Mt. Sherman

Route: South Slope
Posted On: 4/12/2025, By: coopergould
Info: Fun morning on Sherman - South Slopes still skiing pretty well despite recent rapid melting. On the approach, there is a bare ~30ft section of road with no bypass just before the Horseshoe junction. I also booted ~200vf near the choke around 13,500ft due to lots of exposed rock. Dropped around 11:30a, probably 30min late for optimal conditions but had a blast on the descent and road exit still skied pretty fast as well. Felt like late May out there today! 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 3/30/2025, By: butlerer
Info: Beautiful day without the forecasted wind. Took a deviation from the standard route to avoid walking near a dicey looking cornice, and paid for it in 900' over 0.7 miles. Tried to show the deviation we took going up (red lines) and down (green). The 900' of gain is from where the blue line splits off from the fork up to where it gained the ridge. -80 minutes from the Winter TH to the gate--DON'T be as asshole and try to drive past the winter parking signs. We saw two guys this weekend and last weekend who thought they were heroes and got stuck 20-50' past the Subarus parked at the Winter TH in several feet of snow. You won't be different. -4 hours car to summit. -7 hours, 20 minutes back to car. 

Route: South Slope
Posted On: 3/29/2025, By: sriddell
Info: Skinned from car up most of the route this AM but had to get very creative on parts of the road to keep the skis on. Some sections of road are almost entirely dirt with only a thin strip to skin on. Lower elevation snow wasn't full re-frozen from the recent warm cycle, but everything from the point you depart the road on was fully frozen. Was almost - but not quite - able to piece together a full descent without removing my skis. The main south slope has a few lines that look like they go but dead end in rocky areas. A short walk (10m) over to the next patch of snow connected me to a line that went all the way down. Skied rest of the way down to car but again, with some creativity. Stayed skiers left of the road until the mine, if I recall, and then popped over into the other drainage briefly before reconnecting with the road. All in all, fun day in a beautiful environment! 

Route: South Slope
Posted On: 3/15/2025, By: Ryyyyyaaaaan
Info: Was able to drive to normal winter trailhead. There was sufficient coverage to skin up almost the entire route. We boot packed a very short section, but you might not have to. We just did it to avoid skinning up what would have been a difficult section. We were easily able to ski the entire way back to our car. 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 2/28/2025, By: zackj99
Info: Used snowshoes on the road and up to about 12k. From there took a gully up and boots were fine. Descended to the east ridge and avoided avalanche prone slopes. Dropped a silver ice axe if anyone picked it up or does this weekend I would be very appreciative! 

Route: South Slope
Posted On: 2/21/2025, By: algryno
Info: Able to drive to the winter TH (lower junction of Leavick Rd and Four Mile Creek Rd). Modest blast through a few snowdrifts in AWD. A few cars were at the TH. I donned snowshoes at about the 4 Mile Creek TH and kept them on to the summit and down to the car. Could've not used them the entire time, but no area was dry enough to warrant the time involved with transitions. 

Route: South Slope
Posted On: 2/17/2025, By: jace_reber
Info: Ski coverage mostly good all the way up and down. Crampons/microspikes very necessary. We also had 80-100 mph winds near the peak and it was extremely wind blown. Snow was very hard at the time of climbing and the road in was very doable in a small front wheel drive car. 

Route: South Slope
Posted On: 2/2/2025, By: Dan Kearney
Info: Parked around 11,000. Road getting there wasn’t too bad, but there were a few wind drifts you had to gun it through. Used snowshoes on the way up the road. Did not on the way down and thought this was better. The snow was plenty firm. Once off the road, snowshoes were mighty helpful and got me to a point around 12,600 where I left the trail early and went up the W side of White Ridge’s rock scoured gullies. There was a large windslab on Sherman’s SE slope that I didn’t care to continue hiking towards. Left snowshoes at the bottom of this and it was fine. Once up on the ridge it was mostly rock hopping, with a few low angle hardened snow fields I crossed without traction. Had spikes, felt no need for them. Summit cornice is well guarded by rocks on both sides. Took the same route down without issue. 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 12/15/2024, By: Briere
Info: I hiked from the 2WD area to the 4WD Summer trailhead. I used snow shoes going up but none going down so I probably didn't need them for my section that I hiked. The winter - south slope route looks like there isn't a packed down trail and the summer route didn't look ideal (snow drifts) either so I turned around. Speaking to someone along the road it sounds like most people in the past week have taken the summer route and turn around on the ridge due to the snow. 

Route: South Slope
Posted On: 12/17/2024, By: deepdarkseas
Info: Successful summit and a beautiful and not too windy day. I wore Lightning Ascent snowshoes the whole day. I left the mining road at the hairpin bend at 12,800' and was able to stay entirely on continuous snow to the summit, except for one or two rocky sections that were no more than 10 paces or so. The snow is wind-blasted and surprisingly consolidated, perfect for the Ascents or other snowshoes with decent crampons, though there are a few sections with looser snow more similar to unbroken trail below treeline. I expect conditions will remain this way until the next major snowfall, which may not be until mid-next week. South slope is definitely the way to go right now to avoid wind and likely more rocky conditions on the standard south ridge. No pictures unfortunately because I lost my phone up there... if by some miracle you do this route and happen to find an iphone 15 pro please DM me. 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 10/23/2024, By: mark-p0021
Info: Perfect weather but breezy. No problem accessing the TH with my Subaru. Much more snow on the upper trail than anticipated. Up to 2 feet in some places. Very little snow had melted from the most recent storm. Should have brought spikes and poles. Snow was beginning to melt on descent causing slushy conditions. Saw a total of 8 people at various times. 

Route: Southwest Ridge
Posted On: 10/2/2024, By: Krispy
Info: Never have I ever experienced wind like there was on Sherman today. I didn't have a gauge with me, but I'd be shocked if it didn't top out over 60mph, and on the ridge leading up to the false summit it was sustained at those speeds. We actually took shelter just off the ridge a couple times to recover from the barrage, it was nutty. Otherwise was a beautiful day and the trail was totally dry. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 9/26/2024, By: josephsiefers
Info: Trail has a few patches snow that mostly can easily be avoided except for a few spots high on the ridge, but nothing that difficult to traverse. Might be slushy later in the day. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 9/23/2024, By: Goldfoxx
Info: Combined Sherman and Sheridan on 9/23/24 from Iowa Gulch TH. A fun mix of fall/winter conditions. I was worried about the snow but it was fabulous: nice stair steps of snow up the steeper section instead of slippery dirt/rocks. On the way down, I kid you not, it was like walking on pillows... my knees are so happy. Sherman got about 5-6" of snow from the storm two days ago. But lots of drifts so some places deeper, especially the final ridge ascent. There was a trail the whole way through the snow so minimal route-finding required (no obvious trail for Sheridan but you just walk straight up). Didn't need spikes; snow was sticky and crunchy. Gaiters, waterproof hiking shoes, and snow baskets on my hiking poles all came in handy. Windier than forecasted so good to have face covering. I got back to my car at 1pm and it had definitely warmed up by then. The lower elevation snow was already getting slushy. And muddy in the first marshy section. I expect conditions will rapidly change as the snow melts with the nice weather this week. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 9/14/2024, By: 2drinkbehind
Info: Beautiful sunny day, perfect conditions. Light breeze. I think the distance for this route is incorrect as we stuck to the trail, but two different GPSes came back closer to 6 miles round trip.