Ute Ridge

Route: starvation gulch via beartown trail
Posted On: 9/12/2023, By: tdawg012
Info: Snow has arrived. Guessing everything above 12800 along Ute ridgeline is covered. More to come per Chris Tomer's forecasts. 

Route: From 13,230 A via West Ute and Beartown Trails
Posted On: 10/17/2022, By: supranihilest
Info: Since we didn't want to take the CDT back to the Vallecito trail and Hunchback Pass we decided to take the West Ute trail to Beartown trail. I think this might save some elevation gain over the former option, but I also used it to climb the Ute Ridge trio. The West Ute trail is easy to follow though a little overgrown and muddy/swampy in spots. We then took the Starvation Pass trail (not marked on Forest Service 2016 maps, but marked on USGS maps) to the Beartown trail (horribly mis-marked on maps, the thing barely lines up at all). At the upper switchback above treeline Whiley and I split since she'd done these three and I hadn't, so I took excellent game trails to the large drainage below the Ute Ridge/13,342 saddle. There's game trails all over the place in this area since the andesite kitty litter readily forms trails. It started snowing heavily on my way over to the saddle, then lulled briefly as I ascended the southwest ridge of Ute. I took another game trail up past 13,092, then there was a large block of shattered rock on the ridge which I took to the north on ascent and south on descent. An easy section follows, then it started nuking horizontal snow on me. I could barely see anything, including the cliff that guards the summit area. I started to go left around it and couldn't find a way up it, then returned to the right side and found a Class 3 slot to scramble up to the summit area which is topped with some large boulders. It was still hammering snow and by the time I returned to the Ute/13,342 saddle had snowed between one and two inches. Southern aspects will probably dry out quickly but others will take a while, and northern aspects will remain snowy for the season.