La Plata Peak

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 10/15/2023, By: CharleyReynolds
Info: Snowdrifts up to knee deep but the ridge and the way in was 1-4. Pretty easy to follow the trail up until the talus field. There are wayyy too many cairns making the navigation difficult with the slight snow cover. A lot of the snow was melting below 13,000ft on the way out. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 10/7/2023, By: Brandon0135
Info: Snow free until you gain the ridge. Then you will be dealing with 4-8 inches of snow the rest of the way. Spikes were very helpful. Aspens are well past peak amd mearly all dropped but there was still a little yellow at the trailhead and peaking down by twin lakes. It looked like the entirety of the sawatch is dry on the south sides and snowy on the north side. Glad I brought my winter layers, it was very cold until well after noon. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 10/8/2023, By: tscarpella
Info: Great Day on Friday to be on LaPlata. Above Ridgeline is pretty much all snow, glad I had spikes. Otherwise the trail is pretty much dry. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 9/26/2023, By: JasonCrane
Info: NW Ridge is dry & summer conditions from TH to summit. Trail is straightforward & easy to follow along the creek & up the 2 series of switchbacks leading to ridge. Route becomes a boulder field, but is cairned. Some minor route-finding through the boulder field & there's a bit of a herd path at times. Route skirts the edge of a snow-filled gully. Absolute gorgeous day to be in the Sawatch. No spikes or traction. Saw one lone mountain goat patrolling up around 13k. There was a lot of smoke filling the Twin Lakes area on the ride out from a possible prescribed burn (visible near base of Shavano during the ride up 285 from Salida.) Note - On the descent, there was a knife lost on the trail with a colorful artistic, sheath. I really thought it might belong to another hiker behind me, but he said it wasn't his. It's still sitting on top of a log about a mile up. 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 9/24/2023, By: chicagostylehotdog
Info: No change to the 9/17 update on the SW ridge route. Still dry except for one tiny section close to the summit that didn't warrant spikes. 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 9/18/2023, By: ColoNativeGal
Info: Summer conditions still. Tiny amount of snow above 14K on north aspects, but not an issue. Had spikes, did not use them. Route finding on the crux was more challenging going up than down, but if you follow the gpx it's better than just winging it. Tons of cairns which is a little confusing. Scree out of the basin from the mine up is really loose and worse coming down than going up. Poles were very helpful. Frost down in the basin in the morning, melted in the afternoon but easily avoidable to stay dry in the bog areas. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 9/17/2023, By: medleyjosh
Info: No or very little snow on La Plata as of today. The snowstorm seems to have hit southern collegiate peaks, starting around Yale and south. La Plata is quite dry - also visible is Huron, Misourri, Belford, Oxford (not all of these are visible, but the band of snow begins south of them) they also appears dry. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 9/9/2023, By: ssowalskie
Info: Absolutely beautiful summer conditions. Started just after 6am (parking was full at the trailhead when I arrived, I had to park on the road), my watch recorded temperatures at about 37 degrees at the trailhead. Don't let the shorter mileage (for a Sawatch 14er, anyway) fool you, this is a steep route for the vast majority of the hike, and as such takes some time. I found the last mile up to the summit to be the most exhausting. Lots of loose scree and dirt on the way down as well, so poles might be recommended if you're not confident in your footing. Wind wasn't much of a factor, only mild winds as you gained the ridge. Car to car it was just under 5.5 hours, including time spent on the summit, with 9.89 miles (some of that extra mileage is likely due to starting my watch at the car). Overall, probably one of my favorite Sawatch 14ers! 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 8/20/2023, By: nhall
Info: We climbed the southwest ridge yesterday. We made it easily in our stock Tacoma up the 4WD trail past Winfield. A few dispersed camping spots directly at the trailhead and not as busy as what I'd imagine the standard route is. We saw a total of 3 other groups on this route throughout the day. Steep and loose scree heading up from the basin to the ridge. I would recommend poles or good traction. The crux of the route at the boulder field is steeper than it looks from the pictures and difficult to navigate. It was tough for our very athletic dog to get up. Other than that, it's a great non standard trail and we had no issues route finding. The basin is beautiful and I enjoyed the less busy route. 

