Potosi Peak

Route: From sneffels th
Posted On: 7/14/2025, By: yaktoleft13
Info: Climbed potosi, Whitehouse, and Ridgway from sneffels trailhead. All dry, save for the tiniest bit of cornice hanging on at a couple saddles. Dropped off the n side of the potosi/coffeepot saddle to access weehawken. Met a couple of cool guys, Larry and Matthew, up crushing ridgway and Whitehouse. 10 mi, 6400 vert, 9 hrs 

Route: via Yankee Boy Basin
Posted On: 9/18/2024, By: TheHikingTexan
Info: Summer conditions on the route this past weekend. Started up the steep slope just across from the bathroom parking area, found a few trail segments up to treeline. I found the 'trail' to be very loose from the Coffeepot/Potosi saddle all the way across the traverse below the cliffs. The final push up to the summit from there had several cairns in key spots. This area felt like a maze and I was glad to have the navigation assistance. I descended from the saddle back to Coffeepot. Work your way to the left after the initial drop to access the grass slopes and the fin shaped rock that avoids the cliffs before the road. This mountain had me intimidated for years, glad to have made it up and down safely! 

Route: West face couloirs to standard
Posted On: 6/8/2024, By: Boggy B
Info: Chained a couple of new (to me) couloirs on climber's right side of the west face, the upper of which features prominently in Bill's cover photo. This leads to the SW shoulder and the standard route. Don't think I've ever installed or removed crampons more in any 4 hour period. The couloirs were nice, and the rest was a taxing mix of blissful neve and sudden postholes for no apparent reason, on all aspects. Temp at TH was 45F at 5:30a. 

Route: North Couloir via Coffeepot Saddle
Posted On: 5/26/2024, By: VeraUndertow
Info: Started from the the 90 degrees corner about a 1/4 mile from the outhouse parking, and followed the snow straight up toward the saddle with coffeepot. Snow was continuous until the top 30-40 ft near 13k. We climbed up the standard route on the dry south side till 13,2 then crossed the highest snow band before the summit block to get into the couloir. It was about 3 snow ribs to cross all sideways 4 point traversing. Wouldn't recommend doing this without 2 axes, we both used an axe and a whippit, we just wanted to save some elevation gain. The snow in the couloir was great climbing, soft enough to step into easily but easy enough to compact without post holing to deep. Couloir was about 45 degrees all the way to the top and snow was continuous to the summit. Skiing was honestly pretty good, soft snow for about 800 ft with just a little wind crust at the very top, then firmer smooth snow to the bottom. Climbing back over to coffeepot was about 500 ft of vert and starting to get wet at 11 today on a colder windy day. Skied all the way back to the car down the south side on good corn and then a bunch of rocks were in the snow down at the bottom. 

Route: Couloir
Posted On: 5/4/2024, By: Skimo95
Info: Potosi is a great ride and I highly recommend it. Limited 4x4 parking at outhouse. Hard to imagine 5 years ago Id never seen snow or mountains.. 

Route: Up Yankee Boy down Weehawken
Posted On: 7/15/2023, By: slawrence2011
Info: Started late again due to surprisingly low traffic, but thanks to Ken for the hitch all the way to the outhouse! South side route is basically summer conditions, did the whole thing in boots. I ended up traversing too far right toward Potosi, because though there were some prints, seemed way too steep and loose. So I traverses left to directly below coffeepot, and did that tedious but doable route to near the coffeepot Potosi saddle. Followed the path of least resistance to the low point, which involves climbing above and back down some steep, firm snow to avoid getting snow gear out, saw someone else had too. Very nasty loose talus hiking to get to the low point of saddle. Typical for area, but felt worse due to cliffs below and steeper talus above that sometimes moved on me from above. Once I hit the low point, the route felt much more straightforward with a clear path through the talus. Snowfields were quite firm, but small, so I went below all but one short one with some decent steps. Rest of route in summer conditions except a couple avoidable snowfields, and steep snow right below the summit that had to be crossed with exposure below, but soft so I kicked steps in boots. The ski down the N is totally in, probably at least 1,000 ft of skiing. Bottom half has a lot of rocks, suncups, and runnels, but doable. Great for July! Weehawken descent very cruiser thanks to running into Liz who showed me the trail skier's left of the creek. 

Route: Coffeepot saddle
Posted On: 5/31/2023, By: 9patrickmurphy
Info: My partner and I intended on skiing the north couloir. We started at 5:15am and booted up to the coffeepot saddle. Finding a continuous snow line from the road was possible thanks to a photo I had taken the day before from Gilpin. At the saddle, we decided against the north couloir as the drop down to it from the saddle looked steep, and the sun had already been baking it. We figured we could descend from the saddle to climb the couloir but were not jazzed at the idea of climbing 50 degree super soft snow afterwards. This in mind, we gambled at taking the standard summer route of wrapping around to the class 2 summit access. This was relatively easy to a point, until we reached the east side where we were traversing steep, soft snow above cliffs. Not comfy. After a lot of effort we made the summit and got the hell out of the there. Im pretty confused about the viability of the north couloir as it seems that theres no great descent options: 1) regain the coffee pot saddle after the snow has softened 2) descend the summer route after the snow has softened 3) have a crazy adventure ski down Weehaken and hitchhike or car shuttle back to the start. My partner and I were a bit confused, would appreciate any additional insight? Also a bit confused as to why the snow was way softer up higher, even where no sun had hit and early in the morning. Would appreciate insight here as well. 

