10/15/2023 Route: West Ridge Posted On: 10/15/2023, By: Scott Conro Info: Very little snow and it was a non-issue from start to finish. |
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7/1/2023 Route: West Ridge Posted On: 7/2/2023, By: tcphoto87 Info: The road is a nice dirt road that any car can make it up to the trailhead and dry all the way up. Theres a little bit of snow left in a couple spots along the trail but it's all completely avoidable. We didn't realize there was a trail on the way up so we followed the Colorado trail for a little bit then turned to go straight up the ridge. Once we were around the ridge a faint trail started but we occasionally kept losing it because it's so faint in spots. On the way down back below treeline we bumped into the trail that would have been much easier on the way up if we had known it existed lol. The last bits were a lot steeper than I thought and there was a spot or 2 that had a bit of exposure. More ups and downs than I was anticipating on the ridge to the summit that were exhausting on the way back down too. Included a photo of our route - the one on the left is the way we went up and the bottom right part is the actual trail we came down. Overall perfect day to knock out another centennial! |
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7/1/2023 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 7/3/2023, By: two lunches Info: this is one of the best trails i've ever seen on a 13er, and IMO it's in better shape than some of our 14er routes. we enjoyed a beautiful hike on saturday in mostly summer conditions- we encountered several mostly supportive snowfields with a couple trapdoors, no traction used and water was plentiful below treeline. i'd also like to include a thankless nod to the group of gentlemen who camped in the trailhead parking lot and forced everyone else to park along the side of the road... there are an abundance of campsites along the marshall pass road, and a trip to o'haver lake after our hike was the cherry on top of a perfect day. i'll be back! |
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6/22/2023 Route: West Ridge Posted On: 6/22/2023, By: TheseThousandHills Info: All snow can be avoided except the summit, which does not require snow gear. When coming out of the trees, climb along the snowfields to climbers left. |
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6/17/2023 Route: West Ridge Posted On: 6/17/2023, By: Phill the Thrill Info: Up the west ridge, down the east ridge, with shortcut/bushwhack back to Marshall Pass Rd. There were a couple of inches of fresh snow and I found microspikes useful if not necessary from 13,300 and up. 40 mph wind gusts and white-out conditions above 13,500 made things interesting. Nice to have the entire mountain to myself today. |
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6/8/2023 Route: West Ridge Posted On: 6/9/2023, By: Hannah_Madden Info: We're almost at summer conditions here. A few patches of snow through the trees and a few fields just above treeline. Snow is firm in the morning but was slush by afternoon. Once you gain the ridge, all snow is avoidable. There was a tiny bit of snow from the storm that blew in the night before but it mostly just got our feet wet. The summit is all still snow covered. We did not need any sort of traction, we were both in trail runners. Road is in great condition, you can park at the marshall Pass Trailhead or at the cabin but for the love of God do not try to drive past the cabin. Total mud pit and there's nowhere to park anyways. Fun, steep hike! |
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5/7/2023 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 5/7/2023, By: slawrence2011 Info: Thanks davisrice4 for the beta on this! Looked like this had the best odds of a sun to make corn, and East facing, but still, after a couple hours of sun, the east face went into the clouds interminably through my summitting around 10, and skiing down, by the time I got back to my car around 1, finally started to see some more sun on the face. I booted the whole way to the summit on the E ridge, the problematic part was the trees shortly after the trailhead, even after 20 degree overnight freeze at the summit, that stuff didn't freeze at all, punching and postholing up to 2 feet deep, tried a new technique of hands and knees to avoid postholing, which worked ok. Very wind exposed on ridge, intermittent sun, hardly saw any views at the summit, transitioned through the wind immediately because I figured the couple hours of E sun in the morning was enough, but upper part of ski was fairly hard, lower couloir was perfect, flats above trees were fairly hard, tree skiing was total trapdoor cohesionlessness! Eventually, I switched back to boots when there was enough dry route, as it was faster. I stopped several times on the drive down to admire the lines, so many views from the road. |
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4/29/2023 Route: Devlis Armchair Posted On: 4/30/2023, By: davisrice4 Info: Ski line is in great shape. Should be in for a good week or two depending on new snow incoming. |
