| 40 Updates | Route | Info | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8/24/2022 South Face |
South Face | Made an attempt for the traverse but just ended up with the Peak, still had an incredible time out. Road up is Subaruable, there are several spots we had to slow down and think about our line but we made it up and down with an Outback just fine. Some nice camping spots close to the 4WD trailhead, at the Humboldt trail split near 11.1k elevation, and many more at the lakes around 11.7k. The Humboldt trail had quite a bit of deadfall, might be just as fast to keep straight and take the old road trail that contours the basin on the way up.
There was plenty of water to filter in the Cottonwood lake basin just over Broken Hand pass and even from the lower section of the Red Gully. If I were to do this again I'd just carry enough water to get over the pass and thru the basin and filter where the horizontal shelf meets the bottom of the Red Gully at 12.8k, there were some heavier rains forecast over the past weekend. The Red Gully was a beast and we definitely underestimated how fatigued we might feel, especially after a 4 mile 1.8k hike up to our camp the night prior. The gully is a stiff 1.2k gain in 1/3 of a mile navigating a mix of sloping rock, loose gravel, stray scree and sturdy class 3 climbing. The loosest area though was on the initial descent from Broken hand back to S Colony Lakes basin but there's enough rocks anchored in the dirt to avoid slipping too much. This was an incredibly gorgeous hike from the very start. Innumerable stars at night, incredibly prominent vista of the Needle from the S Colony basin, views sweeping peaks all around in the Cottonwood basin, aesthetic rock up the gully, and dream-like cloud movement swirling all around us and the surrounding peaks mid-morning. Looking forward to being back here again! |
7 | |||
| 3/19/2022 East Ridge |
East Ridge | Looks like my fellow hikers from yesterday beat me to writing a report so I just thought I'd add some pictures. I was planning on heading over to N Massive but didn't have the stamina or time for it this time, looks like nobody's been up there recently. Scrambled over the rocky & snowy bits on top of the ridge on the way up, mostly class 2+ with some class 3+ options. I bypassed most of that on the way back going down part of the upper basin on the south side of the ridge and then up and over a small snow crossing back to the first V-notch tower. Got a little disoriented trying to remember where the end of the snowshoe trench was among the slab towers at the base of the ridge but I saw a ptarmigan while I was doing that so it's cool. Really great day out.
That makes 11 winter summits for me for this 21/22 season! Looking forward to scouting out more difficult routes this year after some snow's melted out. |
14 | 1 | ||
| 3/14/2022 East Ridge |
East Ridge | Got the snowflake for Elbert yesterday. Some light snow overnight covered the 4WD road and the trail below treeline with a couple inches, but all that melted away by evening. Bootpacked trench intact all the way up to the first wooden fence at treeline, 11.8k elevation. After this the trench was covered by wind-blown snow. I donned snowshoes from here and headed directly to the saddle on the ridge at 12.4k. The snow through this section was the same throughout the rest of the ridge: a mix of supportive wind-scoured crust, less-supportive hollow-sounding crust, and some looser stuff that sunk ankle-deep.
I left my snowshoes at 13.1k on the bare flat rocky area but could have dropped them earlier, there was now a pretty visible and sturdy bootpack through the snow for the most part. I ascended the exposed summer trail for a ways and then traversed south to hop along some rocks the rest of the way to the summit. Spent almost 30 minutes at the summit with no wind. All day I only felt slight winds on the saddle at 12.4k and while crossing the slope to get there in one small area, definitely less than the expected forecast. For the descent I traversed to the north end of the summit and went straight down the slope, I figured the snow would be a little more supportive on this side of the ridge. I opted taking the closed trail from the flat area at 11.5k back down to the main trail near the ponds. I noticed a bootpack going up this way on the ascent and saw a second trench heading down this way at the 11.5k marsh area. Outside of winter there's a ton of debris placed across the trail but several feet of snow covering all of this made for a quick and direct descent on a still well-packed trench. I wish I had come up this way as well, I felt a bit antsy about a large, loaded rollover the that the last two switchbacks on the main trail passed though. Great day for my 10th winter 14er this season! Had the mountain all to myself. The nearly-full moon on the return casting shadows of the massive aspens across the 4WD road was especially cool. Left with some amazing pictures from the summit and only a slight sunburn! |
15 | 3 | ||
| 3/1/2022 Southeast Ridge |
Southeast Ridge | Made an attempt on the SE ridge but turned back due to unstable snow conditions. Road was tire-tracked past the Colorado trail TH and the trail was boot packed up to the ridge. A pre-storm trench was still visible for some ways up the ridge, but I ended up going my own way up after windblown snow completely covered it. Snow quality was great in the morning, everything was still frozen and my snowshoes weren't sinking down too much especially in more open stretches on the ridge.
