Snowmass Mountain Trip Report 08/28/2011

Report Type	Full
Peak(s)	Snowmass Mountain - 14,105 feet
Date Posted	08/28/2011
Date Climbed	08/27/2011
Author	justify429

S ridge
This was my first 14er so sorry if my trip report is not up to par. Myselft and 3 other 14ers.com members set off for this summit. First off on the road there when you turn from marble/crystal city turn off go 1.9miles to the unmarked turn twoards lead king basin. Follow that road for a wile sorry i didnt get millage from this point. But to explain follow it you will start dropping down the back side. Once you cross a small stream with 2 signs on trees both sides of you the trail head is just ahead. There is a decent sized parking area and if you continue down the hill just a little more there is some campsites on the left side down the hill. Once you get on the trail (we started at 4:45) make sure you have some rain pants or something as you will get wet from the due off the bushes. Treck up the trail to geneva lake. At camp site 3 there is a tree blocking the trail climb over the tree and continue on. Once at little gen we were told there was no real trailhead to sridge so try to cross over with out ruining any of the wildlife. Here is where you start your assent up Snowmass there are 2 gullies you can go up. The left is the one we chose. When we reached the gully there was a class 4 climb on the right side of the gully that myself and Fortmyers-b climbed as Wisco14er and sky climbed the gully. We found that we had an easier time climbing up the class 4 rather then the scramble up the gully. Continue the top of the gully up to the ridge line. ON the ridge line you will pass the pinnacle and continue to a small rock face. Here you can either climb it and stay on ridge or go around thru a small portion of the gully below and come back up around the rock face. I climbed the face and found it solid and fairly nice to climb. From this point your almost up to the summit. Once you summit and on your way down if you are climbing back down the s ridge which most people say to do make sure you stay on the ridge as you can get turned off down other ridge gullys and stuff on the way down. At the 2 gullys you can enter on the beging make sure you look and go down the gully you came up. We ended up coming up left gully and missed it on way down and came down the first gully (right one). Which was a little bit looser but all went well. I hope this helped you out with some knowledge on what to do. Gl! WOOOOHOOOOO #1 is down!!!!!! Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

S ridge

This was my first 14er so sorry if my trip report is not up to par. Myselft and 3 other 14ers.com members set off for this summit.

First off on the road there when you turn from marble/crystal city turn off go 1.9miles to the unmarked turn twoards lead king basin. Follow that road for a wile sorry i didnt get millage from this point. But to explain follow it you will start dropping down the back side. Once you cross a small stream with 2 signs on trees both sides of you the trail head is just ahead. There is a decent sized parking area and if you continue down the hill just a little more there is some campsites on the left side down the hill.

Once you get on the trail (we started at 4:45) make sure you have some rain pants or something as you will get wet from the due off the bushes. Treck up the trail to geneva lake. At camp site 3 there is a tree blocking the trail climb over the tree and continue on. Once at little gen we were told there was no real trailhead to sridge so try to cross over with out ruining any of the wildlife.

Here is where you start your assent up Snowmass there are 2 gullies you can go up. The left is the one we chose. When we reached the gully there was a class 4 climb on the right side of the gully that myself and Fortmyers-b climbed as Wisco14er and sky climbed the gully. We found that we had an easier time climbing up the class 4 rather then the scramble up the gully. Continue the top of the gully up to the ridge line.

ON the ridge line you will pass the pinnacle and continue to a small rock face. Here you can either climb it and stay on ridge or go around thru a small portion of the gully below and come back up around the rock face. I climbed the face and found it solid and fairly nice to climb. From this point your almost up to the summit.

Once you summit and on your way down if you are climbing back down the s ridge which most people say to do make sure you stay on the ridge as you can get turned off down other ridge gullys and stuff on the way down. At the 2 gullys you can enter on the beging make sure you look and go down the gully you came up. We ended up coming up left gully and missed it on way down and came down the first gully (right one). Which was a little bit looser but all went well.

I hope this helped you out with some knowledge on what to do. Gl! WOOOOHOOOOO #1 is down!!!!!!

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

unclegar	#1! 8/29/2011 3:19am You picked quite a route for your 1st 14er! That was my choice for my last 14er! Congrats! I definitely preferred the ridge proper whenever possible. I also enjoyed the class 4 wall. Check out my finisher TR and the one by 'Johnson' of our trip. (you can search for Snowmass Mountain in the TR peak field) Try to figure out how to get your pics in the text, but nice job for your 1st TR. And be very careful in the Elks,the rocks (no matter how big) can be loose. Sounds like you may already know that. Hope you have many more safe climbs. :D
justify429	Thanks much 8/29/2011 4:08am Yeah it was a blast. I have a background in rockclimbing a bit so I know a little bit about loose rocks and what to look for/route finding. But yah i climbed columbia peak last month (13980) and found it invigorating and just wanted more. I was wanting to try for crestone peak or needle. Then i recieved some messages about snowmass with 3 other members here and worked out well and i met some great people. Including paully who helped the sudan climbers and I also met them up about 30ft from summit and on the way down after there injury. As for the pictures i definatly will just not computer literate. Thanks again!!
fortmyers-b	Thanks! 8/29/2011 3:13pm Thanks for putting a report together Kenny. Enjoyed climbing with you.
paully	congrats man! 8/30/2011 2:46am Kenny - I enjoyed sharing the summit (and beers afterward) with you guys. +1 on the part about staying on the ridge on the descent. I found myself making that mistake once on the descent, and next thing I knew I was further off the ridge than I'd intended and navigating loose, dangerous terrain. Popped back up on the ridge and all was good... not to mention that ridge is just so damn spectacular! Nice work on an amazing first 14er route!
justify429	Thanks much 8/30/2011 3:13am Yeah it was great meeting all of you guys up there and the food and beers was well deserved and needed. The ridge was fun coming down. The little climbing spot had me and Fortmyers-b having some fun on it. I hope we meet again on some mountain in the future:)

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