Trico Peak

Route: South Slopes from Black Bear Pass
Posted On: 6/25/2025, By: Grover
Info: I drove all the way to the BBP Gate closure (just below it where there is ample parking). Some snow fields persist in the valley as you hike towards the pass. You can avoid them by skirting around, or, trudge through if you like. Slope from BBP to the summit of Trico is snow free. T10 has a ribbon of snow on the east side that is blocking a clean (yet steep) hike up to the summit. 

Route: Trico & T 10
Posted On: 6/8/2025, By: jprinner
Info: Black Bear Pass road mostly clear of snow until just past the closed gate. There’s a steep snow slope covering the road that I traversed with crampons and axe, but can be avoided by taking Trico’s SE ridge. Upper basin is very filled in with snow. I was postholing, punching through an upper crust, about 1/3 of the time at 7am in my snowshoes. There was light snowfall that dusted the peaks the night before. I avoided most of the deeper snow on T 10s E face except for a short steep snow section near the top to avoid loose terrain (used crampons and axe there). I avoided deeper snow almost completely on the saddle and Trico’s SW ridge. I took Trico’s SE ridge to avoid the post-holey basin (class 2) and encountered two short snowcapped sections on the ridge that I did not use gear for but pretty much just post holed to the rock while traversing. This ridge drops you back off right at BB pass road eventually. 

Route: S face
Posted On: 5/10/2025, By: kyrawhitworth
Info: Not skiable from the summit down the S face as of now. Started up the E ridge then headed up the basin to the Black Bear pass saddle. Dropped skis and booted to T10 and back which had some steep snow sections. Then headed up from Black Bear Pass to Trico. Great soft turns still on the S face when we descended just before 11am. Skiing down mineral basin was a bit tricky to navigate so there was a lot of map checking and a few spots of booting. 

Route: east ridge direct
Posted On: 2/10/2024, By: artemavovk
Info: Conservative terrain choices, I guess. First obstacle is right above treeline, went around on the climber's left following some rabbit tracks. Snow was stable enough to let me through, mostly wind slab, shallow at points to feel a bit safe. Next obstacle is obvious after that, scrambling up to and through some rocks, shallow snow. I guess not much snow deposited there because I saw old bootpack and skin tracks After that the narrow ridge got hella cornices on the north side, south slope is wind slab. The snow is shallow enough to find little rock islands and feel safe. South ridge is corniced on it's east slope, but west slope is pretty bare down to the pass. The mineral basin is wompy, requires topo map to get around sketchy cliffs and terrain traps. Too wompy to just send it for now 

Route: South Ridge from Black Bear Pass
Posted On: 5/30/2023, By: supranihilest
Info: Easy route up from Black Bear Pass. Generally snow covered on eastern aspects, very firm snow in the morning. Used crampons and axe but could probably get up on trashy rock to climber's left without. Upper mountain is dry but there's good ski lines just down the ridge and to the east. Sorry, no photos. 

Route: Southwest Gully
Posted On: 7/27/2021, By: supranihilest
Info: An absolutely horrible route that should be avoided at all costs, I made my way from Point 13,510 B to the north towards Trico hoping to climb Trico's north ridge. Given that it was wet and more weather was coming in I skirted Trico on the west side, initially on an old road/trail segment, which disappeared into heinous and loose choss. I carefully picked my way across Trico's west side until I found a gully that looked like it would take me to the summit, and while it did, it was beyond loose and exhausting. Everything moved and slid and my feet would sink into the slopes like 2-6 inches on every step. It wasn't technical at all, just an exercise in punching oneself in the junk repeatedly. Going to Black Bear Pass and taking the much easier south ridge would have saved me so much time and energy, even if it was a bit longer. There's a trail from the pass up the south ridge, which is what I descended partway before making a more direct line through a meadow to the road, which I followed back to US 550. 

Route: Black bear pass
Posted On: 6/7/2021, By: Sbenfield
Info: Walked up the pass from red Mtn pass summit, easy hike from there. Some snow in the upper basin but was pretty consolidated. Used micro spikes for a brief portion to gain the black bear pass summit 

Route: T10, Trico, 13510, telluride peak
Posted On: 6/14/2020, By: tom311
Info: Linked the ridge from t10-trico-13510-telluride peak-Ajax The road up to black bear pass had large sections still covered in snow. Some very steep and an axe felt good to have. Once I gained the ridge snow could mostly be avoided. Fairly firm up to 10am. Glissaded down from t10 in perfect corn. Between Telluride peak and Ajax the ridge has a fair bit of snow, but can be avoided by dropping a bit lower. 

Route: Black Bear Pass Road
Posted On: 7/3/2019, By: BobbyFinn
Info: Hiked the road from not far from 550 due to a big snow drift that was eating jeeps. (Which is probably now passable due to some people muscling through it. But bigger drifts are just up the road - will be a couple weeks at least until it is drivable.) We walked the road until just below the entrance to the upper basin and were confronted with a bullet proof (good freeze that night) snow drift with a deathy run out. So we went up to the east ridge of Trico and followed mellow grass to the ridge. Trico's east and south ridges are clear of any consequential snow. Took the east ridge down from the upper basin (didn't walk the road back except maybe the last 1/4 mile) and it was quick work back to our car. You can see a right to left ascending non-snow line from the basin toward the right side of the east ridge in the pic - that's the easy exit from the basin to the east ridge. It's an old mining road. We needed crampons along the road in the morning on some frozen drifts. Taking the east ridge up will avoid the snow - in fact if all you're doing is Trico, take the east ridge up and down (class 2/2+) and you won't need any snow gear at all. Pic is from T 10. Shows Trico (and it's south and east ridges) and the upper basin. Seems like most of the east-facing basins along 550 look equally snowy.