Snow was a bit mushier under thick tree cover around 11.2k so I traversed over to a south-facing low-angle open area on the ridge. The snow was very firm here as I made my way up to the boulder pile at 11,420. I continued on towards the rocky point at 11,600. Up until this point I had noticed some sort of cracks forming near the tops of small sloping features on the ridge like little bumps and rollovers. It looked as if maybe the surface slab crust upon the feature's face was trying to slide down a little after yesterday's afternoon heat. The snow was still frozen solid in the morning as I passed them by though so I didn't think too much of it. As I neared the 11,600 point just before noon I noticed another one of those cracks across the snow apron I was crossing and felt the whole thing shift down. The surface crust layer was only a couple to a few inches thick and it slid about an inch and a half. I carefully tread above me to a safe flat area under some trees to assess the situation. I figured there would be more snow areas like this ahead and I did not want to see how these conditions would look after several more hours in the heat after a summit descent. That open south-facing area of the ridge had some particularly deep & wide cracks formed between steppes of snow and I definitely wanted to be off that before conditions deteriorated further in the heat. I couldn't make it any further up the deep & loose snow apron up to the point anyway so I turned back. The surface crust on a small bump on the flat area between the 11,600 & 11,420 points also slid under me a bit. I stuck close within thick clusters of aspen & pine on the way down and crossed flat portions of open areas when I had to. Didn't experience any further issues on the ridge, the snow was mushy now but it was stable at least. Looking back now those small slab slides weren't super threatening in themselves at that time but i could definitely see them becoming a bigger problem later in the day. The ridge itself is under 30 degrees overall but some of these microfeatures that held these sliding slabs were either unnoticeable or unavoidable on the way up. Might be more stable for a sunrise summit or just after this sweltering pre-spring is over. |
10 | |||
| 2/14/2022 NW Ridge winter variation |
NW Ridge winter variation | Not much to add outside of previous reports, super bomber trench/bootpack all the way to the summit. The hill through the forest leading up to the headwall has some fairly stiff elevation gain. Headwall wasn't bad coming up, coming down was tougher to navigate the loose slippery dirt & gravel. There's some more packed-in steps on climber's right which help with the descent. No snowshoes or crampons needed, ice axe helpful for controlled glissading in areas on the upper ridge and the forest hills.
Winds were forecast as blowing to the E/SE 10-15mph. Didn't really feel much wind until the upper ridge and summit but it was blowing to the E/NE and felt a bit stronger. Some snow in the forecast in a couple days. Perfect day out, the forest on the approach was exceptionally beautiful. Met a fellow climber on her way down from a sunrise summit, way to go!! Nice to meet you and chat with you!! |
15 | 2 | ||
| 2/7/2022 West Ridge |
West Ridge | Summited Grays & Torreys from Loveland pass. Wore spikes from car to car, no flotation needed. Ridge is windblown for the most part with loose snow filled into the summer trail. The rocky section just past Cupid has a nice bypass to the right on class 2+ rocks.
