Snowmass Mountain Trip Report 05/28/2025

Report Type	Full
Peak(s)	Snowmass Mountain - 14,105 feet
Date Posted	05/28/2025
Modified	05/29/2025
Date Climbed	05/27/2025
Author	skythian

Direct variation and some... unplanned glissading
Successful summit of Snowmass Mountain on May 27th, 2025. Video of the entire ridge climb, after the direct variation cutoff: https://photos.app.goo.gl/M2TeyCYa4LVRGcyw9 I have attempted Snowmass once before, in 2022, but packed way too much gear and ended up getting to Snowmass lake completely exhausted, borderline dehydrated, and with a sprained ankle. Upon seeing the massive amount of vertical gain still left to go, I opted to sleep and head back the next morning. I wasn't necessarily planning to go back, but decided I wanted to camp this weekend and get some miles in to really test out my broken fibula recovery. Snowmass Lake seemed like a decent plan. I packed a lot less gear (just sleeping bag, bivy, some food, water, BD whippet, ketadyne, camelbak, and snowshoes). In the back of my mind I also prepped for a summit attempt. Part of the problem with hiking to Snowmass Lake this time of year is that you end up having to cross a lot of what I call "snow boulders" where snow runoff has accumulated across the trail and you have to hike up (sometimes 4-6 feet) to get over it, and then hike back down. Doing this in the afternoon when the snow is soft, and with a heavy pack on, is just murder. Thankfully this time the snow was far more melted than the last time I hiked this trail, and the snow boulders were pretty minimal. The first 7 miles of the approach is uneventful, and it seemed like they've made a lot of improvements since the last time I was here. Fewer trees covering the trail, and a few erosion/runoff improvements. The logjam also seemed a little more consolidated. No snow this time (which actually makes the log jam much easier to cross), but I extended my whippets to the max to help with balance and didn't have any issue crossing or coming back. Caption Here Beyond the logjam and switchback, the snow became consistent enough to where I finally decided to put on the snowshoes. There were some bare spots, but I usually just keep the snowshoes on and accept that they're going to wear down crazy fast on rocks and dirt... I really hate having to take the pack off and switch them out unless I have to. The trail between the switchback and the lake always feels like it's way longer than what the map shows, but eventually I got to the lake. Got water out of the lake with the Ketadyne, made some dinner, refilled my camelback and racked out. I felt good enough that I figured a summit attempt was in the cards. Caption Here My alarm went off at 2:30 after sleeping surprisingly well, and I felt somewhat energized (as much as a person can) to get started. Headlamp on, I crossed the creek (not too bad, even at night), and set off around the lake. It's tough to navigate this in the middle of the night. I saw some stray skin tracks and snowshoe tracks, but I really had to just choose my own adventure. In hindsight, staying as close as possible to the lake is the easiest line, as the snow gets steeper the higher up you go. Eventually I made it around to the boulderfield (after stretching out my ankles from walking sideways for 30 minutes), and started heading up. I had studied the route, but I really had no idea, at least visually, where I was. I was relying on Gaia to keep me roughly on the redline and just kept going up. This worked well, and whenever I ran into exposed rocks I just skirted 15 or 20 feet either left or right and was able to get past them. With less snow, this approach may not have worked as well. It is a really gnarly feeling just climbing up a mountain, in the middle of the night with the stars overhead, not being able to see more than 10 or 15 feet in front of you, knowing there is no one around for miles. Absolutely exhilarating. Caption Here It felt like I was making absolutely no progress on Gaia, but eventually I could make out the summit and route up to the ridge to the left. I have to say, starting at 2:30 was the perfect time, as I was getting the first slight bit of twilight right as I was needing to choose between the standard route or the direct variation. I was planning on going for the direct route as long as there was sufficient snow, and from what I could tell, there was. Caption Here I started veering over to the right and was able to make out more detail as the sun got closer to rising. I noticed a lot of small avalanche activity in virtually all the couloirs in this area. I did take AIARE 1, and was relatively comfortable continuing given the time I was climbing, the quality of the snow, and overall avalanche risk in the area. As I got higher, it got STEEP. It would have been nice to have crampons at this point, but I continued climbing with the snowshoes and felt pretty comfortable. The sketchy part is right a the very top of the notch where you have to cross over to the ridge from the slope. I do not have much snow climbing experience, and I was using the axes on my whippets to continue climbing up the snow, while shimmying over to where the cornice stuck out. I climbed higher than I needed to, as I wanted to make sure I was on actual rock and not avalanche cornice, and had enough purchase on the snow to make it. This was NOT the case on the way down, as we will find out later. Caption Here I was really happy to get onto the ridgeline and start actually climbing. I was nervous about it, but I did choose to leave my snowshoes and whippets on the ridge, and hopefully find them on the way down. I made sure they were good and stuck into the snow and took a couple of pics of the location as I got higher on the ridge, out of an abundance of caution. Caption Here It was a pretty quick and fun 20 min class 3 scramble to the top. You can definitely make it class 4 in a couple of areas if you wanted to. Definitely a lot of loose rock, and the amount of snow still present made me have to think about a couple of moves, but overall nothing crazy. I got to the summit a little after 6 AM and enjoyed hanging out with the "Stonemass Monolith". I loved the views of the Bells, Pyramid, and Capitol, but didn't stay long, as I knew the snow was going to start getting soft quick. Caption Here Scrambled back down to the notch. I actually thought I reached it a little early and had a mild panic episode when I didn't see my snowshoes or whippets. Luckily I had misjudged and it was further down the ridge. I got there and saw my gear. I knew getting down the direct variation was going to be a real chore, especially with softer snow. It was around 7 now, so I wasn't too concerned, but wanted to get past this section quick. I knew that, even if I slipped, the glissade down this ridge was pretty low-risk, with no exposed rocks, and as long as my snowshoes didn't grab, I'd probably be able to self arrest. Turns out that plan was going to be tested soon. I shimmied off the ridge onto the slope and initially relied really heavily on the whippets as I got my snowshoes worked in. This worked out okay for 4 or 5 shimmies, but eventually one of my whippets broke loose and I started falling. I kept calm, raised my snowshoes so they wouldn't dig in, and positioned my body to whip around hard to self arrest. I did that, my whippet dug in, and I took a deep breath. Hell of a way to expedite the descent, lol. I imagine I slid about 100 feet. Caption Here After a quick acknowledgment that I wasn't dead or maimed, I continued down the slope. Even at 7 AM, I could tell the snow was a lot softer, and today was going to be a lot warmer so that made sense. The way down the snowmass was a mix of backwards snowshoeing down steep slopes, walking sideways across ridges, and glissading. It was a little annoying descending, as the slopes are really too steep to snowshoe down normally (especially with the melting snow). I would have LOVED to have had my splitboard at this point, but I would not have wanted to lug it and boots up the snowmass. Getting back to the lake, I could much more easily make out a good path around it to get back to my campsite. I stayed very close to the water, and did actually posthole through into the water a couple of times, but it was worth it not having to stay so high on the slope and walk sideways for so long. Getting back to camp I packed up and started heading back - nothing crazy on the way home except tired legs and a huge sense of accomplishment. This is a monster of a climb! Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Direct variation and some... unplanned glissading

