held out and the snow remained stable to ski.

Very Pacific Northwest vibes all day. Super humid and the snow especially down low on the approach is super saturated from recent moisture/melting. I think we got the timing just about perfect on the line though.

Definitely going to be walking for a bit on the approach. Snow line is probably somewhere around 11,500 ft? Maybe a little bit higher.

I was postholeing in 106 under foot, 189 cm long skis. Skiing got pretty miserable right around tree line, and was survival skiing up until snow line. 

Route: Willis Gulch to Hope Pass
Posted On: 5/8/2023, By: rhammond530
Info: Our plan was to attempt Hopeful couloir from Willis Gulch TH, but a "partly sunny" forecast ended up being "almost whiteout" above tree line. On the trail at 3:15AM, made it to 12,200' by 7:30AM. The CDT was annoyingly punchy all the way up and down. We put on snowshoes around 10,400', but were still post holing most of the way to tree line. We ran into d_baker on our descent from Hope Pass around 12,200'. He reported signs of debris near the apron of the couloir, and likely wind loading to be cautious of. There were 2-3" of new snow on 5/7.