Route: Ellingwood Ridge
Posted On: 8/12/2023, By: longsisreallylong
Info: Summer conditions all the way to the top! Be sure to follow the 2nd offshoot towards Ellingwood from the main trail. We found to our chagrin at 3AM that the first offshoot doesn't lead anywhere. The 2nd offshoot was only ~40 feet past the first. We found this out on the way down. Believe the hype, this route takes a LONG time and involves a TON of downclimbing to keep it below class 4. If you follow the top of the ridge, you will have many class 5 maneuvers. 10 hours up, 2 hours down. 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 8/7/2023, By: sodomike
Info: Route is exactly as described. Only point worth mentioning...the 'crux' talus slope does indeed have MANY cairns, as described. After taking a more center/left line up, and dead center down, and thinking a fair bit about it each way, my impression is it literally doesn't matter where you go. All the rocks are on the stabl-er end of the spectrum and all the cairned routes seemed to mix large talus with smaller pebbles and sandy stretches of 'trail'. So whichever cairn you're closest to at the bottom, start there and play the simplest game of connect the dots you can and you'll have a great time. Super enjoyable route, especially at dinner time on a sunday evening. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 8/7/2023, By: andrewyee11
Info: Arrived 11:30pm and slept in the car Saturday night, the pull out lot was basically full when we arrived. Even more full by 6:00am Sunday morning (more cars double-parking) with lots of cars parking down the road. Trail in full summer conditions. Summited in a bit less than 3 hours, around 2 hours down. Could smell fresh bear scat in a nice berry grove a few miles from TH on the way down, so make lots of noise! Fun hike! 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 8/6/2023, By: jpoyfair
Info: There's some mud to pick through in the basin, but the rest of the route was dry. 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 7/29/2023, By: minnesotanclimber
Info: Camped at the trailhead the night before (see trailhead review) and started up the trail at 6:20AM. There were a couple other cars in the small lot at this time, and several spots still available. The trailhead sign (La Plata Peak Trailhead) in the route description is missing, but the rest is still there. The trail feels not heavily traveled, with some fauna growing over it. After hugging the creek awhile you enter the valley, where the views are impressive. In this section among the willows, the trail gets quite muddy. Hiking shoes (not boots) have a high chance of getting your feet wet. Beyond the willows where the climb up the valley side begins, the surface is dry and gravelly and tough to get purchase on. Thankfully it didn't last long before gaining the ridge. Once at the bottom of the rockpile, there are several options for a route - the true one is obvious on the way down but not up. The rest of the trail is as described. There are no snow crossings, so spikes are unnecessary. Poles were a HUGE help and I would recommend them. This less-traveled trail was very enjoyable for my 13th 14er. Distance and elevation gain are as stated on the description. I was back at the car at 11:34AM, 5h13m total. 

Route: Northwest Ridge
Posted On: 7/29/2023, By: UTDOGS1997
Info: This is really a "short" trip report and peak condition combined, so hope that's ok. Very Warm and incredibly enjoyable. Got to TrailHead parking lot by 4:10am. I was the first on the trail at 4:30am. I'm not particularly fast, but I'm not slow either. I just like getting started in the dark, with my headlamp. Staring elevation is around 10,150ft. I suppose there are technically three (3) stream crossings in the first mile or so. The first crossing is 100 yards from the parking lot, over a wide bridge which is part of the private road. After a quartermile along the "private road" you turn left onto the hiking trail. (You could miss it in the dark if you're not looking for it and don't have a map/app). After another quarter mile you get to the second stream crossing. Luckily it has a nice wooden/steel bridge over it. This second stream crossing is over a beautifully cut gorge about 20-30 feet deep. In the dark, you cannot appreciate the beauty of the erosion and the formations and the orange mineral stains. I had scouted the trail the day before so I got some good pictures--and of course you can see the features during the day on the way back down. The third and final stream crossing is about 30min along the trail, and it must be navigated over several placed logs. It was easy enough...Anyhow, the trail was completely dry and the temps were in the 50sF. Also, there are several dime sized reflectors on the trees every 200-300 yards helping to keep you on the trail. Much appreciated! There was one giant fallen pine blocking the trail about a mile along hike. You can go around it by hiking up the hill about 10-15 feet. Annoying, but no sweat. I was in shorts for the entire hike, even on the summit. By the time I got to the base of switchbacks that come up out of the valley, it was about 6:15am and I was getting passed by a solo hiker and a group of four with their wonderful puppy dog "Norco." Those switchbacks show up around 11,400ft From this point to the rocky ridgeline, it's just a matter of alternating between switchbacks and short reprieves of relatively flat trail. There was one short section above treeline during a steep switchback that had a sign indicating reclamation/maintenance. The sign had fallen over, but was sitting in the middle of the area to avoid. The first ridge is around 12,800-13,000ft and I arrived there about 7:30am, so 3 hours into the hike. I felt incredibly energetic and good at that point, so I had no concerns. From that point all the way to the summit, it was series of short bouldering exercises followed by a flatter section of easily marked/worn trail. The bouldering sections had multiple kairns on them, which I appreciated. It seemed like the "best" route through all the boulders was literally up along the high point of each section. I didn't veer off to the left or the right too much and it was easy enough. The wind was light and the weather really cooperated nicely. Two small snow fields were in the way of the main trail. I plowed up through one of them, cuz I don't really care for bouldering and it seemed easier to tackle the snow...it was. The section through the snow was probably less than 50 yards and I was back on my way--no microspikes, just boots. The second snow field, I simply avoided with no problem. There were lots of other routes through the boulders to get around the white stuff. At around 8:30am I got to what was to be the final "flat" area around 14,200 before the turn back to your left and the last push . I summited around 8:50am, and because the weather was so nice, I spent a full hour up there! Descent was straight forward and it was obviously quite warm back at the car. Got back to parking lot around 1:20pm. 4hrs 20min up, 1hr on the summit, 3hr 30min down = 8hr 50min total Overall, I LOVED IT! It's my 6th 14er in the Sawatch and my 9th 14er over all. It maybe my favorite!