I had been itching to snowshoe something big for the past several winters (I moved out here in the summer of 2020 and hadn't really snowshoed anything "big" since). I was an avid snowshoer back in New Hampshire, and to me, very few things beat the peaceful quiet of winter woods (or early spring, but who's counting?). So when a good weather window and some free time rolled around, I decided to wrangle a couple of friends for a shot at a big summit on snowshoes.

We had monitored the weather and avy forecasts all week, and things were looking solid, so we finally decided on Pikes via Crags... just to have one person bail the day before the hike. Well, it meant the two of us who were more free were able to go camp at the trailhead, so mixed blessing? After stops at REI to rent snowshoes for Double, dinner, and a snack stock up at Safeway in the Springs somewhere around 9PM, we got to the Menonite Camp somewhere around 9:45 PM. We took a shot at the road past the Menonite Camp and between the dark and the snow we quickly decided to turn around. We ended up camping right behind the car in a pulloff on the road about 0.1 miles below the Menonite Camp. The spot could barely fit more than 2 single-person tents, so I don't recommend this unless you're 2 people or willing to get VERY cozy...

Trip reports that we could find were not encouraging. We had seen a couple of people on AllTrails posting, I believe one person did in fact summit, but we knew we were looking at a very long day, possibly without a summit in store. But we decided to at least give the mountain a shot, and we figured we'd have plenty of fun along the way. Stupid us.

We woke up around 5:30 (we like to sleep in, ok?) with a goal of being on trail by 6. Between the cold numbing our fingers and chatting with a few other people looking to attempt the summit that day, we didn't end up hitting trail around 6:45. We quickly realized the downside to camping in the road was that there was no bathroom to use early in the morning... no problem, we'll find an unlocked one at Crag Campground, right? Wrong! Thus began our comedy of errors.

Despite hauling tail up the closed road (of course, we could have driven up to the winter parking lot just past Menonite camp!), with time wasted looking for a privy, we didn't get on the real trail until about 8:15. After an hour or so of solid hiking on a clear trail, we lost the true trail somewhere around 11,000'. We spent the next hour slogging through trees and up steep snowbanks, occasionally finding the trail again but mostly wasting time and calories until we broke treeline. Speaking of calories, I don't know what it was, but this was the least I have ever wanted to eat on a hike. Usually when I hike, my stomach is a bottomless pit and I have no problem eating enough to keep me fueled. Something hit me that day, whether it was altitude, laziness, or lack of a bathroom, and I just would not eat. I think I had 3-4 bars and a handful of toffee roasted peanuts to sustain me throughout our whole trek. Yikes.

Treeline to Devil's Playground was slow going. The trail was obvious, but trekking up on snowshoes slowed me down immensely. I think we broke treeline somewhere around 10:30 and didn't make Devil's Playground till just about noon. But the weather was looking beautiful, we were still feeling strong, so we decided to keep going for it. It was rather frustrating bumping up and down alongside the road when that flat, snow-free surface was right next to us, but we stayed strong all the way up. The last summit pitch, however, was a nightmare.

What I'm sure in the summer is a very fun little Class 2 scramble quickly turned into a real challenge. Deep drifts interspersed with bare rock meant there was no good option - if the snowshoes stayed on, maneuvering over the rocks would be awkward. If the snowshoes came off, we'd be postholing feet deep in drifts. We decided to keep the snowshoes on, and I'm still not sure that was the best option. We started the final pitch at just about 1. We had originally set a check-in time of 1PM and a hard turnaround of 2PM for the hike so we weren't trekking out too much in the dark. When we hit the final pitch at 1, we thought we'd be well clear of our turnaround time... We hit the summit just after 2PM. Rough going. I'm not sure I would have made it without Double setting a great pace, picking an excellent trail, and being constantly encouraging. Huge props to that man, an absolute beast of a hiking partner and a great person to be outside with in general.

Interesting although not super relevant tidbit - just before the summit itself, we saw a pair of skiers who were hoping to take on some cool line, but they didn't like the look of the snow (I think they said something about a nasty cornice, but a month and a half later, I really can't remember). Regardless, I'm not sure they actually summited, so I believe Double and I were the only people to hit the top of Pikes that day. That made me feel pretty damn good (and still does)!

