Little Bear but Big Traverse

A solo day trip to grab all three snowflakes in the Blanca group

Hike Statistics

• 14.31 miles
• 7200' elevation gain
• 14 hours 55 minutes

Little Bear Ascent

A true miracle happened when I woke up to my alarm at 3am. Despite a notorious past of sleeping through alarms and not having anyone else to wake me up, I managed to start hiking at my planned time of 3:15am. I immediately hopped a barbed wire fence and cut east through the shrubs. There was barely any snow at this point and I was able to make good time through the small trees. Occasionally there would be animal tracks that I'd follow and then very quickly get tricked as they squirmed under branches that no human could fit under. I reached Tobin Creek at around 9300' where I met the crux of the approach. The area was littered with dense vegetation and the creek made surfaces in the vicinity extremely icy.

Once past the bushwack nastiness, I was able to make very good time up the slopes to the SW ridge. There were still trees and bushes, but these could be easily navigated around even in the dark. I broke treeline at around 11,300' and was met with the pleasant surprise of a mostly dry ridge. There was the occasional wind drifted snow where one would sink to their knees, but for the most part the ridge was in essentially summer conditions.

At around 13,400' I the ridge turned into a little bit of a scramble. Fortunately, I wasn't super quick on the ascent and the sun was already spreading its morning rays. I believe there was a short knife-edge somewhere on the SW ridge, but I don't particularly remember anything very knifey. In general, the ridge was a ton of fun and was easy scrambling! Highly recommend the route to Little Bear even in summer.

Once at the summit of Mama Bear, I made the quick traverse over to Little Bear. The snow immediately made things trickier than they were in dry conditions. It was often hard to figure out if there was a good foothold under the snow or if it was just a smooth slab. Nevertheless, I as eager to summit and find shelter as the wind was starting to pick up on the ridge.

It was a very nice weather for a winter day, but I was a little sad to find winds blowing at around 15-20 mph and gusts of up to 30ish mph.

Little Bear - Blanca Traverse

At the summit of Little Bear, I got my first good look at the traverse that lay ahead of me. It's been a decently snowy year for the Sangres and a recent storm dropped about 2 feet of snow in the area. Not ideal conditions for a winter traverse, but still looked very doable and I continued on.

The initial downclimb from Little Bear was a little hairy. The rocks had gotten a little icy and anything snow covered was immediately too slippery to use even when the snow was brushed off. Beyond that, I followed essentially the same line as one would take in the summer. There were a couple places I had to stay more directly on the ridge than traverse around it, but nothing too bad. I took the whole traverse at a frustratingly slow pace to make sure I didn't make any mistakes. It was a lot easier to mess up when in heavy winter boots and gloves.

About two thirds of the way through the traverse I had to cut under a major gendarme. From the top of Little Bear I was a little concerned about this section, but it ended up being a non-issue. The snow was very stable and not particularly steep. I was sinking in far enough that there was absolutely no need to pull out my axe or crampons.

Once past that gendarme, the difficulty eased up significantly. Most of the traverse beyond it was 2nd/3rd class and the snow did not add too much difficulty.

I quickly finished up the last few ups and downs before gaining the summit of Blanca. It was a pleasant traverse and I enjoyed all of it outside of one loose rock! When I checked how long the traverse took, I was a little bummed to see that it took about 3.5 times as long as when I did it in summer conditions.

Blanca to Ellingwood

After taking a leisurely break on top of Blanca, I began the hike over to Ellingwood. The descent down to the saddle was very easy and snow did not add much complication. From that saddle I aimed to follow the ridge proper all the way to Ellingwood. There were a few tricky areas where the rocks were incredibly slippery, but in general it was not too much worse than in summer.

The crux of the hike over to Ellingwood was a downward traverse on a small rock face. It was not a particularly hard move, but I was unable to get any foot traction with my snow covered boots. This crux could've been avoided if I dropped down about 60 feet.

The remaining hike up to Ellingwood was very quick. Rocks were stable and the snow was not a problem. Once at the summit, I found some large rocks to hide from the wind as it had been unrelenting the entire day.

A Torturous Descent

From the summit of Ellingwood, I followed the ridge for a short while and then descending down the face. I followed a line of semi-exposed rocks where the snow was very thin and the slide risk was low. Once the steepness started to ease up, I put on snowshoes. I was naively very happy to finally get to use some gear after hauling snowshoes, crampons, and an ice axe along the entire day without using them. The snow was easy to descend with snowshoes and all the way down to Crater Lake it was a good descent.

Between Crater Lake and Lake Como, I had the worst postholing experience of my life. Despite being on snowshoes, I would sink to my knees on most steps. Some parts of this section had a breakable crust that did not prevent my postholing, but made getting my snowshoes back out of the snow a nightmare. With no one to switch off breaking trail, I became incredibly frustrated. 3 grueling hours later, I reached the lake had a much needed snack break.

Beyond Lake Como, the snow slowly became more and more forgiving. First I only sank to my shins, then to the top of my boots, then to my ankles. By 10,200', There was only 4-6 inches of snow on the ground I was able to happily take off my snowshoes.

As some sort of terrible reward for my postholing troubles, I was able to see a gorgeous sunset on on the hike back to my car. Motivated by the lack of snow on the road, I hustled down and was able to make it back just minutes before I would've needed to pull out my headlamp.

Looking back at this hike, all I know is that my love for the Little Bear-Blanca traverse increased doubly. In summertime, it was one of my favorite scrambles. In the winter, it was even more of a blast!