Route: North couloir ski
Posted On: 5/20/2023, By: SnowAlien
Info: Full value day, but what an incredible peak. After many trips to YBB, I've never seen it so caked. The freeze was marginal (partially clear night and rained the day before), but got better around 12k. I took the direct line from YBB road - the road is plowed to the outhouse, but gated at the Revenue mine. Instead of dropping down the saddle, losing 400 ft in the process, and booting 1k ft of the couloir (I tend to avoid monotonous couloir climbs) , I had a "brilliant" idea to take the summer route that wraps around the summit. Traversing on the west side was manageable and the snow was firm (although there was some heavy breathing as the sustained exposure over cliffs is hard to phase out), but once I got around the corner, the snow went to mush immediately. Instead of turning around, I swam uphill until I got to the rocks and was able to carefully upclimb some class 4+ to the summit. Instead of saving some time, it ended up being a time suck. Got to the summit about an hour behind schedule ~11 am, but the North couloir was partly in the shade and still firm. What a beautiful line! The upclimb to the 13.1k saddle involved some slow uphill swimming in wet snow as the storm was approaching. Once over the saddle, the west side snow was much cooler and the skiing was enjoyable corn. Back to the car before it started raining again @1pm. 

Route: South Face via Bimetallist Mine
Posted On: 9/27/2022, By: dwoodward13
Info: Potosi from the Bimetallist Mine and over to Teakettle with descent of Teakettle's standard route. Fantastic route. Be careful right off the start as there is another 4x4 road we accidently took at left turning switch back in the first quarter mile that is more obvious that the straight path you want to take. This route was shockingly well cairned all the way to where it rolls over in Senator Gulch, and straightforward to the base of Potosi's summit cliffs. A little bit of tricky route finding as you traverse Potosi's cliff bands. Route over to Teakettle was pretty beat in. One in group freed the climb up and belayed the 2nd up. Anchors in good shape. Descent down Teakettle sucks per usual. Having done Teakettle twice, this way and the standard route up/down, I would **strongly** recommend this approach if you want to do both Teakettle and Potosi. Much more pleasant than ascending any of the slopes toward Teakettle from YBB. 

Route: Yankee Boy Basin/Coffepot Saddle
Posted On: 7/20/2022, By: JasonKline
Info: Summer conditions. It's as loose as they say. 

Route: From 4WD trailhead in Yankee Boy Basin
Posted On: 9/6/2021, By: ScottLovesRMNP
Info: Summer conditions. The worst part of this route is the traverse between the base of Coffeepot and the Coffeepot-Potosi saddle. Overall one of the loosest mountains I've ever been on. Saw a guy up there with no helmet near the top, which seemed crazy. When traversing around to the east side of Potosi, stay with the cairns — you contour around the mountain farther than you might think prior to climbing the sandy gully. 

Route: North Couloir
Posted On: 5/28/2021, By: supranihilest
Info: Potosi's north couloir is in and tons of fun. We ascended from the outhouse on Yankee Boy Basin Road basically in a straight line up to Coffee Pot. Down low and near the upper ridge the snow is melted and there's plenty of scree and loose rock to contend with. The long middle section is snow. In the early morning it was crunchy but good for walking right up, in the late morning it was soft but relatively solid. From below Coffee Pot we descended to the saddle with Potosi, got axe/tool/crampons out and dropped 400 feet north down mushy snow. We traversed over to the bottom of the north couloir where snow was much better. The couloir is straightforward and consistent in the 40ish degree range. At a small saddle at the top we climbed a short, nearly vertical snow wall on mushy snow to the summit. No scrambling on the upper mountain currently. We descended the standard route on snow by dropping south from the small saddle at the top of the couloir. The route is cairned and we left solid tracks across it. In general it stays below the peak's upper cliffs and far above the cliffs low in the basin. We traversed around to the Coffee Pot/Potosi saddle and then descended rock and snow back towards where we ascended, making a final traverse to the right above cliffs before rejoining our ascent route. Do NOT go straight down from Potosi. Gear: crampons and axe mandatory. A second axe was nice but not totally necessary. Flotation not needed. 

Route: North Couloir
Posted On: 5/25/2021, By: desertdog
Info: We climbed the North Couloir and traversed using the summer route on our descent. We started at the Yankee Boy Basin Trailhead and worked our way straight up to the ridge. Then dropped off the north side to gain access to the couloir. Other than the start at the TH the route is mostly snow. The snow conditions are variable from hard pack to post holing. We did post hole in the Couloir, but nothing major. Did not need snowshoes. Axe and crampons mandatory. 

Route: North Couloir with descent of the standard route
Posted On: 7/4/2020, By: Wildernessjane
Info: Summited Potosi via the North Couloir with a descent of the standard route. The couloir was continuous and still in good shape. We started up the couloir at 6:40 and didn't have any problems with rockfall (for reference, it had reached 32 degrees on the summit of Sneffels the night before). However, there was plenty of evidence of the route being the shooting gallery it is known for. The standard route was clear of snow. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/29/2020, By: Grover
Info: Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new leader in the category of 'All-Time Chossiest Route Ever'. Move over "Thunder Pyramid", Potosi Peak is now champ. What you suffer through during the crumbling loose rock and dirt gives way to a rewarding summit of a distinct peak you can always pick out from other San Juan summits. Hiked up underneath Coffee Pot, turned right and hiked the saddle to Potosi. Route from low point of the saddle to the entire other side of the peak comes with a faint route and some key cairns. I tried to bolster any existing cairns that were helpful. As others have reported, you do need to go all the way around the SE Ridge to find the right gully. The exit ramp is easily seen, then you choose your best line up to the flat, pebble covered summit. I did take the escape gully down at the low point of the Coffee Pot/Potosi saddle. I scouted out the grassy terrain from below the night before AND from above with binoculars after the summit. I found the grassy passage to be at ~12,400', and there was a faint game trail I could pick out with the binoculars. I avoided the cliffs and merged right into the route I took up.