7/10/2025 Route: South Slopes Posted On: 7/10/2025, By: kmoss2 Info: Still snow in the second gully / Lavender Couloir! Got a late start (9:15am) after driving in from Lake City -- sharing to provide some context for late morning conditions. Was slick and slushy and about half of the footpath already established in the snow wasn't very secure to put a lot of weight on without other points of contact. I put microspikes on and used the rock to the right and a trekking pole on my left to support while I went step by step. That felt totally manageable! Not sure I would have felt secure without microspikes that late in the day. As for the way down, also felt totally manageable. And in my opinion, easier because I knew where to establish steady points of contact. Shoutout to Z who descended with me! |
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7/8/2025 Route: South Slopes Posted On: 7/8/2025, By: dark_forest Info: Still some snow at the top of the final gully. Microscopes definitely helped. Although I didn't see much rockfall today, it's steep route with some loose rock, and I could see the potential for it to get ugly. So bring a helmet if you have one. (About half of people had a helmet today). |
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7/6/2025 Route: Southwest Ridge Posted On: 7/7/2025, By: helenemily720 Info: Ascended SW Ridge descended via standard, and I highly recommend doing it this way. Ridge had great sustained climbing without the stress of getting rocks tossed on you from others in the standard route. Agree with others that you can easily make this route into 4th class but the bigger moves are solid. More retained snow than expected both in the gully approaching the crux (added photo) and in lavender couloir. You can climb around the snow in the gully to the left but wouldn't recommend descending this way without traction as it was icy. We were able to downclimb lavender col in approach shoes and a trekking pole. Could go +/- microspikes depending on your comfort level as the bootpack is well established, but an axe would have definitely made the descent much faster and easier. |
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7/2/2025 Route: South Slopes Posted On: 7/4/2025, By: Boggy B Info: Went up/down standard early AM. Relative to next week last year, Lavender couloir is holding more snow, but it's suncupped enough that traction isn't strictly necessary. Trail runners worked fine, boots would be more secure, microspikes would clinch it. |
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7/2/2025 Route: Southwest Ridge Posted On: 7/3/2025, By: Coles Info: Ascended SW ridge and planned to descend S Slopes without spikes but was discouraged by someone we met on the summit who went up S Slopes and said he personally wouldn't attempt to descend without spikes. We just descended the SW ridge instead. 6.5hr c2c from outhouse parking, moving cautiously through the 3rd+4th class and lots of photo breaks. 2 patches of unavoidable snow at the start of the ridge but easy to traverse without spikes. You can totally avoid the snow in the notch by climbing a section of easy 4th as well, well marked by cairns. In my opinion, SW ridge has about 20ft of mandatory 4th class just after the notch. Compared to Kelso ridge which also gets a 3rd class rating, this section felt significantly more technical than anything on Kelso so I would rate the route as a whole 4th class. Super fun route! Probably my favorite sub-5th class 14er route! |
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7/1/2025 Route: SW Ridge and South Slopes Posted On: 7/1/2025, By: masonzastrow Info: Ascended SW ridge, descended South Slopes. The ridge is pretty much dry. At the notch, snow can be avoided going down, but it's harder going back up. We chose to do a class 4 move on the rock rather than try to climb the snow. This will likely be avoidable by the weekend, as the south edge of the snow was nearly melted to what I'm pretty sure is a class 3 route up. The south slope right now more or less requires microspikes. You could go without, but the top 30% of the gully would be pretty sketchy without them. Crampons not needed. Axe not needed but the easily spooked might like it as a safety blanket. |
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6/28/2025 Route: Southwest Ridge Posted On: 6/29/2025, By: daway8 Info: There are only a handful of snowfields left along the route - a couple basically irrelevant ones in the basin on flat ground that will soon be gone and a couple in the shade going up the SW Ridge. All can either be avoided by a little extra scrambling or you can easily walk on firm snow at the top while holding onto rocks. Spikes not required but highly cautious types might still want that little extra security for the next week or two. Almost full summer conditions. This route is vastly better than the loose garbage of the standard route! |
