Little Bear Peak

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 4/16/2013, By: seth0687
Info: Granted this is just my .02, but the conditions right now are perfect! The snow is a little soft in areas from the road up to the summit, but nothing to worry about aside from the occasional post hole. Thanks to a great driver and a standard clearance F-150 pickup we made it to within 3-4ish miles from where we camped. We chose to camp on the far side of the lake at the base of the north gully. From the road to the campsite there were some minor post holing issues and we all had snow shoes but no one ever needed one. I repeat....NO SNOW SHOES WERE NECESSARY AS OF THE 15TH. However, if you pack like a boy scout then toss them in just in case. North gully was full of great powder with some sugar underneath. The conditions were soft at times and we sunk in a little bit but overall the snow was firm and accepted great half boot sized steps all the way up. The traverse from the north gully to the hourglass was easy and straight forward with great snow, NO ice. The hourglass was in great condition. I truthfully didn't even realize that I was in the steep section until I looked over and saw a little bit of the "fixed" rope sticking out from underneath the snow. In order to stay on good snow you do have to zig zag a little bit, as the snow is getting sparse over a select few rock bands. Still, it is completely possible to stay on good snow for about 99% of the hourglass to the summit. There is a smallish portion of Alpine ice 1 or 2 under some snow so I would recommend crampons because you will want to front point through this section. Again, nothing would warrant two tools or anything, but I suppose that's all personal opinion. I would advise an early start so that you are on the hourglass up and down by early morning light so the snow doesn't heat up too much. Any further questions hit me up. I don't have the best beta pictures, but one of my partners should be adding a trip/conditions report with better beta photos soon. pic 1 is road just a short distance from the lake pic 2 is the bear standing on the lake pic 3 is looking up from half way up the north gully pic 4 is looking up the steep portion of the hourglass Cheers, Seth 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 10/7/2012, By: bgouger
Info: Climbed Little Bear on Saturday from halfway up the Lake Como road. Despite the bad weather along the Front Range, it was a beautiful day - sunny and mild, just a bit of wind. Conditions are dry along the entire route. Only a bit of ice in the Hourglass. We attached a prusik belay to the rope in the Hourglass and examined it on the way up. A couple of frays, but it held fine on our rappel down. Probably still usable for the next week or two before winter sets in. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 9/21/2012, By: CMCMG
Info: The talus and scree filled couloir up from Como Lake was loose as usual with a touch of veriglass on the rocks. More veriglass discovered at directly down the center of the hourglass. At the hourglass the central ice coating was easily avoided by ascending on the right or left hand sides. Left hand side made the most sense. The rope was in good condition and the two slings of one inch webbing that stood as the anchor were still in pretty good shape. one of the pieces of webbing showed minimal signs of wear. I readjusted the scrap of webbing that acted as the buffer between the two slings and the rock. Now the two slings are resting better on the small scrap of webbing decreasing the rock rub. Sun hit the west ridge and southwest face to burn off the mild coating of snow that fell on 9/17. 

Route: Little Bear - Blanca Traverse
Posted On: 9/21/2012, By: CMCMG
Info: From Little Bear the traverse looked completely free of snow on the righthand side. There was a very shallow coating of snow on the left. This seems to pose a problem only on the left side of bivouac tower. I went over bivouac tower and never encountered the left side. I experienced no out of control snow or ice problems when I went across the traverse, praise God. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 8/30/2012, By: kbmountain
Info: Very little water running down hourglass, Ropes looked like they were almost brand new and anchor was secure. Saw someone rappelling down it when I arrived at hourglass. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 6/6/2012, By: Nelson
Info: Snow is not a consideration anywhere. Conditions are pretty much summer time. The one caveat is that there was a considerable mount of Verglas in the hour glass. I found myself moving to harder areas to avoid the Verglas. Also, there was considerable snow at key spots on the traverse. My purpose for being there was the traverse and I declined after one look at the route. Nelson 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 1/5/2012, By: Zambo
Info: Full TR here. => http://bit.ly/z47MsS Felt like early Summer. We found the road to the Tobin Creek Trail Head void of snow, except for a few very thin patches. The trek to treeline was almost completely bare as well. We ditched snowshoes just before breaking the trees, and did not need them anywhere along the route. Upon gaining the ridge, the snow was sparse and completely non-threatening. Avy danger was essentially zero, and we were able to traverse all the way to South Little Bear encountering only minimal snow along the ridge proper. The Mamma Bear traverse was a bit of a different story. While certainly not as snowy as it could have been, there was still a very healthy layer of dry sugar snow along the whole traverse. Icy patches were scattered throughout as well. While the traverse was in about as good of condition as you could ever hope for in winter, we all agreed that too much more snow or ice would have increased the difficulty considerably. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 7/31/2011, By: slowhead