After about 3 minutes enjoying the views, we realized that maybe there was an open bathroom on the summit. Deciding that was much more important than views, we spent several minutes attempting to find an unlocked entrance into the summit building without success. When we realized we were stuck hiking all the way back down the mountain to get to a toilet, I think our disappointment was so high we were ready to quit then and there. Combined with the fact that it was now almost 2:30 PM, we decided we had better high-tail it down.

I won't comment on our exact choice of route off the summit, but suffice it to say snowshoes were unnecessary for a couple of miles, and when we left Devil's Playground heading back down the mountain, we decided not to put snowshoes back on. This proved to be another mistake. The snow, now baked by hours of sun, was so soft that we frequently postholed up to our knees, and occasionally up to our hips. In our defense, the snow was so soft I'm not sure snowshoes would have made things much better, but it was probably worth trying to find out. We didn't. We just trudged along with frequent postholing, accompanied by cursing. And pain. At this point, I had a pretty killer headache whenever I leaned over. Standing straight up I was fine, but whenever I postholed, not only did my motion stop, which sucked, but I also got a lance of pain through my head. As if postholing wasn't bad enough already...

After what felt like forever, we made it back to treeline. I thought we'd have an easy time from there, but boy was I wrong (again)! The snow was crappy enough that we decided to put snowshoes back on. That was definitely the right choice, but we were still postholing with some frequency in the soft 5PMish snow. We also couldn't find the real trail again and ended up bushwhacking (following the tracks of one person who made it to about Devil's Playground that morning before turning around) down the valley. This went alright for some time, but there was a stretch where my snowshoe would come loose every 10 steps or so. Remember that killer headache? Got much worse when I bent over to strap my snowshoe back up. In all, this moment was one of the most miserable I've had on trail in a long time. My head was killing me, I couldn't make any progress without my snowshoe falling off, we still weren't on trail, and the sun was setting quickly. I came very close to freaking out, or sitting down and refusing to move. It was the closest I've been to a mental breakdown on trail since I bushwhacked up the side of a mountain ravine in New Hampshire at 11PM with the flu (don't ask me how that one went...). Oh, and Double's mood wasn't much better. I learned in this moment that this was actually the first time he had ever snowshoed, and the muscles that I'd built up over years and honed over a winter full of hundreds of miles of snowshoeing (years before, but these things come back, in my experience) he simply didn't have. Safe to say neither of us were having a particularly great time.

Eventually, we made it back to the car just around 7PM. We were both completely shot, but hey, we summited Pikes Peak in April, and I think we were the only ones to summit that day! Total stats on the day were just about 18 miles, probably just over 4500 feet of elevation gain. The part that really took it out of me was that a very significant portion of the route is above 12,000'. I could feel myself gassing on what would, at any lower elevation, be very easy terrain.

I've made this post too long already, but I'll leave it with a few general thoughts about winter/early spring hiking:

1. Start early. I mean really early. Not necessarily to avoid avy danger (although that's important to check, we really saw nothing that gave us cause for concern all day when we were out) but because trudging through sun-baked snow at 3PM sucks big time.
2. Winter miles are harder than summer miles. I always forget this until winter miles hit me like a truck. Doubly true for snowshoes. In fact, if you're not used to snowshoes, I'd recommend going out in them several times before trying a 14er in them - it'll make the experience much more fun.
3. If you're wondering whether you need snowshoes, you need snowshoes. The only other people who started from Crags with us didn't have them, and I think that was a significant reason at least 1 of them didn't make the summit. They were absolutely essential that day.
4. Snow 14ers are doable, a lot of fun, and very rewarding. Just know before you go. Keep an eye on avy danger, both via forecasts and on the mountain day of. Come in well fed. Maybe train some if you're not used to winter hiking. Be smart, be safe, but have fun! These mountains are truly something special, and that's especially true in the off season when you get them much more to yourself. See you out there!