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La Plata Peak

Peak Condition Updates  
6/4/2011
Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 6/4/2011, By: Artvandalay
Info: The La Plata TH is easily accessible and snow isn‘t encountered until about 10,500 feet. From there I postholed something fierce until about 11,700 (much worse on the way down of course). The trail is hard to stay on during those elevations I mentioned due to mounds of snow covering it. At around 12,000 feet the trail is easy to find and stay on for the most part. Since your out of tree cover though the way to the top is simply up. Not much need for trails at that point. There are some wicked cornices hanging once you top out on the saddle at 12,700. Hard snowpack and a little icy above 13,000. The sky was hazy today and I think that‘s due to some fires that are going on. Wind was minimal and that was a blessing. I will add that at the third creek crossing the runoff from the snow melting is causing the creek‘s levels to be a bit high. It was very difficult to cross the third creek crossing on the designed path. I ended up going upstream about 15 feet and crossed the creek on a tree that had fallen and was suspended over the creek about 12 inches. The tree is small, only about 5-6 inches in diameter. It worked out alright. 
5/28/2011
Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 6/1/2011, By: hberry
Info: Tried to hike La Plata on Saturday - Started at 3:00 - the snow had not frozen and we spent 90+ minutes post holing to only go about 700 vert. We tried to switch over to skins but there were a lot of sections with little to no snow or were simply to steep to try to skin up. We gave up around 5:30 and headed back down. 
5/9/2011
Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 5/11/2011, By: Barb4rian
Info: Did this climb at night (mistake), but anyway, since we climbed through the night the snow was relatively firm. There is at least 6 feet of snow in most places below the ridge. The ridge however, remains generally bare from the first head wall all the way to around 13,100‘. After this the ridge is very well covered by well packed snowfields. We turned back at 13,900‘ due to altitude sickness so I don‘t have much info beyond this point; from what we could see though, the snow was nearly continuous to the summit. 
4/23/2011
Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 4/30/2011, By: kushrocks
Info: Well lets just start off by saying we were slightly kidding ourselves with a weather system expected to move into the area from Saturday to late Saturday night but we decided to give it a go anyway. We got to the trailhead at 5:35 and were off on the trail by 6. Unfortunately there were three of us and only two sets of snow shoes so I decided to be a nice guy and let my girlfriend use the other pair we had. Conditions were not to bad on for the beginning part of the road and we arrived at the trailhead shortly after. There seemed to be no previous tracks, but the trailhead would be easy enough to follow, or so we thought. Just before crossing the bridge maybe 1/4 mile from the start of the trailhead and after a few steps sinking into our knees my girlfriend and Nick decided to throw on snowshoes. Right as they were doing this we had lost the trail already but I decided to go on ahead and try and find the bridge because I could hear the river. Right after we got across the river things went down hill. . . FAST!!!!. We lost the trail and the the snow was immediately deeper and with every step I sank into the deep snow. Even Nick and my girlfriend were having issues with snow shoes. Almost every other step they took they would sink into their hips as well. We continued on for about an hour like this. For me without snow shoes it was terrible. I knew right away I wouldn‘t be reaching the summit that day. It took us about an hour to go a quarter of a mile. I even tried crawling on all fours from time to time to spread out my weight and even thought didnt work. I would be crawling along and before I knew it either my knee or both hands would fall through the snow. After about 1.5 hours of utterly exhausting work while still being completely off the trail. we decided we all had enough because we knew that this was not going to happen today for us. It will be a while before the snow melts out of this area. 
4/15/2011
Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 4/15/2011, By: oldschool
Info: Went there today....4/15/11. Nice trench up to the valley. Hiked up to the ridge on snow that was deep in places, windblown and hard pack/icy, super windy. Snow was a bit chancy...enough to make me nervous. The area got snow from the last update of 4/5/11. 
4/5/2011
Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 4/9/2011, By: ColoradoSherpa
Info: Hiked La Plata Peak on 4/5/2011. We ended up missing the winter route turnoff and inadvertently followed the summer route up the west side of Wilderness Boundary Gulch. We realized our mistake, but decided to continue on until we reached the area where the summer route crosses the gulch. Knowing that the summer route held avy danger, we wanted to exit the gulch before we reached the avy shoots, so once the gulch opened up, we followed a north easterly direction until we reached the same opening where the winter route (proper) breaks out of tree line. Snow below tree line was fairly deep, but manageable with snowshoes. Above tree line it was extremely windy which made the windward side of the ridge hikeable without snowshoes. 
1/15/2011
Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 1/16/2011, By: mrschaible
Info: Attempted La Plata yesterday. The weather was beautiful, but the snow was really deep. The trail starts off nice and packed but after about 1.5 miles, the trail stopped. Obviously, people turned around at this point. Tried following several peoples trails and none of them went any farther. We pressed on and made our own trail. Two of us (both in excellent condition) pushed waste deep snow with snow shoes for 5 hours and only made it to 11,500‘ (about 2.8 miles). If you are going to try it. Stay down next to the creek and out of the woods or side hill slopes (we tried both). That snow seemed to be partially packed and not as much PH. The woods and valley sides were horrendous. Do not recommend until the snow gets more packed. Right now it is really fine (like face powder) and it makes it slippery and very difficult to travel on. 
12/10/2010
Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 12/11/2010, By: ColoradoSherpa
Info: Attempted to ascend La Plata peak on 12/10/2010 via the northwest ridge (winter) route, but was turned around at 13600 due to a storm. Below treeline there was fairly deep snow requiring snow shoes. Between 12000 and 13000 feet the ridge was windblown and snowshoes were not required. Above 13k large sections of the mountain had several deep snowfields, so snowshoes would be recommended, though sections could be navigated without them.