Info: Summited on July 25, party of five. Conditions good, though hard half-hour of rainfall early the prior evening left some significant water in the Hourglass; also heard a big rockfall in middle of night on the ridge opposite Little Bear‘s west ridge, which made us worry a bit about looser than even usual conditions in the gully. Monday was a good day, saw only three total other climbers, started at five, summitted by 8:30. All dry, other than the aforementioned leftover rain runoff. Ropes are solid for first 100 feet, but frayed at bottom. Beware: there is a bear in the vicinity who has developed an interest in tent contents. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 7/18/2011, By: Rcizzle
Info: Successful climb up LBP yesterday. The standard route is completely snow free, however, the hourglass had a running trickle of water on both sides of the gully. It wasn‘t really avoidable and gave my partner and I fits climbing up the steep rock. There are two ropes in the glass, One blue rope has some knicks and cuts while a lighter green rope was more sturdy, but was not as long. I also noticed several individuals (around 9) made it to the summit, but no more than 3 (including myself) used the standard route. Ask away if you have questions. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 6/30/2011, By: TravelingMatt
Info: Conditions same as below. I‘ll add two things: the rope in the Hourglass is sturdy and its anchorages are quadruply-redundant. However, expect some wet spots on it due to contact with the flowing water. Also, smoke is blowing in from the Los Alamos fire in New Mexico. This is restricting visibility from all the lower Sangres and seems to be at its worst late in the day. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 6/29/2011, By: Nelson
Info: I climbed Little Bear yesterday. There is a snow apron right under the hour glass. You can easily get around on either side or just walk right through the slush if you don‘t mind getting your feet wet. There is a rivulet of wather running right down the middle under the rope. There was not a hint of ice or Verglas anywhere. This is as good as LB gets in the summer. Keep in mind it is still Little Bear and there are tons of loose rock everywhere. I would not climb it with anyone above me. Yesterday I had the whole place to myself. I have lots of pictures I will post in a report sometime next week when I‘m back in civilisation. Nelson 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 5/30/2011, By: tmathews
Info: Snow was fine down low, nice and firm. There was no evidence of recent slide activity and we were comfortable on it. There were chunks that may have been from an old slide, but nothing recent. As we got into the hourglass constriction it turned to ice. We did a lot of front-pointing with our crampons and used the picks on out axes quite extensively. Above the constriction the snow is better, but we took a line up the west ridge. The melting snow is causing a lot of spontaneous rockfall. We rapped down the constriction because the sun hadn‘t softened it up enough. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 4/24/2011, By: Cool Hand Luke
Info: Everything up to the notch gulley is in great condition, but the traverse from the notch to the Hourglass is icy in spots. Once at the Hourglass conditions are icy and a rope is necessary to ascend and descend safely. Everything above Lake Como received a decent amount of snow over the weekend and snowshoes are highly recommended. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 4/27/2011, By: uwe
Info: This was a CMC Centennial Climb. Lake Como Road up to Lake Como, OK. May dance around a little snow and ice higher up as you get close to the lake. Lake Como to couloir - snowshoes or post-holing, your choice. West Ridge traverse mostly clear with patches of snow and ice. Can be skirted around, but more work/time. Once you move off into the snowfield, crampons required. Hard ice/rotten ice through hourglass area. Set up a fixed line for folks to prussik up. Rest of way to summit was slowly working through mixed climbing. Final summit approach has decent snow. Must Gear: crampons, ice ax, helmet. Recommend rope. Snowshoes - your call. We had an interesting day with weather. Storm blew in just as we finished our move up through the hourglass. For the remainder of the climb to the summit and back to camp, we were reduced to a CRAWL due to poor visibility, route challenges, heavy winds and blowing ice, sleet, snow. Tough conditions for a Bear Dance. But dance we did; just wasn‘t pretty. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 3/22/2011, By: Artvandalay
Info: The Lake Como road is clear of ice and snow up to about 10K ft. The roundtrip distance to Little Bear is no different now than it would be in summertime unless you have a modified 4x4 that can drive further up the road. Postholing was a huge problem once I reached Lake Como. Snowshoes would be highly beneficial. It took me about 90 minutes to hike from Lake Como to the bottom of the gully at 11,900 ft without snowshoes. Probably should have taken 20 minutes. I wouldn‘t advise attempting the Hourglass without an axe and at the minimum microspikes. Crampons would be highly advisable. There are portions of the Lake Como road that have snow covering water that is unseen. I dropped through a few times submerging my boots completely in water. Watch for that. Great weather and low winds until mid afternoon when they picked up a bit. Controlled glissades made for a quick descent. Another reason to bring an ice axe.