Little Bear Peak

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 5/6/2024, By: aksean22
Info: Lake Como road is completely dry to a little past Jaws 1. There is only a few patches of snow the rest of the way to the lake that was supportive and can easily be done in trail runners. Easy booting snow up the access gully. The west ridge to the bottom of the hourglass is a mix of patchy snow and dry rock but was pretty easy to navigate. Very fun snow climb the rest of the way to the summit. We made it to the top way to early and hung out for almost 2 hours waiting for the snow to soften up. I had pretty low expectations from the last few TR's, but last week's storm gave the line a second life. Great coverage and great corn skiing straight off the summit. Only took the skis off for about 10' to get around one rock halfway down. Hourglass is getting narrow but holding on. Lots of old avy debris to avoid when traversing back to the west ridge. Stuck my head down Baby Thunder Couloir, but you would need a rope to repel the first 25' or deal with some sketchy downclimbing in ski boots, we so backtracked across the ridge and down the standard gully. I have no idea how long it'll stay skiable for but it was prime on Saturday. Great way to close out the Sangres. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 4/25/2024, By: EmmaClaire5280
Info: Summited Little Bear on a bluebird day- April 24th! We took the west ridge and the hourglass route. Below I will break down the route into pieces and discuss conditions for a thorough review... Approach: The lake como 4WD road is melting extremely fast. We drove the car up past 10,100 feet with no issues before deciding to park due to snow. A smaller 4x4 made it slightly farther down the road but turned around shortly. Snow shoes are not needed as it is possible to skirt around the little snow banks on the side of the trail. Lake Como: Still quite a decent snowpack present at lake como as of right now. Snow shoes are an absolute must in order to get around the lake without post-holing terribly. We were post-holing even with snowshoes later on in the day as we began our descent from little bear. Approach Gully: The approach gully has incredible snowpack right now! The snow is nice and soft and kicking into it with crampons was probably the easiest part of our day. Towards the top of the gully after the patches of exposed rock, the snow gets a little bit firmer and more difficult to kick into, but this gully is quick work. West Ridgeline: The ridge-line is mixed snow and rock conditions. There were some decent postholes that had frozen and were left by a previous group that created a nice little path straight up to the hourglass! Ridgeline was quick work and not too terribly difficult. Hourglass: The hourglass is where the real work begins. At the beginning of our day the hourglass was covered in mostly snow, however by the time of our descent, much of it had melted out. There are now several portions of exposed rock and I daresay that it is almost reaching more summer-like conditions. If you are going to be attempting the hourglass soon here is my bit of advice. BRING SOME ROPE. As of right now, the hourglass is a mixed climb between an icy waterfall sheet and wet rock. This was the sketchiest part of the day by far and by the end our crampons were not working too well. Rope is your safest bet at the moment. Top-out: Finally, the entire top-out of little bear is almost free of all snow. This is incredible because we were able to take off our crampons for a little bit and get into some of the more technical climbing, however there are little bits of snow and ice that are still covering the standard route. Our party had to find some work arounds to this, which led to some class 5+ climbing maneuvers. Nothing was too incredibly sketchy, just be mindful that with snow there needs to be extra caution as not to slip. Also if you are reading this you are probably all too aware of rockfall in the hourglass. I hate to say this, but we experienced several bouts of rockfall. The quickly melting snow has led to an increase in rockfall, which added to the dangerousness of this gully. ** side note- there is no access to the ropes down the center of the hourglass as they are frozen or missing Descent: START AS EARLY AS YOU CAN BECAUSE POST-HOLING SUCKS. Post-holing added many hours to our descent and was absolutely exhausting on the backside of the ridge. Get up and get down as quick as you can to try and avoid the suck. Overall, it was an incredible day on little bear! This is definitely one of the scariest climbs I have ever done, and I do not know if I would ever attempt it again (yikes) That being said, I had a wonderful experience and I am glad that I was able to complete this beast of a peak on such a beautiful day. # 46/58 down baby! 

Route: Lake Como Approach
Posted On: 4/25/2024, By: AlpineSplit
Info: Climbed and skied the standard route through the Hourglass on Tuesday. This required some climbing through a large rock band above the hourglass choke and is probably no longer skiable for the rest of the season. The road is mostly dry all the way to the lake with a few snow drifts here and there. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 4/21/2024, By: bmcqueen
Info: Climbed Little Bear today from a little over 10k on the road. One little patch of snow on the road that we had to cross. Once on foot this morning, the road is intermittent snow and dirt. We didnt put snowshoes on until the lake, but they were necessary on the descent from the approach couloir back to the lake and a ways down the road. Approach gully is snowy and steep. West ridge has a lot of quickly rotting snow on the traverse - very annoying on the descent after it had baked in the sun for a while. Snow coverage in the hourglass and upper mountain was great today, but its melting fast. 