Both the ascent and descent of Grizzly was one of the most difficult sections. It is a stiff elevation gain up to the summit and its NW ridge is coated in thick, loose snow. Couldn't get much traction with spikes so I had to climb over or step on rocks in the snowiest sections. The descending E ridge is very narrow—drop off to the left, steep continuous snow slope down off a cliff to the right. For one part the best way through is over a knife edge snow crest. I cut down to the saddle w Torreys when Grizzly's E slope leveled off some, the wind crust was not supportive here but I only punched through to my ankle for the most part. Tried climbing the snow gully up Torreys W slope but the snow was too loose and unsupportive to make it worth it. Went straight up the scree to the left of the gully without much issue. The rocks get a bit looser higher up. Up until I crested the false summit on the W ridge I hadn't felt the forecast NW 20mph wind at all. Up here, though, the winds seemed to be meeting each other from various places and created a ton of gusts and snow-devils. The Torreys-Grays saddle funneled the winds to create what felt like 50mph gusts. At least in winter you can see the wind before it hits you! Took the summer trail up to Grays which was filled with mostly hardpack snow. Did not resummit Torreys back and instead picked a line below the saddle that curved around to the false summit. I found the snow that looks like ripply, disturbed water to be the most hardpack, the flatter sections were a gamble for punching through. Glissaded almost all the way down the snow chute down Torreys W face. I curved around closer to the N edge of Grizzly's E face on the reascent to find more supportive snow. No issues from then on back to the car, mostly ran or skated/slid down the snow on the summer trail. |
15 | 2 | ||
| 1/31/2022 East Ridge |
East Ridge | Really enjoyable short winter day in the San Juans. The steep path up the south-facing slope is a mix of packed snow, ice, frozen dirt, mud, and loose dirt & gravel. Used some hefty Hillsound trail crampon microspikes to cruise up the trail. The sketchiest part I think is the talus chute crossing. I didn't see the cairns on the other side of the chute and ascended the extremely loose rock & dirt on the side after crossing. Every rock is loose and the large ones can crush your foot. The trail actually keeps going a bit past the chute and continues on up steep less loose dirt.
At around 11.9k the trees open up to a snow-covered hill where snowshoes became mandatory. I went straight up without issue but there was a track off to the right that curved around and went over some shallower snow. Dropped my snowshoes off on top of the small hill on the ridge at 12.5k. For the following wide, rocky ridge I ascended the bare, fairly stable rocks on the left side. I wish I had stayed on the snowy trail, so much faster ascending that with spikes. On the last part of the ridge towards the summit, I mostly stayed on top of the ridge which was hardpack enough to ascend easily with spikes. Didn't go over to Redcloud for multiple reasons—late start, a bit wiped from weekend ice climbing, & forgot some wind gear in the car that I would need for the ridge. Instead I spent a bit longer on the summit taking in the utterly magnificent San Juan vistas. The descent went quickly. Spikes kept me from slipping in the mud but the snow didn't deteriorate to slush nearly as much as I thought. Winds felt as forecast on the summit blowing towards the east at 20mph. Before that I only felt the wind in occasional gusts above treeline. This report is mostly for posterity due to an incoming heavy snow. Yes, it is a steep route overall but I didn't find it too bad with traction, I kindof prefer trail angles that use quads over calves anyway. Looking forward to next time and going over to Redcloud too! |
8 | 2 | ||
| 1/24/2022 East Ridge |
East Ridge | Boy howdy is this a route. Trench thru the CO trail to the ridge at 12k established thanks to user wren & 2 skiers. Switchbacks up the first bare south-facing slope hold very hard-pack snow and ice. Put on snowshoes around 10,600 ft. Steady and gentle gain thru the scenic forest until the ridge.
From the first hill onwards the ridge holds a ton of wind-drifted snow; some areas are deep powder, others have a hard wind crust. I used snowshoes to cross the north side of the first hill and stowed them on top of the next bump. The rocky knobs along the ridge usually have snow at their bases and large wind drifts on the saddles between them. I used crampons and an ice tool to cross the hard crust areas on these saddles below the 13.2k false summit. Made different route-finding decisions to ascend each point on the ridge, sometimes the surrounding powdery drifts made class 3 mandatory and other times they could be safely skirted to the right. The final points along the ridge above the false summit have much more snow among the rocks at their base and slopes. Winds only blew in gusts along the ridge below the false summit at the forecast speed & direction of 15-20 mph from the northeast. Wind picked up a bit and blew more consistently after the false summit. At the summit I met strong 35-40 mph winds blowing from the southwest. Witnessed an incredible sunset at the summit as the sun dipped below the now overcast sky and pierced the light snowfall. On the descent I glissaded down as much snow on the ridge as I could and found some easier class 2+ routes down the points in the dark. Now that there's for sure a trench all the way through the SW slopes route I'm sure that's far easier than this one. The points do seem never ending and the snow and rocks are a real mental and physical effort to navigate. It took me just under 13hrs RT even with the trench. But if you're looking for a challenging & exciting Sawatch climb with views all around this is the way to go! |
15 | 4 | ||
| 1/20/2022 South Slope |
South Slope | Ascended to the White Ridge/Sherman saddle via White ridge south slope, descended via Sherman south slopes. Tried planning out a route that avoided the Sherman/Sheridan saddle and the snowfields in the basin but the White Ridge slopes ended up being a lot chossier than anticipated. First time out in this area and it was still a great day out!