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10/29/2022 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 10/29/2022, By: daway8 Info: Came up East Ridge from Grays Creek trailhead. There was a thin layer of snow right from the trailhead - maybe half an inch or so. There are several small stream crossing before gaining the ridge - all of them still had running water. What passed as bridges over the streams were just random collections of snow covered logs - some not too bad, but at least one was pretty sketchy, especially being coated in snow. Going through the woods there was still generally just enough snow to cover our boots in most places with occasional slightly deeper drifts - but I don't think anything was ever quite even knee deep. We had almost no luck spotting any trail - just winged it and occasionally checked GPS. As you leave the bristlecone pines to go up the rocky slope to the ridge there was just enough snow to make it really annoying - it completely filled in the gaps between rocks while leaving the tops of the bigger ones exposed leading one to choose between rock hoping on occasionally unstable rocks or risking stepping in the snow and occasionally plunging deep between a couple rocks. Once on the ridge we could intermittently see a trail which we sometimes followed or other times took a direct line hopping across dry rocks since the trail was drifted in with snow. From the top it was easy to see that the slopes hit most directly by the sun were largely snow free but the more shaded areas still held a decent amount of snow. |
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10/21/2022 Route: West Ridge Posted On: 10/22/2022, By: Ssgustafson Info: It was a beautiful day on the mountain. A little windy on the ridge, but otherwise blue skies and temp on the summit of about 28 deg at 930am. No snow at all on the route. |
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10/8/2022 Route: West Ridge Posted On: 10/10/2022, By: E_A_Marcus_949 Info: Still essentially summer conditions. Some snow hiding in between some rocks in the shade higher up but can be easily avoided and will probably melt out. Aspens still poppin' all the way up Marshall Pass. Trail/route fairly easy to follow with plenty of cairns the entire way up and down. |
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9/3/2022 Route: West Ridge Posted On: 9/6/2022, By: GuiGirard Info: Excellent conditions on Mt Ouray. The trail through the forest is mellow and easy to follow apart for a few downed trees. It disappears at timber line, from where it's easy to pick a line straight up or to make switchbacks up the grassy part of the slope above to reach the ridge. The ridge then is mostly grassy with segments of faint trails with a short class 2 appetizer where it turns from a mostly N-S orientation to an E-W one. The "main course" (the final ridge after the small notch at 12,700 ft) requires a little more serious route finding, and early on it has a bit of exposure, however nowhere is the rock loose or the terrain slippery. Excellent class 2 playground all the way up the summit. Early on, two small overhanging rock slabs are best bypassed by the left. Then, bypass the "white rock" (pegmatite vein) section again by the left; exit of which back to the ridge is cairned. Be mindful about these cairns to your right on the descent as well and all will be fine. Past that, the route again stays on the ridge, is steep and mostly involves scrambling on boulders that again are very stable. I found the descriptions posted on the website very useful and very accurate. Have fun! |
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8/2/2022 Route: West Ridge Posted On: 8/2/2022, By: PikaSteve Info: Large gathering of cattle at end of road 200C, so I chose to park at Marshall Pass. Only had to hike around cows for first hundred yards. Well defined trail from 200C to tree line. Competing cairns mark several different alternatives to get from tree line to ridge line. Once on top of ridge, trail fragments are fairly easy to follow. Extremely windy along length of ridge; by the time I reached the summit, I was wearing every layer that I had in my backpack. Wind created interesting clouds on the summit. On descent, depending on which line of cairns you follow you will want to veer left of two prominent white rocks to merge onto the trail through trees. Cattle had moved on by the time I returned. |
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7/6/2022 Route: West Ridge Posted On: 7/6/2022, By: Carl_Healy Info: Summer conditions still, but that doesn't mean dry. Rain from the night before and morning fog/dew made the entire route pretty wet. My feet and shins were soaked through not wearing gaiters, and rocks were precariously slippery above treeline to summit. Also can someone let NWS and Mountain-Forecast know they're drunk? Both said things were supposed to be clear at least earlier in the morning but nevertheless about 500' from summit (just before sunrise) all this fog came in an reduced visibility significantly. Will have to re-summit another time for the views I guess. |
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6/8/2022 Route: West Ridge Posted On: 6/10/2022, By: jwright117 Info: Summer conditions. Snow is entirely avoidable with minimal effort. Head to the left side of the white rock tower (going up) on the ridge for easier and less exposed terrain. |
