"Lackawanna"

Route: See map linked in description
Posted On: 4/6/2026, By: rmcpherson
Info: It turns out you can still find thigh deep snow in some places below treeline, including on the NW ridge route, despite a shocking lack of snow in the Sawatch generally.

The road is closed just past Graham Gulch so we parked there and hiked up the road past the closure. From the road we could see an avalanche path that was free of snow and ascended to a ridge heading towards UN 13660/UN13645 (LIDAR) so we opted to give that a shot. The steep ascent went well although the recent snowfall and subsequent melting made some of the scree quite muddy, slowing us down. From the ridge, we were mostly able to avoid deep snow by staying just to windward but again this slowed our progress when we had to posthole through talus. Given the late start and progress, we opted not to continue to Lackawanna once we'd summited UN 13645. This would have all been straightforward had we time since the ridge between that and Lackawanna was bare dirt. Instead of the steep descent down the gully we had climbed we opted to descend the NW ridge route. We later regretted this as the snow is quite deep below treeline still and we had stashed our flotation near the bottom of the ascent couloir. There was a crust on the snow that held bodyweight for about 9 out of every 10 steps but that still made for slow progress. If you take the ascent route we did, you can make it up without encountering any deep snow. For the NW ridge route, I'd advise waiting a few more weeks until it melts out. Map with tracks: https://caltopo.com/m/254RAVE 

Route: Lackawanna NW Ridge w/UN13660
Posted On: 10/25/2025, By: DorothyK
Info: Stream crossings are fairly easy at this time of the year. Snow line starts just past where you do the stream crossings. Lots of snow up high - drifts as high as a foot. Fluffy powder on north aspects and mushy, sticky stuff on south and west aspects. We wore microspikes for most of the hike. Gaiters and poles were helpful too. Trail runners not so much. 

Route: Lackawanna NW Ridge w/UN13660
Posted On: 9/29/2025, By: ALEXprovidenver
Info: Snowfall from the previous week had largely melted, allowing for snow-free passage for the whole route except some pretty easily navigable amounts on the northwestern area of UN13660. 

Route: Lackawanna NW Ridge w/UN13660
Posted On: 9/15/2025, By: hatterasdunton
Info: Entirely snow covered from TH to summit in the morning. Everything below treeline melted in the afternoon. Traction not needed but would recommend preparing for colder/wetter conditions (probably like everywhere else these days) 

Route: Lackawanna NW Ridge w/UN13660
Posted On: 8/10/2025, By: Outbounder
Info: The creek is about as low as you could expect it to get. You should be able to make it across without getting your shoes wet. The trail up through treeline is straightforward and easy to follow. If you look at the talus slope to gain the ridge and think it looks as tedious as I did, you can keep walking and stick entirely to grass to gain the ridge, though you do need to backtrack a little to get to the unnamed peak. Adding a little distance to me was preferrable to ascending over the talus. I went over to Casco, Frasco, and French after Lackawanna. The ridge is long but easy. The route is class 2 and snow free. 

Route: Lackawanna NW Ridge w/UN13660
Posted On: 7/7/2025, By: JakeByk
Info: Lackawanna is in! I heard a lot from folks about how much this one blows and I thought it was beautiful. It's no 14er trail and the talus field was steeeeeep, but it super pretty and the trail through the forest was easy enough. Go over the west side of Unnamed 13,6 because a giant cornice is sticking around the eastern side. Bring sandals for the creek crossing, I searched for a spot to rock hop for almost 20 minutes before giving up. 

Route: Lackawanna NW Ridge w/UN13660
Posted On: 6/19/2025, By: austin132435
Info: A couple small snowfields to cross, essentially summer conditions. 

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.