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6/22/2025 Route: South Slopes Posted On: 6/24/2025, By: mcosby Info: Route was in nearly summer condition until the final bit of the gully. There is a consequential snow field before the V notch and a small snow crossing right after it. Recommend spikes and axe (un-arrested fall would be bad). If I had to guess the snow will be fully avoidable in a week. |
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6/19/2025 Route: Southwest Ridge Posted On: 6/19/2025, By: Wentzl Info: SW Slope nearly snow free. Axe comforting in a couple spots, but no need for crampons. Descended S Slopes. V Notch free of snow and as of today, a rope hanging above it. Gully still snowpacked and ICY. Looked like nice soft fluffy snow, but was not! Did not don the crampons, but was careful on descent. And someone removed the ammo can register that had been up there for years. |
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6/14/2025 Route: South Slopes Posted On: 6/16/2025, By: jjust Info: Although Yankee Boy Basin is open and I saw several people hiking towards Mount Sneffles, I didn't see anyone actually on the summit all morning. I climbed Gilpin Peak across the basin and it was mountaineering conditions... i.e. Ice Axe/Crampons/Helmet. It looked like to me that the gully above the col had a fair amount of snow still in it, which may have been turning people away. There are some photos here... https://www.jamesjusthiking.com/2025-trip-reports/gilpin-peak |
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4/14/2025 Route: Snake Couloir Posted On: 4/16/2025, By: jhughes26 Info: Skied snake couloir on monday the 14th. Crossed a few snow patches but managed to get to within 0.75 miles of the blue lakes trailhead in a stock 4runner and skinned mostly continuously from there. We got to lavender col near 11:00 am, and the snow was beginning to corn nicely as we went up. I wouldn't have wanted to be there too much later. We found a very new looking anchor on the summit, as well as a surprise abandoned single line which we didn't use. A 60m was just long enough - a 70 would allow you to walk over to a better transition spot but our 60 worked just fine The snow was predictable and grippy, although the choke is longer than I anticipated. The exit was heinous since the snow was isothermal muck when we were exiting. Nonetheless an awesome and memorable day - go get it! |
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3/23/2025 Route: Lavender Couloir -> Snake Couloir Posted On: 3/24/2025, By: DeclanKnies Info: Snake is Fat! Lots of Snow and crux is skiing quite well. Gaining the summit was a tad techy exiting the lavender couloir and I would argue crampon mando. t-hoag left a nice new rap anchor and D ring at the summit for spring off the big center rock. Approach is fully snow covered after the S facing bend on CR-7. We took sleds for a couple miles and then skinned from Blue Lakes trailhead up blaine basin. Snow is faceted to the ground, saturated with water to the ground, or something unpleasant in between. Snow is melting fast so get up there! |
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2/23/2025 Route: South Slopes Posted On: 2/23/2025, By: algryno Info: Fantastic day out. Didn't see another person. Began a bit after 6am, return a bit after 5pm (11 hrs). Road was easy going (plowed/icy) to second Reunion-Virginus Mine gate, just before the 2WD TH (FYI, parked before curly-cue turn in CR26/Camp Bird Rd). Wore snowshoes from where the road stopped being plowed and broke trail to 13,000'. Switched to crampons there and had mostly great booting conditions to 13.8k. Hopped onto ridge to stay out of the couloir and encountered easy mixed scrambling, though the snow was garbage (super punchy) to the summit at 1pm. A couple of roller balls on adjacent slopes but no other observed slide activity along the route (cut the road to more gentle slope to Yankee Boy/Upper TH). Type 1 day in a beautiful setting. Last CO peak this trip...back to WA! |
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10/26/2024 Route: Southwest Ridge Posted On: 10/26/2024, By: Boggy B Info: SW ridge is completely dry. There's a bunch of snow in the upper basin and on the slopes around Blue Lakes Pass. Mostly breakable crust drifted to 6". Standard looked dry-ish. |
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10/19/2024 Route: North Side Posted On: 10/19/2024, By: Wentzl Info: Just a photo to show the recent snow. Sneffels as seen from Montrose this morning, 10/19/24. |
