Mt. Aetna

Route: Hoffman Park to Taylor/Aetna
Posted On: 4/16/2023, By: Geckser
Info: Arthurspiderman and I followed the road up to Grand Couloir but cut North half a mile early to get into Hoffman Park. Skinned to 12,600 then booted up to the Aetna/Taylor saddle. Switched into trail runners and made the 50 minute round trip to Taylor and back. Put back on ski boots and crampons to ascend the firm snow up to Aetna. Crampons not necessary but were helpful. On top of Aetna we looked down the Grand and saw 15ish people skinning/booting up the couloir but fortunately no one had made any turns down it yet :) We had to very carefully ski the top portion to ensure no ice/sluff disrupted all the people still ascending. Felt so lucky to get first tracks!!! The snow was poor at the start but gradually got better. Quality wind buff up high and some corn down lower. Was able to ski all the way from the summit to the car although it was getting a bit slushy down low. Hope everyone got good corn on the descent . 4h 35m round trip. Awesome day but ski this line sooner than later. 

Route: Grand Couloir
Posted On: 3/28/2023, By: artemavovk
Info: Continuous skiable snow all the way up, all the rocks are avodable, signs of recent skins/bootpacks; a few cornices on the southwest(whatever is the snow covered one) ridge. A few icy spots in the morning that turned into annoying slap with the sun. 

Route: From 228 off hwy 50
Posted On: 2/4/2023, By: Will_E
Info: Went up Taylor and Aetna from (County rd?) 228, off Hwy 50. I used Toyota SupraTurboNihilist's GPX track, that guy's my hero. Road was well tracked until branching off, from there I broke trail in snowshoes to treeline, it was a bit of work, seeing as I have no beard. From treeline to summit of Taylor it was fairly windblown. The ridge from Taylor to Aetna isn't difficult, there's one steep snow section at the start of the climb to Aetna. The only place I used traction (crampons) was from Aetna's summit to the saddle with Taylor, it was easier than rock hopping, and, you know, I'm lazy like that. Windy on Taylor, Aetna was pretty pleasant. Glad to have normalish winter temps again. 

Route: via FS228
Posted On: 6/25/2022, By: zootloopz
Info: Summer conditions! Lots of wildflowers. Took me 1 hour to cross the ridge from Taylor. Made it to 11,700' in a stock 4x4 Tacoma. Probably could've gone farther. Not a fun road though. Wouldn't recommend anything less than a larger subbie with a confident driver. Car camping with excellent views of Salida around 11,950'. Road turns to 4wd around 10,400'. car camping for 2WD vehicles around 10,150'. 

Route: Grand Couloir
Posted On: 5/2/2022, By: slawrence2011
Info: Left half of the couloir is filled in all the way from the road basically, right side is all dry. Leaving snowshoes behind was a good idea, totally solid til noon. One thing I would change: Put on crampons down low while it's still low angle. I was used to E aspects rather than S, and this snow never really got soft til I skied down at noon, and was very frightening without crampons near the top, even with an ice axe. But even at a 35 degree angle, switching to ski boots and putting on crampons seemed impossible. Ski descent was great, dropped in right at noon. Wouldn't have wanted to drop much later, plus was a fairly cool day with a bit of wind. My partner glissaded, and said it was too soft for an ideal glissade. Pictures were all taken after skiing past all avalanche terrain, when I knew I would ski another day! 

Route: Grand Couloir
Posted On: 5/1/2022, By: CheapCigarMan
Info: Bluebird day. Several skiers. No postholing. Did not use snowshoes. Snow was in great condition for the climb. Large section was melted out, see pic. 

Route: Grand Couloir
Posted On: 4/18/2022, By: dsr80304
Info: Road is mostly melted out the first quarter mile or so. There's snow all the way up the couloir. The bottom third is just melted or blown out on the east side - still enough coverage to get up on skins or snow booting. Skied off summit at 930. Snow was great on the descent, nice blown in refresh. Was warming up quick though. 