I parked at the “Park here or else you'll get stuck” sign, road just had very minor patches of snow and ice until then. Looks like someone attempted to keep going and did in fact get stuck 30 ft in or so. Road has an established boot pack up thru to the basin. The snowfields in the basin had a firm windblown crust for the most part with more postholing among the willows. Much of the ridges and hills in the basin were bare. The White Ridge south slope is completely scree and gets pretty loose at times. Had fun climbing up but I would have otherwise preferred to stay more in the basin crossing the snowfields and snaking along the small hills and ridges directly to Sherman's south slope. Snow near summit has a firm windblown crust. Winds were pretty constantly blowing towards the SE throughout the day and felt as forecast at 20-25 mph, hard to find shelter in the basin. Looks like it'll snow 3 inches today and a few more on Mon. I figure these conditions should hold for the weekend with the consideration of this light fresh layer of snow on top of everything but who knows! My gf came along this time too and she summited with me, congrats P! |
8 | 5 | ||
| 1/12/2022 West Ridge from Guanella Pass |
West Ridge from Guanella Pass | Road has a very nice bootpack but I'd still recommend gaiters from here on for the occasional off-track posthole. The "shortcut" for the second switchback isn't trenched now. The trail through the willow marsh has a decent bootpack except for where the moose have destroyed it. Moose tracks abound everywhere here even on the road. No moose for me today tho :(
There is a packed down snowshoe trench shooting off the main trail just past the first large pond, will attach picture of location. It goes over the hills in the marsh to the northeast and continues on to a small kidney-shaped pond just west of the low-angle Scott Gomer drainage at 11,860 ft elevation. I ran into this trench after branching off from the summer Sawtooth return trail. The person who made the trench apparently climbed the boulders to gain the drainage above so I followed. The drainage slope northeast of the creek is snow-covered, it has a hard crust that supported me at times but I mostly punched through to mid-calf. I crossed the beautiful frozen Scott Gomer Creek with microspikes, the snow on the banks has a thick windblown crust that held me but the creek is still very slick. The northwest facing slope on the other side of the creek and the slopes onwards to Evans W ridge has light patches of crusty snow and avoidable snowfields. The trail through the boulderfield on the ridge has small snowdrifts at some points but they're mostly avoidable. Summit is clear of snow. Will attach pictures of the Sawtooth. Looked super loaded on the east side. The big steep gully that holds the Sawtooth return trail looked bare for the most part. I did not see a trench going between the gully and the main trail. Great day for my 10th total winter 14er. Perfect weather and not too strenuous of a hike. Scott Gomer creek in the drainage had an incredible glacial blue color to the ice. What a wonderful & peaceful time snowshoeing through the middle of the frozen willow ponds after dark under moonlight too. |
12 | 10 | ||
| 1/7/2022 East Ridge |
East Ridge | Completed the summit this time!! 4WD road and Rainbow trail have a solid hardpack trench in. The east ridge from Rainbow up to 10.6k elevation has a hardpack trench as well, if you step off you'll end up in knee to mid-thigh drifts.
