Atlantic Peak

Route: East Face Couloirs
Posted On: 6/13/2025, By: Jcinco
Info: Another spring ski season in the books for me. As folks start considering their final ski options of the season in the coming days, here is the latest from the Old Reliable of late-season destinations, McCullough Gulch. There are still several good options allowing you to ski down to 12k here. Here is the status of the big lines here (pics too!): *Atlantic V and Atlantis - Both In (this is what I skied). *Fletcher NE Face - direct summit chute Out. Lookers left couloir just below summit In. *Quandary N gully - marginal (see photo). *Quandary couloir - Out. *Quandary pt 13146 couloir - both entrances In. Looks great. Kind of wish I went for this today, but I skied this a few years ago and it’s been over a decade for Atlantic. Only problem is dealing with parking at this trailhead. If you’d rather not deal with this trailhead, you should find similarly good skiing high back behind the lakes in Monte Cristo/Blue Lakes Basin. 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 5/24/2025, By: infinitealpine
Info: Perfect conditions this AM. Made my own route across the gulch and onto the west ridge. The lower ridge is a mix of rock and snow. Upper ridge is narrow in spots and there is one questionable cornice to navigate. I took the ridge proper over to Pacific, it's mostly snow with a couple of rocky sections. Coming down, from the lower ridge to the packed down main trail, was the worst spring conditions I've ever hiked in. Lots of post holing to my waist with snowshoes, though intermittent. 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 1/27/2025, By: JasonCrane
Info: Struggled on Atlantic today from Mayflower Gulch & did not summit. Solid hardpacked trail on the old mining road, then ventured into the gulch through the willows section following a shallow snowshoe trench from previous hikers. It's steep up through the treeline to the base of the ridge, but there's definitely a trench that can be followed. Even with snowshoes, snow conditions were that loose, unconsolidated sugar snow. Snow was bottomless at times & ripped the snowshoes off my boots. Flew in from Florida on Saturday afternoon, but managed to reach 12,000 feet within 48 hours, turning around about halfway up that initial very steep rocky mound that has be overcome before gaining the west ridge. Acclimatized hikers that can stay on top of the snow & gain the ridge should be a in good position to summit. Weather was gorgeous today, clear skies & minimal winds. 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 9/14/2024, By: madmattd
Info: 100% snow free. But probably not for long! 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 7/8/2024, By: good jorb
Info: Still some snow on the west ridge going up but easy to cross without traction. Summit covered in snow. Downclimb to Pacific had large snowfields, avoidable but easier to use spikes. 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 6/16/2024, By: Dignus
Info: Hiked the Crystal/Pacific/Atlantic combo from Mayflower Gulch. Atlantic West Ridge is holding snow well and posed perhaps the most danger of the trip, this short section with steep snow on both sides: https://youtu.be/bDvOmzd3J5Q Upper Pacific Creek had several snow bridges covering the fast moving stream. I wouldn't trust them; I found a narrow section to hop across. I also crossed the dam 200 yards from the trailhead and bushwacked up to Mayflower Hill instead of taking the road, so I can't speak for the standard crossing up in the gulch. If you are good at navigating this is a pretty quick and easy route. If you're like me you'll avoid the willows on the way up but hit every single one on the way down. 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 6/2/2024, By: d_baker
Info: Approach along road (currently gated) is well packed. Crossing of Mayflower Gulch was still supportive at 11am-ish, thankfully! I didn't bring snowshoes. Brought crampons and axe for ridge. Started sometime after 6am, maybe 6:30a? Ridge is in good condition for climbing. Fun route and a quick way to get up above treeline. Snow was in good shape on ascent. Softening on descent around 9:30a/10am. Postholed some on flats after getting off ridge proper. I've done this route in winter and now with spring snow. Definitely enjoyed spring snow more! Although my first time on route was ~15 years ago, so I don't remember much about it! 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 4/15/2024, By: gluckhikes
Info: Around 20 of us with the CMC Alpine Climbing School put in a bomber bootpack to the summit. Pretty ideal climbing conditions with stable snow and only minor cornices. Soft wet conditions in the gulch by early afternoon. 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 12/16/2023, By: shepherdkyle
Info: Packed trail to our turn-off. Forged our own trail across the basin through the willows. Oh willows. Ditched snow shoes about 100 yards up first slope. Wore microspikes to summit. Blustery the last half mile to summit-NOAAs forecast term. Tagged and left. Brought avy gear, but didnt need. Never used axe. 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 11/3/2023, By: daway8
Info: Did not climb or attempt to, just stopped by for a sneak preview of possible site for alternative Winter Welcomer fun next weekend. 2WD lot is dry. 4WD road is well packed - went a few hundred yards in tennis shoes with no problem. Peaks are snow coated from the recent storm but at least as viewed from a distance it doesn't look likely that there's yet enough for serious avalanche concerns, but obviously would need to evaluate from up close to be sure. 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 9/28/2023, By: gmarcotte
Info: There is about an inch of snow holding on the northern aspects of Atlantic as well as the ridge up from Pacific -- no spikes are necessary as it's easy enough to work around, but it makes the talus a little more annoying to navigate. You can mostly stay on top of the west ridge all the way without getting cliffed out, which is snow-free. The trail through the willows from Boston mine is a swampy mess, I recommend finding your own bushwhack somewhere downstream. 

