There's surprisingly little beta on Snowdon Peak given how easy it is to access. I don't have a ton either, but hopefully this TR will help a little for those researching the NE Ridge. Thanks to this trip, I'm working to unlearn a fear of heights. Snowdon was a good reminder that infrequently climbed 13ers often have more subjective ratings. I honestly think that, while possible to keep Snowdon at class 3, this route deserves a 3+ rating simply for the exposure factor. The routefinding isn't terrible thanks to a surprising abundance of cairns, but there's class 4 and 5 lurking all around. I turned around a few hundred feet from the summit, for reasons to be outlined below.

My friend Julian and I set out for a medium dayhike just to have some fun around Durango. I was in the area to summit Wilson Peak on a Sunday, so I figured that a little Saturday stroll would be fun. Snowdon is easily accessible to any car via the Andrews Lake TH (paved!!), is well under 10 miles, with only a few thousand feet of gain. And, it's supposed to have some spice... turns out it has plenty.

Now, Julian likes to hike barefoot. He's built up a tolerance for rocks, twigs, snow...etc that I can't wrap my head around. I spite of this, he was gracious enough to bring not one but TWO pairs of approach shoes to Durango. I wanted to see what they felt like, and I was very glad to have them later on.

The hike starts out mellow, meandering through some wooded areas before emerging in a large meadow full of wildflowers. The wildflowers are exceptional here, and even from far away, the view of Snowdon is striking. This is a great way to get a glimpse of the Weminuche quartzite if you don't want to leave your car. From the meadow, the views are even better. It's wet though, even in August. I imagine that in early summer it would be a muddy mess up here.

Eventually, though, the trail hooks to the left instead of continuing into the talus field. It looks counterintuitive at first, but it's correct. My GPX file from climb13ers.com is not 100% accurate, and this was my first indication. But, I'm sometimes over-reliant on tech, so I figured that a little of bit of off-trail boulder-hopping would be A: fun, B: a more direct way to the ridge, and C: a good way to practice my bushwhacking skills, so off we went. This was a bad idea, but hey, at least we weren't lost. We realized that we were clearly not heading in the right direction and decided to head up some loose dirt/talus/bushes to gain the ridge -- probably at high class 2 to low class 3. We arrived on a small shoulder to discover that there was a trail that we had missed. We followed it on the way down with much greater care/efficiency; it's easy to follow.

After arriving at the shoulder, we quickly made our way to the ridge, and primary source of excitement for the day. At this point, views of the Grenadiers to the east open up. The summit of Snowdon is also visible from here, just a short scramble away. In fact, it looks like a simple boulder-hop up the ridge. But, sadly, it isn't. I knew from my research that the ridge proper does not go; you have to traverse left onto the face and cross over. It turned out to be true, and the summit notch+cliffs that block access are visible in the photo below. This is what it looks like heading into the dangerous section. The general idea is to climb high on the ridge until you can see cairns to help you across.

It was at this point that we finally started to appreciate how exposed the traverse would be, though. From this flat section it looked pretty improbable. Still, we gave it a shot. Julian put his shoes on, which in my experience is usually a good indicator of the difficulty of the terrain. The hiking increases to class 2 and steadily gets more exposed as you approach the traverse across the face. Some of the ledges are covered in grass, and finding decent footing requires deliberate movements. This would be a VERY bad place to slip. You'll have to downclimb a little to find ledges that go, but the cairns do a good job of marking the path of least resistance. I've attached the few photos I had of the crux area.

It was at this point that I began to get a little sketched out. Clouds had been building around us on our hike up, but they weren't really threatening. But, as is typical for this area, while we were scrambling and not paying attention, they had snuck up on us. It started to drizzle, which normally wouldn't be a huge deal. But, considering the exposed terrain, and the abundance of grass on the ledges, this became a problem. We could see a couple options leading to the other side of the face and figured we'd have time to summit before the rock got soaked. From my research, the climbing once off the face was a short section of more straightforward class 3 to a flat summit. Still, we knew that at some point we'd have to get down. Going back across those ledges if they got wet would be an awful idea, and I think this is where the fear really kicked in. Going up, I had been deliberate and slow. Coming back, the rain had stopped, but given the abundance of clouds, I had to make the same moves with a sense of urgency in case the drizzle returned. I think I found my (unroped) limit on this climb. I've climbed tons of class 3, with some class 4 mixed in occasionally, and none of them put the fear in me quite like this one (well, except maybe Kit Carson's N Ridge...). There's a line between "fun scary" and "not fun scary" that I've found while scrambling, and this was firmly in the "not fun scary" side of things. Julian and I turned around over halfway across the face, electing to live another day and come back for Snowdon if we felt so inclined.

Thankfully, Julian is a much more accomplished climber than me. He and I generally keep cool heads in exposed terrain, but he was definitely the more relaxed of the two of us today. He led going up and going back, and I watched his hand/foot placements so that I could memorize them and replicate them when necessary. Oh, and approach shoes were a lifesaver for both of us. Most holds were sizable, but the extra grip on the bottom and increased range of options for foot placements put both of our minds at ease.

Finally, after making a couple of dangerous moves, we arrived back on safer ledges. We found our way back to the ridge, which we then followed back to the flat area. We were still cautious, as the boulders were damp, but we had made it out of the exposed section. I was happy to have escaped with nothing more than an abundance of adrenaline. Heights scare me now more than they did in the past, but I'm working through it. The way down was relaxing (especially now that we had a good trail). The wildflowers were abundant, and we saw these weird mushrooms all over the lower section.

Overall, this was a good climb with lots fun elements, but a little scary for my taste. It was a good exercise in forcing oneself to remain focused even when your brain is doing its best to panic. I didn't get as many pictures of the face traverse as I would have liked, but given the limited beta on this peak, I thought I'd share what I had. I think that a stronger scrambler would find this climb extremely enjoyable. The rock, when dry, is pretty good by San Juan standards. Without cairns the routefinding difficulty would increase, but in general if you round a corner and are cliffed out, look for a better path slightly higher or lower. I'm curious what the last little section looks like, as I didn't get to summit, but I've turned around 1-2 times each of the past 3 years and haven't regretted the choice yet. Since I can't figure out a good way to wrap up this TR, here's a shot of Julian giving his feet a break in the lower meadow... thanks for reading!