5/14/2022 Route: Northeast Slope Posted On: 5/14/2022, By: gcook33 Info: Parked at the gate, 1 mile below Kite Lake. Followed this route for the most part, about 50% snow cover but a decent amount can be avoided. Snow very supportive in the morning, and made for awesome glissades around 9am. 5 miles, 2200' grabbing both summits. |
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3/27/2022 Route: South ridge Posted On: 3/28/2022, By: halfapackofapache Info: I parked at the Paris mill and immediately went west toward buckskins south ridge rather than walking the road up to kite lake. The snow was anywhere from calf to waist deep for about 15-20 min as I crossed over to the ridge. The rock was very loose and it was fairly steep gaining the ridge itself. But it was practically bone dry. Once on the ridge itself it was smooth sailing. I brought micro spikes with me but never put them on. I wore trail runners the whole time as there wasn't much snow and most of it could be avoided. It was windy all day on the ridge as expected. Passed over Loveland mtn on the way to buckskin. I descended the northeast slope off buckskin down to kite lake. There was a clear route down with hardly any snow as long as I rock hopped effectively. Snow was very soft in the afternoon with the warm temps near kite lake. Jogged back from kite lake to the car. I saw TONS of avy activity over on Democrat. I chose this ridge hike to avoid as much snow as I could and I'd say it worked very well. Started at 11am back to the car at 4pm. |
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8/28/2021 Route: Northeast Slope Posted On: 8/28/2021, By: mtngoatwithstyle Info: Beautiful and windy day in the alpine. Dry conditions all the way to the summit. Incredible to see all the cars parked on the road for the 14ers... and pure solitude on Buckskin and Loveland. Saw only 3 people the whole day. Fall is coming, tundra is slowly changing colors. |
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6/29/2021 Route: Northeast Slope Posted On: 6/29/2021, By: mijoflynn Info: The weekend snow that Koy mentioned yesterday was hanging around in places on my way up at 7:00, but was mostly gone by the time I made my way down at 10:00. There is a consolidated snowfield at the very base of the slope, but it's no trouble to walk over. This was the third straight hike that low-hanging clouds chased me up a valley; it's starting to feel personal. Visibility was 20-30 feet by the time I made the summit; I waited an hour for it to clear, and when it didn't, I gave up on Loveland and headed back down. Plenty of people at Kite Lake, some doing the Decalibron. |
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6/28/2021 Route: Northeast Slope Posted On: 6/28/2021, By: Koy Info: There's an annoying layer of snow on the standard route right now, but it goes just fine w/o spikes or crampons. Going down is a little more than tedious, but ok if you maintain focus on your footing. |
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12/5/2020 Route: Northeast Slope Posted On: 12/5/2020, By: durkan Info: Small drift of snow just before kite late, but gate open. I would not say any SUV with FWD/AWD would have an issue making it. From Kite Lake, no snowshoes required if you start early enough. Traction helps, but not 100% required. After the powerlines, just aimed for the ridge and ascended close to proper. No apparent avy risk if you avoid the right areas. |
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11/28/2020 Route: Northeast Slope Posted On: 11/29/2020, By: jbealer Info: Parked at gate, road is dry. Used spikes starting at the bathroom, took summer trail up. Broke trail never sinking to deep to warrant snowshoes. Steep section up we rock hopped between snow patches. Ridge you can avoid most snow, route to NW summit had more ridge snow, again only spikes were used. Couple came up after us so good trail in snow now. Made our way over to loveland, no spikes. We descended off loveland, put spikes on halfway down making our way to the car at the gate. Snow much deeper in places, up to knees in the willows. Still found it better then retracing our steps back to buckskin. |
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10/30/2020 Route: Northeast Slope Posted On: 10/30/2020, By: CaptainSuburbia Info: Just enough snow to cover route. Snowshoes not needed though, but spikes were very help. Trail to Loveland Mtn was also covered and spikes were nice to have. Hit a nice glissade going down Loveland. Saw several moose in willows. |
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10/8/2020 Route: Northeast Slope Posted On: 10/8/2020, By: HikesInGeologicTime Info: Summer conditions; marshes between Lake Emma trail and slope to power lines blissfully dry. Easy enough to be a great late afternoon hike, and even when the wind picked up, I was warm enough with just a base layer. |
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9/26/2020 Route: Tweto - Buckskin Traverse Posted On: 9/26/2020, By: daway8 Info: No snow in the way across the traverse from Tweto to Buckskin. It was very windy but the wind was coming mostly from the left (north) when going from Tweto to Buckskin. The most viable trail (when not on the ridge itself) is on the right (south) so the winds weren't too much of an issue. Many of the fun features were shielded from the wind. |
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9/21/2020 Route: Northeast Slope Posted On: 9/24/2020, By: dhagan Info: Dry. |
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9/19/2020 Route: Northeast Slope Posted On: 9/21/2020, By: Sglm14 Info: Patches of snow from approximately 13,200-13,600 but completely avoidable. Sky's hazy from the wildfire, otherwise good weather day to be out |
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8/1/2020 Route: Northeast Slope Posted On: 8/3/2020, By: E_A_Marcus_949 Info: Summer conditions. Quite the bog after the Lake Emma trail split (missed this trail entirely in the dark early morning, though, somehow and trudged through the bog). Steep slope but easy to navigate. |
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7/20/2020 Route: Northeast Slope Posted On: 7/20/2020, By: Unknown Info: Summer conditions. Hiked this last night which required a little route finding. Threw a cairn up on the main trail split as the GPX route goes into water. |
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7/11/2020 Route: Northeast Slope Posted On: 7/13/2020, By: mjlucarelli Info: Summer conditions all the way to the summit. |