Route: Described below
Posted On: 7/30/2023, By: backcountrybrodes
Info: Parked at the Upper Spruce Creek TH, went up Mohawk Lakes Basin to Pacific Tarn, Atlantic -> Pacific -> Crystal, down Crystal Creek Basin, and took the Wheeler Trail back to my car. My stats for the day were 11.03 mi, 4,752 ft, and 5:39:35. Beautiful lake views the whole way up to Pacific Tarn, and same goes for the summits of all three peaks. Got cloudy later on but never any thunder or rain luckily after my unfortunate late start at 8am. Left my ice axe in the car which turned out to be a great choice. Love this area and would go back again!! A couple notes about the hike itself: 1 - Turn right once you reach the dam walking up FS 800 near the very start. Many trails go up after that, but they all lead to the first lake in the end. 2 - The climb up the cliffside to Pacific Tarn was steep, and to avoid snowfields I climbed up a fin with a fixed rope on it. If you take the rope it's class 4+ but if you go right of the fin it goes at class 3. I did a little of both. 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 7/22/2023, By: truekyle
Info: Beautiful route! The willows are pretty awful but the ridge made it worth it. 

Route: Ridge from Pacific Peak
Posted On: 7/4/2023, By: glenhanderson
Info: Gate is still closed at Mayflower Gulch TH. We wouldn't have driven up anyway. Arrived at 6:30am on July 4, only 5 cars. Headed out by 6:45. Plan was to ascend Pacific via West Ridge, take the ridge down and back up to Atlantic, descend via Atlantic West Ridge, and re-join our original trail - sort of a lollipop loop. The forecast was mixed today, with small chances of rain and thunder storms by 11 and strong winds forecast. We probably should have started an hour earlier. After 7 days into a Colorado climbing trip, this was our first encounter with real storms. We hiked up the 1.5 mile road which was no problem, then headed across the meadow near the old Boston Mine. We encountered very wet ground in the small willow patch and had to navigate around some deeper sections by bushwhacking. We both went into the mud up to 4" a couple times, but our boots stayed dry inside. After that, hiked up the meadow to the base of Pacific West Ridge. Weather was nice, though there were clouds in the distance east and west. Took us about 1:30 to reach the base of the scramble. Weather looked clear so we decided to move ahead. We had researched the scramble and had GPX tracks. It was a fun time - solid class 3 in places and we stayed on the ridge for large sections, with good exposure especially on the north side. By the time we arrived at the summit 1:30 later, the clouds and wind had moved in. Not too bad, but we knew we shouldn't wait too long. After a quick snack, we headed down towards Atlantic. Part way there, we were hit by a first storm. We had about 5 mins of 20 mph winds and snow/hail. We kept trucking up to Atlantic. At the top we met two guys we had started together with in the parking lot who were planning on doing Mayflower Gulch Grand Traverse. We chatted for a bit and they had decided to push on, though there were more storm clouds in the distance east and west. We headed down the Atlantic West Ridge and shortly the wind started picking up. At times it seemed close to 40 mph and we felt we were getting blown around. This storm wasn't passing so fast. As it got worse, we decided to descend down off the ridge since we suspected an electrical storm. Sure enough, 100' down the boulders, we both felt a couple static/hair raising events on our heads. That was scary. We picked up the pace descending the steep boulder field, but it was tricky. There were a ton of loose rocks and some of them were starting to get slippery with the precip. We made it alright with no injuries and by the time we got down to the meadow, the sun was shining on us. Welcome to Colorado summers! The rest of the trip as uneventful. Hopefully the 2 guys on the grand traverse made out OK, as they were definitely up there when the electrical storm hit. 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 6/12/2023, By: djacobson
Info: Gave the West Ridge a go this time after getting turned back on the NE Slopes a couple days ago due to weather. The gate is closed to the 4WD so you'll start about 1.5 miles below the Boston Mine. Watch for the black sand pile after the gate next to the mine - that's where the path starts. The willows were....sloshy (is that a word?)...lots of running water and mud. Sank calf deep on the return trip. Other than being soggy, the willows weren't as bad as I was expecting. The trail was mostly snow free or avoidable until about ~11k. I did not go all the way to Pacific Creek instead headed straight up the ridge and re-connected with the trail at 12.6k. This avoided a lot of snow. See the red line on the attached topo map image. Snowshoes were absolutely needed since there was not a good freeze overnight and it was post-hole central without them even really early in the morning and with overcast skies. I was super glad I had my ice axe and spikes (either microspikes or crampons would be fine) for the ridge. Right now, even with snowshoes on the ridge you'll post hole to your waist. The snow has a thin layer of crust and is slushy underneath - seemingly hollow. Embarrassingly enough, there may have been some crawling at a few points to avoid sinking. A few hundred feet below the summit watch for a small cornice on climbers right. The foot tracks go quite close to it and you can't see it until you're past it. The summit was beautiful with no wind. I was able to have a half decent glissade back down around 11.8-12k. I removed my snowshoes around 11k but was glad I kept my gators on.