Successful summit of Snowmass Mountain on May 27th, 2025.

Video of the entire ridge climb, after the direct variation cutoff: https://photos.app.goo.gl/M2TeyCYa4LVRGcyw9

I have attempted Snowmass once before, in 2022, but packed way too much gear and ended up getting to Snowmass lake completely exhausted, borderline dehydrated, and with a sprained ankle. Upon seeing the massive amount of vertical gain still left to go, I opted to sleep and head back the next morning.

I wasn't necessarily planning to go back, but decided I wanted to camp this weekend and get some miles in to really test out my broken fibula recovery. Snowmass Lake seemed like a decent plan. I packed a lot less gear (just sleeping bag, bivy, some food, water, BD whippet, ketadyne, camelbak, and snowshoes). In the back of my mind I also prepped for a summit attempt.

Part of the problem with hiking to Snowmass Lake this time of year is that you end up having to cross a lot of what I call "snow boulders" where snow runoff has accumulated across the trail and you have to hike up (sometimes 4-6 feet) to get over it, and then hike back down. Doing this in the afternoon when the snow is soft, and with a heavy pack on, is just murder. Thankfully this time the snow was far more melted than the last time I hiked this trail, and the snow boulders were pretty minimal.

The first 7 miles of the approach is uneventful, and it seemed like they've made a lot of improvements since the last time I was here. Fewer trees covering the trail, and a few erosion/runoff improvements.

The logjam also seemed a little more consolidated. No snow this time (which actually makes the log jam much easier to cross), but I extended my whippets to the max to help with balance and didn't have any issue crossing or coming back.

Beyond the logjam and switchback, the snow became consistent enough to where I finally decided to put on the snowshoes. There were some bare spots, but I usually just keep the snowshoes on and accept that they're going to wear down crazy fast on rocks and dirt... I really hate having to take the pack off and switch them out unless I have to.

The trail between the switchback and the lake always feels like it's way longer than what the map shows, but eventually I got to the lake. Got water out of the lake with the Ketadyne, made some dinner, refilled my camelback and racked out. I felt good enough that I figured a summit attempt was in the cards.

