10/23/2011 Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 10/25/2011, By: ledhead69 Info: The upper parts of Lake Como Rd and up to Blue Lakes had small patches of snow here and there, but nothing of issue. After Blue Lakes and up to Crater Lake, there was mix of hard snow, no snow, and posthole to your knees snow. After Crater Lake, the tracks largely diverge and the cairns seem to point in various directions, so you can pick your poison, but I was able to do some talus hopping and stay largely on solid rocks for most of the day. An ice axe was handy for a steep, hard snow section (and the subsequent glissade!) |
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10/10/2011 Route: Lake Como Approach Posted On: 10/11/2011, By: LynnKH Info: Lots of powder in the Como area. Monday morning I had to park my car below 8,500 due to snow. By 10,000 feet the snow on Como road was a about 6 - 9 inches. By the lake I was post-holing up to my knees in spots (about 2 feet). I hadn‘t brought the snow shoes so it took much longer than expected and I called it a day at Lake Como. Not sure how much will melt with warmer and drier days this week, but should be significant. By the time I got back to my car, snow below 9k was nearly gone. |
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9/18/2011 Route: Lake Como Approach Posted On: 9/19/2011, By: pinhead Info: On Sunday I hiked Blanca from Lake Como, parking at 8800. The area above 13000 is snow covered to a depth of about 6 inches. The valley down to 11000 was dusted with snow in the morning but had melted away by the afternoon. An ice axe is definitely recommended for the Blanca route above 13000. The snow made for relatively easy climbing once on the ridge, but slowed things down in the lower talus fields. Much of this may melt off if we get some dry weather -- Thursday and Friday saw heavy storms. The attached picture looks from Blanca back down the ridge toward Ellingwood. |
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8/10/2011 Route: Lake Como Approach Posted On: 8/10/2011, By: etrex Info: In regards to the bear sightings, it seems that bear has been a big problem snatching food all night. My friend hiked it last week and said that all they could hear was banging pots and whistles to try and scare the bear away. The DOW showed up and they had decided to euthanize the bear. At 5:20 the next morning they heard a gun shot and they saw the DOW had shot the bear. Sad, but did make them sleep better. |
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8/1/2011 Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 8/2/2011, By: Artvandalay Info: I just wanted to post a bear sighting in the vicinity of Lake Como. There was a large lone bear at the log cabin just above Lake Como. When he saw me he shimmied up a tree about 30 feet and I was able to get around him to continue hiking. Talking to others that day that had been camping in the area it seemed like that bear had been making quite a few appearances. Just wanted to let anyone know going into that area that they might get eaten if not careful. Brady |
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6/26/2011 Route: Lake Como Approach Posted On: 6/27/2011, By: mrschaible Info: Blanca and Ellingwood Point are clear of snow. Summer hiking conditions are here! |
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6/19/2011 Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 6/20/2011, By: bogpetre Info: First snow encountered above lake como, but snow is mostly gone. A few patches obscure the trail beyond crater lake but otherwise present no technical challenge. Ice axes, crampons, etc. are not necessary, although snow was very firm in the morning so we had to be careful in the few instances when we traversed snowfields. No notable post-holing for the descent (noonish) A report on 6/4 mentioned that the author had lost sight of the standard route upon encountering a snowfield and circumvented it by an uphill route. We unknowingly found ourselves doing the same thing, and like the original author ended up on the Ellingwood/Blanca traverse. The most natural ascent route was full of took us into the notch gully mentioned in the route description for the traverse, but was full of loose rock (helmet recommended). From here on the route was in good condition and a fun scramble to the summit, from where we could pick up the faint northwest ridge route again for the descent. We took a picture of the snowfield where we lost the trail which I will be uploading soon to clarify. |
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5/8/2011 Route: Lake Como Approach Posted On: 5/9/2011, By: LIV Info: Como road was dry nearly to the lake - just short of the cabin we encountered snow. Early in the day, we didn‘t post hole, but late in the day snowshoes were definitely needed. Above the lake we were happy to have snowshoes. Ditched them at the base of the ridge of the saddle. Cornices on the ridge are easily avoided. Trip report with photos of conditions to come soon. |
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4/10/2011 Route: Lake Como Approach Posted On: 4/10/2011, By: SurfNTurf Info: The road is bone dry until about 10,500, and then a mix of packed snow and bare rocks takes you to 11,200. Snowshoes are helpful past that, though certainly not 100-percent necessary. Past Lake Como I‘d plan on putting on flotation. We made it to about 12,700 before being turned around by unreal conditions, but the Sangres are still pretty hurting for snow. All the lakes and creek crossings remain thickly frozen. We had a party of three and another guy followed us, so there should be a good trail to Crater Lake if anyone plans to take advantage of the good weather the next few days. |
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1/23/2011 Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 1/24/2011, By: Dancesatmoonrise Info: Tough conditions in the Como Basin. Lots of wind slab. Scree is not frozen in place. Highly variable snow, from bulletproof stuff to soft powder to unconsolidated fall-apart sugar. The bottom of the road is dry to 8800 feet. From there to 10,300, there‘s variable snow up to half a foot. Shady north aspect areas from there to Como Lake have about a foot of powder. We put in a trench, but by the end of the day many areas above treeline were windblown over. |
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11/19/2010 Route: Lake Como Approach Posted On: 11/20/2010, By: Dancesatmoonrise Info: Long day yesterday. Snow conditions are still relatively light in the Sangre after this last storm, but we were postholing about knee deep by Crater Lake. No one had been in since the last storm. We‘ve got a bit of a trench going now, FWIW. The scree is still not frozen, making the lower reaches of EP a bit of a nightmare - slow going, treacherous. The EP-Blanca traverse is in good shape and was a lot of fun. We looked at Blanca-LB, it‘s also in good shape, though we got too late of a start to include it, and descended from Blanca. TR will be up in a couple days. |
