La Plata Northwest Ridge

Info

Route: Northwest Ridge

Distance: 9.1 Miles

Elevation Gain: 4700ft

Total Time: 6hrs 42mins

Trip Summary

Firstly, I'd like to say that La Plata was one of my favorite 14ers to date, between its incredible views and my enjoyment in the actual process of climbing it. The trip started at 3:30am when I left Denver and headed out I-70 towards Leadville. I arrived at the La Plata Trailhead around 6:00am and started hiking by 6:15. I was far from the first person to make it to the trailhead (I ended up catching the other people later and learned they were staying in Leadville for the weekend), but there were still plenty of spaces left for cars at that hour.

The trail starts on a fairly wide dirt road, but about 0.5 miles in there is a sign signaling for La Plata hikers to break off into the trees and begin the real hike. This section below tree line was gorgeous with two smaller water crossings (in photos) and an old cabin (not pictured).

As far as late May goes, snow coverage was typical, with the first 1.5 miles being almost completely snow free. After 1.5 miles, there were a few patches with packed snow, but this was still spotty all the way up past tree line. As I cleared tree line it came time to evaluate the winter and summer route to decide if it was worth it to hop on the ridge early to avoid the potential avy danger in the couloir. While I was worried about this ahead of time, it was clear that there was no avalanche danger with this little snow coverage and the couloir would be just fine.

2.5 miles into the trip marked the real beginning of the climb, when I reached the base of the slope to ascend to the ridge proper (11,400ft). This was still snowy and an axe plus proper crampons would have made it feel much better, but realistically microspikes were all that were necessary here. This was the point where I caught the other parties who had a chance to get a better start time than I did, and eventually we had all made it onto the ridge for the real grind of the trip (12,700ft). After some straightforward traversing across the ridge and trying to stay out of the wind, we reached 13,300ft where snow was essentially constant (and remained that way up to the summit). Luckily, routefinding was a non-issue, since plenty of tracks were still visible and we all had our choice of line to the almost visible summit.

At 14,100, larger rocks began to protrude out of the snow, which provided some support for walking but also caused postholing in unpredictable patterns around the hidden rocks and unstable snow. Thankfully at this point the summit is almost fully in sight and it would be rather difficult to find yourself going the wrong way. By 10:15am I had reached the summit of La Plata Peak at 14,344ft, and after a half hour of taking in the views and chatting with the other parties, I was on my way back down.

Descending was especially fun with the consistent snow cover above 13,000ft and reasonable grade since it meant I could glissade/ butt scoot my way down ~1,000ft in a fraction of the time it took me to ascend it. One note here though is to be careful when considering this idea closer to that initial couloir, since it is significantly steeper in grade than most of what lies above it. This descent of the couloir was actually the spot where an axe would be most helpful, since the snow had begun to soften and coagulate, leading to really unstable footing on the downclimb.

Once out of the last chute and off the slope to the northwest ridge, the remainder of the trip is closer to a scenic hike than a 14er. I was sure to take my time and enjoy the spring weather, but ended up back at the car a little before 1:00pm, at which point I loaded up and headed into Leadville for an obligatory walk through the Melanzana store.

Key Points:

If you’re reading this shortly after its posted and considering bringing snowshoes – don’t. I brought mine as a precaution and really wished I didn’t have the extra weight. On that note, choose to bring an ice axe and spikes instead, as they’ll serve you much better until that couloir is completely snow free. Wind on the ridge was killer, even with milder conditions predicted in the forecast. This isn’t anything to worry too much about, but it might be worth it to consider changing layers before or after you reach that point. Finally, this is certainly a manageable 14er for someone with little experience in this space, but I would definitely recommend trying some easier Class 1 14ers with a bit less milage before heading to La Plata.

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