Route: SW ridge
Posted On: 2/19/2024, By: artemavovk
Info: Snow begins to suck a bit before creek crossing and until treeline. There you get to actually enjoy talus hopping for a change, but the wind was as unrelenting as the talus. I was glad I brought snowshoes all the way up - the three bear cub humps are pretty loaded with slabby snow. From the last cub to mama bear I dropped snowshoes for better traction - everything is trapdoor snow from there onward. The wind died down thankfully - it was slow going, the ledges are sketchy, the ridge is obnoxiously loaded, lots of scooting. From above, the standard route looked like a bad time 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 1/4/2024, By: justiner
Info: Minimal snow on the approach from Lake Como, and minimal snow on the route itself. I didn't use any traction on the ascent, but you may want microspikes at the very least if you take the ledges below the ridge proper. Most difficult area was dealing with the tower right after Mama Bear. Great route, especially if you like to eat talus for lunch. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 10/22/2023, By: Istoodupthere
Info: Perfect day to do LB with nobody hiking in the entire basin from what I could tell. The gully was miserable with a little ice and hard packed snow in a few spots. Hourglass had a trickle of water and a little ice in the center. Easy to avoid. Cant imagine doing this route on a busy day. So easy to accidentally let a few rocks loose above the hourglass and in the gully. Hourglass was easier than expected. Not sure why a rope needs to be there. A little wildfire smoke from the San Juans was moving into the San Luis Valley. Thankful I finally caught a break with the weather this year to be able to knock this one out! 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 10/15/2023, By: buddapilot
Info: Some minimal snow over the scree/talus on the notch climb. This makes boot traction more difficult, recommend traction up and down. After the notch all dry on the south side. The hourglass is mostly dry with small water/ice on the roped portion, but easily avoidable. 

Route: NW Face + Blanca Traverse
Posted On: 10/10/2023, By: winter_wisher
Info: There are a few small pockets of snow on the NW Face and the Traverse, but not enough to require traction. After the Traverse, I descended Blanca carefully, as there were many snow pockets throughout the Blanca-specific pitch. Again, I did not use traction, but with a bit more snow I would have. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 10/1/2023, By: scvaughn
Info: Near Summer conditions, but not for long. There was a bit of water trickling through the Hourglass, and it was easily avoided. The rope is in sad shape, and has been resectioned several times. I didn't need or want it, and apparently, neither did the kind stranger who cut it off just above the choke point. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 9/30/2023, By: Beccadoe
Info: Great day to summit Little Bear! We started around 5:30AM from 8800ft. Lake Como Road approach was not nearly as terrible as we predicted. Pretty much no snow on the whole route besides a few small patches in the first gully coming from Lake Como. Small amounts of water and ice in the hourglass. Pretty much entirely avoidable, but is wide enough at the crux to complicate down climbing. Going left at the anchor provides more stable rock and limits potential rockfall down into the hourglass. Just around 4 hours to the top, and quicker going down. Overall, a great day out there! 

Route: LB+Blanca traverse
Posted On: 9/26/2023, By: Jajohnson11
Info: No more ice in hourglass, however it's still wet so still need to stay slightly left of center. Traverse is currently snow free, or at least so little that it provides no obstacles or added danger to doing the traverse. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 9/25/2023, By: jklammer
Info: A buddy and I did hourglass up and down on Sunday 9/24. Snow free. Hourglass had a little ice - almost completely avoidable except the bottom crux area. The ice was melting at that particular time with temps in 40s, so some ice and also water somewhat running. If weather and snow rolls in, I'd assume it will stick around this point of the cold season. The conditions at the peak are so much closer to winter than the valley floor 7k ft below. Most sketchy part was the crux near the bottom of hourglass (about where the current purple color rope ends) - it gets very narrow and steep, the ice covered most of the area to climb (most sketchy on down climb) and that is where rocks really funnel and rocket down. Up higher, it's still steep but at least there is left/right area to move. Hope these pics help - but it seems to be getting colder so any weather will change this quickly. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 9/24/2023, By: donjuan08
Info: Route to LB was snow free, but the hourglass is iced over. The rope is frozen in. We didn't use it, skirted left. We did the Traverse to Blanca as well. The downclimb off LB is tricky because of snow patches to the left. Captain Bivwacko also dangerous around left side because of icy snow patches; we used rope and protection there. Took us 5 hours (both first timers) to reach Blanca. Snow patches near top of Blanca but not too difficult to navigate. 

Route: West Ridge and Hourglass
Posted On: 9/20/2023, By: clando
Info: Conditions for the good ole lake como peaks 09/19/23 Little bear: -5/10 Blanca: 6/10 Ellingwood point: 8/10 Hourglass is covered in ice and til it melts, its a death trap. Little bear side of the traverse is pretty sketchy with the melting snow. Blanca half is fine. South faces are dry, north faces are highly variable. Hopefully it melts out, but Im not holding my breath. Blanca has a some snow on the ridge but there isnt much sloping rock, so its not an issue. Ellingwood had maybe one patch of snow.