La Plata's Southwest Ridge is a stunning climb through a variety of environments. It's steeper and more difficult than the standard route, and requires a significant drive down a rough 4WD road to reach the trailhead. But it is shorter and less elevation gain, so there is a tradeoff. Here's my experience on this incredible path:

You will need a high-clearance 4WD to reach the trailhead, and once you're there you'll start by walking up the last few hundred yards of the road to the start of the trail. (Do turn left for the South La Plata trail here.) There's an easy-to-follow trail the follows a stream up through the forest. I didn't get pictures here because it was still dark! The trail ascends steadily and eventually you reach treeline and the views open up.

The path winds into a beautiful basin beneath La Plata (whose summit is not yet visible). Most of this path through the basin is smooth traveling. It's not steep and it is easy to follow. This is probably the easiest part of the trip, so relax while you can!

At the back of the basin, the path winds its way steeply up the wall up to the ridge. Some of this area has several trail options, and it's steep and loose in parts. The boulder wall later on is considered the crux, but I thought this spot was even more of a hassle.

Upon at last topping out onto the ridge, you'll find yourself on a saddle between Sayer's Benchmark (to your left: the Roach book does NOT recommend climbing it from this direction) and La Plata (to your right). Turn right and follow the trail across the lower ridge.

The towering lump of boulders in front of you here blocks easy passage to the upper part of the ridge. It looks threatening from below, and as you approach the trail gradually disappears and the ascent gets steeper and steeper. There are cairns, but while they were somewhat helpful, they weren't really consistent. The boulder wall, while quite high, isn't actually as difficult as it looks: The rocks are mostly steady and straightforward to climb. Most of it is like climbing a big, uneven staircase, which really isn't too unpleasant. Do be careful for the occasional loose rock. Aim for the middle of the slope if you lose the cairns and you'll be fine.

Once you're up over the boulder wall at last, the hardest parts are behind you. The upper ridge stretches out in front of you, and a faint trail reappears.

There are a few humps in the ridge, and one bigger, round false summit. For the false summit, you can skirt it to the left. Once around the false summit, you will see the standard Northwest Ridge route approaching from below. The two routes join for the last hundred yards or so to the summit. Be sure you're clear which way you need to descend: Be sure to descend by bypassing the false summit on the right and descend the way you came up!

Once past the false summit, La Plata's true summit is right in front of you. Head on up!

Descending should be no problem once you're past the false summit. Climb your way back down the boulder wall, during which you will be able to view the trail below easily. The most difficult part of the descent, in my opinion, was the path from the lower ridge back into the basin, which is so steep and loose that I found myself crouching and scooting down a number of times.

La Plata from the south is a stunningly beautiful hike/climb that takes you through plenty of neat environments. I was fortunate enough to have a partner, Scott, helping out, but we saw no one until we were nearing the summit. We had the whole basin and lower ridge to ourselves, and they are really special places. This is a path that is steep for a lot of it, so is slower going than you might think. And if the big class 2 boulder wall and steep ascent out of the basin don't sound like fun, the standard route might be better.

A solid word of warning for any of these climbs: Even for 14ers like La Plata which are not super difficult nor confusing, study the route, download the photos, have a map, and look behind you as you go so the route is familiar when you turn back.

I say this because most of the way down, we ran into someone who had ascended the Northwest Ridge route, then accidentally descended most of the Southwest ridge route, having missed the turn onto his route just under the summit. I point this out not to make fun of his mistake, but because this kind of thing can be dangerous. He wasn't sure where he was and we invited him to join us back the the south trailhead and gave him a ride back to the north one. But without finding someone else, someone in that situation would have to either climb the whole mountain again or hike down to the south trailhead, then 8? 10? miles out to the paved road. And that's only if you know where you are.