"Lackawanna"

Route: Southwest Gully
Posted On: 5/30/2025, By: Jimmy Jay
Info: Stay to climbers left when going through the willows/aspens and you can make it with no bushwhacking. A short section of snow, then climb up to the right to get around the choke and you can get back on snow. Yesterday's rain and snow made the entire gully rock hard and lumpy, I started at 0400 to get ahead of sun in the gully. Glissaded down but think that it wouldn't be much fun skiing or boarding. Punched through a few times up at the summit, other than that the snow is pretty solid. 

Route: Southwest Gully
Posted On: 5/18/2025, By: 2aron
Info: Able to skin up gully with ski crampons up to ~100 ft from summit. Dropped in around 12pm and had great corn at the top and bottom of the route. Was still crusty in the middle. 

Route: Southwest Gully
Posted On: 5/11/2025, By: notidealbutfine
Info: Started just across the highway from the couloir. There is a nice pullout for a few cars to camp/park here. The first .2 miles lacks snow, but is nice and continuous the rest of the way. Used ski boots with crampons/axe for the majority of the climb. The gulley is nice and wide near the top and thins to about 25' in some sections lower down. Ridiculous amount of gain over a short mileage; felt very steep and never-ending on the way up. Dropped in around 10:45AM; snow was chalky and unbreakable for the first 1000', nice corn for the next 1500', then slushy crap for the final bit below tree line. Fun ski! 5.5 miles / 3,360' gain / 4 hours, 30 minutes 

Route: Southwest Gully
Posted On: 5/7/2025, By: Jonathan Deffenbaugh
Info: Perfect solo summit day, conditions were green with excellent bootpacking terrain, brought an ice axe, helmet, crampons, and microspikes for gear, snow started at 10,900' with a great glissade starting from below the final headwall. Awesome views of the Elks and Sawatch range! 

Route: Southwest Gully
Posted On: 9/19/2024, By: PikaSteve
Info: First 1100' of elevation gain provides an immersive aspen experience. Remaining 2300' of elevation gain is a steep mix of scree, grassy scree, talus, grassy talus and dirt, but was not as bad as I expected: it was easy to find firm footing on the way up and soft footing on the way down. No snow at all on this south facing route. 

Route: Lackawanna NW Ridge w/UN13660
Posted On: 8/4/2024, By: cdgibbons
Info: Summer conditions. One other climber on Lackawanna. No summit register that I could find on either Lackawanna or UN13645. I found Bill's route description and gpx track invaluable especially on the first half of this one. One more reminder of the huge gift this site and its resources are for our community. Thank you Bill!! 

Route: Lackawanna NW Ridge w/UN13660
Posted On: 6/30/2024, By: E_A_Marcus_949
Info: We crossed the creek in the morning right at the trailhead then bushwhacked over to the route. It was a simpler crossing than where the main route takes you (we did that in the afternoon). The creek is roaring, cold, and flowing quickly this early in the season. The route is 98% summer conditions though. Between 13,660 and Lackawanna there was one ~70ft snow crossing. You could avoid it if you wanted to lose more elevation, which we did not. All other snow is avoidable. The gpx follows a great old road and trail. Creek pic shows first of 2 afternoon afternoon creek crossings. Water shoes and hiking poles were very useful. 

Route: Southwest Gully
Posted On: 6/2/2024, By: MariaSan7292
Info: Couloir in great condition. Just 3 of us all day on a Saturday. Glissaded most of the way down. I parked on a small parking spot west of LaPlata TH but there is another small parking past that which will put you closer to where you would start your hike. 

Route: Southwest Gully
Posted On: 5/30/2024, By: PeakMiller
Info: Hiked up the first portion until snow and then booted most of the route. I skinned a bit of the middle section, but that didn't last too long. Overall, this route was great. Very direct with solid snow left and lots turns to be had. Lots of shots of the surrounding area. 

Route: Southwest Gully
Posted On: 5/18/2024, By: andlours
Info: Snow starts right around 11,100, so a bit of hiking is required. I probably wouldve left my skins at home if I were to do this one again. Ski crampons were much less efficient than booting with normal crampons. With intermittent clouds, the corn skiing was phenomenal on the way down at ~10AM. Skiing down low was a little rough with the melt and an uneven snow surface, but the skiing up high made it worth it. 

Route: Southwest Gully
Posted On: 5/18/2024, By: Chicago Transplant
Info: Ski is still in from the summit, snow runs out around 11,200', maybe 11,000' at best. The lower dry slope is not bad if you stay left hiking up, even found some game trails. I actually booted up the south ridge (winter route) instead of the gully but it's probably better to boot the gully. I postholed a lot the final 500' of ridge. Gully skied well, despite a light snow shower moving in right when I clicked in on the summit. The narrows at the bottom have some debris on skiers right, stay left for better snow low. 

Route: Southwest Gully
Posted On: 5/4/2024, By: backcountrybrodes
Info: Me and Cooper had a superb weather day out there on the peak. T-shirt, long-sleeve base layer, and puffy were sufficient for the day. Stuff was icy in the morning but softened up at around 11am. Crampons are a good idea if youre going up early I booted the whole way and Cooper did a combo of skinning and booting bc it was so steep. Skiing really nice right now, lots of corn to go around! We started our descent at around 12:30pm, prime snow conditions would have probably been at 11:30 or 12. Gully is filled in to about 500ft below treeline. Go get it while the snow is there!! 

Route: SW Gully to East Face
Posted On: 4/21/2024, By: Veory
Info: The East face, West face, and SW gulleys were all skied today by different parties. Ascent up SW sucked in the morning, too icy for good skinning, but punched through without skies. Set a bootpack, feel free to go use it haha. East face snow was fantastic. Did trigger a wet slab on the interface between the recent storm and the harder snow beneath. Pic attached. If you were the snowboarder on the West face, I got a single picture of you from the summit, and that sounded crusty as hell good job lol. Also huge thanks to the guy who drove me back to my car from La Plata trailhead Such a beautiful day! 

Route: Southwest Gully
Posted On: 4/13/2024, By: asnellstrom
Info: Oh buddy, its a go for today. Crampons for the top section. Axe used for a large glissade on the way down. Envious of the people with skis! Bottom portion through the willows is a post hole, crawl on all fours nightmare. Conditions were perfect today hopefully they hold for the rest of the weekend. 

Route: Lackawanna NW Ridge w/UN13660
Posted On: 8/6/2023, By: truekyle
Info: The first bit of the hike can be tricky to follow. There are several social trails in the trees. Don't miss your "treeline turn off". It makes for in interesting climb up slippery and steep grass. The middle section going up the grassy hill to ridge line is awful either way. Once on the ridge the route becomes enjoyable!