My alarm went off at 2:30 after sleeping surprisingly well, and I felt somewhat energized (as much as a person can) to get started. Headlamp on, I crossed the creek (not too bad, even at night), and set off around the lake. It's tough to navigate this in the middle of the night. I saw some stray skin tracks and snowshoe tracks, but I really had to just choose my own adventure. In hindsight, staying as close as possible to the lake is the easiest line, as the snow gets steeper the higher up you go. Eventually I made it around to the boulderfield (after stretching out my ankles from walking sideways for 30 minutes), and started heading up. I had studied the route, but I really had no idea, at least visually, where I was. I was relying on Gaia to keep me roughly on the redline and just kept going up. This worked well, and whenever I ran into exposed rocks I just skirted 15 or 20 feet either left or right and was able to get past them. With less snow, this approach may not have worked as well.

It is a really gnarly feeling just climbing up a mountain, in the middle of the night with the stars overhead, not being able to see more than 10 or 15 feet in front of you, knowing there is no one around for miles. Absolutely exhilarating.

It felt like I was making absolutely no progress on Gaia, but eventually I could make out the summit and route up to the ridge to the left. I have to say, starting at 2:30 was the perfect time, as I was getting the first slight bit of twilight right as I was needing to choose between the standard route or the direct variation. I was planning on going for the direct route as long as there was sufficient snow, and from what I could tell, there was.

I started veering over to the right and was able to make out more detail as the sun got closer to rising. I noticed a lot of small avalanche activity in virtually all the couloirs in this area. I did take AIARE 1, and was relatively comfortable continuing given the time I was climbing, the quality of the snow, and overall avalanche risk in the area. As I got higher, it got STEEP. It would have been nice to have crampons at this point, but I continued climbing with the snowshoes and felt pretty comfortable.

The sketchy part is right a the very top of the notch where you have to cross over to the ridge from the slope. I do not have much snow climbing experience, and I was using the axes on my whippets to continue climbing up the snow, while shimmying over to where the cornice stuck out. I climbed higher than I needed to, as I wanted to make sure I was on actual rock and not avalanche cornice, and had enough purchase on the snow to make it. This was NOT the case on the way down, as we will find out later.

I was really happy to get onto the ridgeline and start actually climbing. I was nervous about it, but I did choose to leave my snowshoes and whippets on the ridge, and hopefully find them on the way down. I made sure they were good and stuck into the snow and took a couple of pics of the location as I got higher on the ridge, out of an abundance of caution.

It was a pretty quick and fun 20 min class 3 scramble to the top. You can definitely make it class 4 in a couple of areas if you wanted to. Definitely a lot of loose rock, and the amount of snow still present made me have to think about a couple of moves, but overall nothing crazy.

I got to the summit a little after 6 AM and enjoyed hanging out with the "Stonemass Monolith". I loved the views of the Bells, Pyramid, and Capitol, but didn't stay long, as I knew the snow was going to start getting soft quick.

Scrambled back down to the notch. I actually thought I reached it a little early and had a mild panic episode when I didn't see my snowshoes or whippets. Luckily I had misjudged and it was further down the ridge. I got there and saw my gear.

I knew getting down the direct variation was going to be a real chore, especially with softer snow. It was around 7 now, so I wasn't too concerned, but wanted to get past this section quick. I knew that, even if I slipped, the glissade down this ridge was pretty low-risk, with no exposed rocks, and as long as my snowshoes didn't grab, I'd probably be able to self arrest. Turns out that plan was going to be tested soon.

I shimmied off the ridge onto the slope and initially relied really heavily on the whippets as I got my snowshoes worked in. This worked out okay for 4 or 5 shimmies, but eventually one of my whippets broke loose and I started falling.

I kept calm, raised my snowshoes so they wouldn't dig in, and positioned my body to whip around hard to self arrest. I did that, my whippet dug in, and I took a deep breath. Hell of a way to expedite the descent, lol. I imagine I slid about 100 feet.

After a quick acknowledgment that I wasn't dead or maimed, I continued down the slope. Even at 7 AM, I could tell the snow was a lot softer, and today was going to be a lot warmer so that made sense. The way down the snowmass was a mix of backwards snowshoeing down steep slopes, walking sideways across ridges, and glissading. It was a little annoying descending, as the slopes are really too steep to snowshoe down normally (especially with the melting snow). I would have LOVED to have had my splitboard at this point, but I would not have wanted to lug it and boots up the snowmass.

Getting back to the lake, I could much more easily make out a good path around it to get back to my campsite. I stayed very close to the water, and did actually posthole through into the water a couple of times, but it was worth it not having to stay so high on the slope and walk sideways for so long.

Getting back to camp I packed up and started heading back - nothing crazy on the way home except tired legs and a huge sense of accomplishment. This is a monster of a climb!

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

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