I had to break trail up the steeper hill below treeline from just above 10.6k to 11.8k. Snow was calf to mid-thigh deep w snowshoes. Tried my best to move efficiently and find shallower snow. Large hardpack windblown drifts and bare patches at treeline. Ridge above treeline is pretty much bare. The winds were ferocious here—Mountain forecast had a 20-30mph wind forecast blowing to the east but I felt 40-50 gusts even on the north side of the ridge. Wind wasn't as bad up on false summit so I continued to the true summit. Top of the ridge is bare with some rime ice and small snowdrifts below. Incredible winter views of the Crestones & rest of the Sangres from the top. |
9 | 7 | ||
| 12/28/2021 East Ridge |
East Ridge | Made it to 10,600 ft on the east ridge, just before it gets a bit steeper. I wondered if there would only be light snow off trail below treeline considering the lack of snow on the Front Range so far this winter but I was wrong.
The road is filled in with snow just before you hit the trees and required snowshoes past 9250 ft. A recent trench made for an easy trek up the road to the Rainbow Trail junction. I broke trail from there where the snow was ankle to calf deep in snowshoes. Several downed trees over the trail. Once atop the ridge, I found that it held windblown drifts that sunk down calf to knee deep. Made for much slower going than anticipated so I turned back. I wasn't able to tell the condition of the snow on the ridge above treeline, not sure if it's hardpack or more deep snow. |
7 | 4 | ||
| 12/21/2021 Northwest Ridge |
Northwest Ridge | First calendar winter ascent down! Road to TH was clear of snow until about 2/3 of the way in until the point where the wilderness registry/info signs are and the road narrows. Several stretches of light snow on the road from there to TH, no worries for any 2WD.
Trail from TH to the old cabin had 2-4 inches of loose snow, more in the old avalanche path. Shoutout to the 2 people who summitted yesterday and left some nice packed steps to follow. Trail from old cabin to the base of Belford climb had a mix of bare ground, hard pack snow and postholed drifts. The east-facing aspects of Missouri's north ridge & the west-facing ridge of Peck's Peak didn't have any loaded snow at all, only a few facets closer to Missouri seemed like they had any slide chance. NW ridge up Belford was windblown leaving hardpack snow and bare ground for the steep climb up. It was a lot steeper than I anticipated, I used the rest step technique to maintain a good pace. Used spikes for the entire climb up until the summit block. Winds were forecast at 15-30 mph blowing towards the east/northeast, only felt strong winds just past the old cabin, down from the NW gully, and around Belford summit. I didn't go over to Oxford but the ridge there looked bare. The Missouri standard route even looked feasible as well without too much risk given the very light snow on the east face of the ridge. Elkhead pass trail is drifted in from the trail junction, snowshoes would be helpful. I went up and down the NW ridge. Crazy how the snow levels looked like late October. Lots of snow forecast for the next week, might make the road impassable after the storm. |
9 | |||
| 10/23/2021 West Slopes |
West Slopes | Many patches of ice on the trail up but it's not hard to navigate around/through them even without spikes. Be careful during the large creek crossing when the road splits off to the east at the Baldwin Creek area, the small stepping rocks in the stream were iced over in the morning and didn't hold any traction. Trail was drifted over around 12,500 but there were already postholes to follow. Trail had clear areas to hike thru easily past that section. Fun class 3 ridge climbs available just before the summit push. Gorgeous views all around! | 6 | |||
| 9/5/2021 Bierstadt, Sawtooth, Blue Sky |
Bierstadt, Sawtooth, Blue Sky | Mainly want to comment on the descent gully after Evans and the willow marsh. I hear a lot of griping about these features online but from our experience they were way overblown and some of the most beautiful parts of the trail.
There was only one small part of the gully near the beginning that was steep and loose but the rest of it is stepped and has plenty of solid rock to tread on. Some parts of the gully look volcanic and the cliffs below look painted by rainbows. There's also a small stream in the gully where you can easily access and filter water. The trail thru the willow marsh is def muddy which fills the whole trail at times. But there's enough features to navigate around the worst parts like common trails, rocks, and grabbing on to the willow branches and walking along the side of the trail. I only briefly slipped into the mud once only bc I didn't wait for my partner to pass completely thru one mud hole first. Also, if the trail seems to split shoot left—the water collects downhill to the right. It really was cool to walk thru their marsh and see the whole valley unfold with the Sawtooth looming behind us. I'm very glad I didn't get a ride back at Evans or go up the loose and steep path back up Bierstadt. This standard Sawtooth descent only required a little extra maneuvering and it sure was worth it!! |
4 |