Route: Grand Couloir
Posted On: 4/16/2022, By: bangerth
Info: Walked up the road in the early morning on frozen snow nicely compacted by a few skiers and snowmobilers. The first third of the Grand Couloir is already snow free, and after that it was a bit of tough going because the rest is not only steep, but was also quite frozen (with the occasional stretch of dritfed loose snow). Maybe surprisingly, there weren't steps from previous parties, so no easy walk up. As the route description already says, the couloir is long: 2,900' of elevation gain; it takes a long time to top out. We ended up heading over to Taylor Mountain. I wished I had put on microspikes for the descent as one has to skip through rocks that are partly ice covered and partly filled in by loose snow. The wind was ferocious on that stretch but eased up once on the slopes of Taylor Mountain. The going was slightly easier there, alternating between dry stretches and short snow fields along the ridge. We descended from Taylor by first taking the SW ridge for a bit, and then dropping into the first (more easterly) of the two south-side couloirs leading up to Taylor. It had enough snow for a grandiose glissade that lasted for a long time, but was occasionally interrupted because the snow was getting too warm and sticky. At the bottom of the couloir, continue south down the gully through some trees before ending up on one of the old mining "roads" (covered in 1-3' of snow) that runs parallel to the road one walks in in the morning. We carried snowshoes up and down these two mountains without ever using them. Crampons are obviously essential for the couloir ascent. 

Route: Grand Couloir
Posted On: 4/8/2022, By: davisrice4
Info: Skied from the summit of Aetna on monday. The road is melting out down low, had to walk for about 5 minutes to reach snow, but there was continuous snow from there to the summit. Skinned to 13k, booted up the lookers right side to the summit. 

Route: Grand Couloir
Posted On: 3/28/2022, By: B_2
Info: Ride report: Road is 98% still snow-covered but melting out fast. Couloir is fully in but not for long unless we have a substantial refresh. Experienced no signs of instability other than expected wet instability as the day warmed. 1-2in thick sun crust over 6-18in depth in morning made for interesting ascent using all modes of travel/traction available to us. (Skins, heel risers, ski crampons, then boot crampons) Booter is in and thanks to whomever put it in on the upper face in the day or two preceding our visit. (However, it goes to right edge of Couloir into a bowling alley of rockfall and I would not go that way if I did it again.) Could not ski from actual summit due to melt/rocks, but could drop in at a break in the cornice down the ridge a little ways on a 45ish deg slope. Expect to ride the double fall line at >30 steepness almost the entire way down. Happy spring! 

Route: Grand Couloir
Posted On: 5/16/2021, By: angry
Info: Did not use flotation. Spikes were sufficient to reach summit ridge. Descended via Taylor. 

Route: Grand Couloir
Posted On: 5/13/2021, By: hogantheepic
Info: Still pretty sufficient snow coverage from the summit to the weird boulder field in the trees. I'd estimate 3 more weeks of ski descent potential on the hopeful side. Get it while its in! No flotation was needed going up, nor on the road. Skis were nice for the descent. 

Route: Grand Couloir
Posted On: 5/8/2021, By: bludwig
Info: Couloir is still solid, not a great ski. A lot of exposed rock until about half way up but solid up the rest. Traverse over to Taylor is pretty snow free and the way down is super wet. 

Route: Grand Couloir
Posted On: 4/11/2021, By: supranihilest
Info: The Grand is not long for this world and felt more like the Dollar Store couloir. The first few tenths of a mile from the trailhead are dry, then there's continuous snow to the Grand's apron. The apron is full of exposed rock and willows, then until the last thousand or so feet there's large patches of exposed and unstable scree and talus. The steep upper portion of the couloir has icy steps kicked in, some of which had melted out into the adjacent, exposed rock. All snow to the summit was hard and icy and the last 100 or so feet had only tiny steps - an axe was handy here. Overall, given how much of the Grand has melted out, I expect it to be climbable for a short period of time. Skiing it right now would probably be pretty lackluster. Gear: I didn't use flotation at all today (I was on top of Aetna by 8:30, so no need) and would consider an axe and crampons necessary given how icy the couloir was. 

Route: Grand Couloir
Posted On: 4/11/2021, By: osprey
Info: Continuous snow starts about 0.5 miles from the FS230 road TH. The snow on the road is well packed by snowmobiles and there is no need for traction or flotation going up or down. The snow was very firm in the morning but I did not use crampons or ax until just below where the Couloir becomes steep. The final upper part of the Couloir had very icy snow such that I was using the ax pick despite some steps placed by someone under warmer conditions. It was too icy to descend the Couloir so I went down the west ridge which had softer snow and a more mellow angle until I could traverse back into the Couloir. It took a long time to go up the steep part of the Couloir.