8/12/2017 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 8/12/2017, By: madadraw1 Info: With this route mostly on the Colorado Trail, the trail is very nice. Very faint, intermittent trail along the East ridge, but not really once over 13K feet. At the crux, I did not traverse left (south) as far as they mention in the route. Still kept it to difficult class 2, maybe easy class 3 (kind of subjective anyway) but really did experience as much loose rock as advertised. In addition, I undertook another experiment on the way down. Instead of going directly back to the ridge, I made a left hook turn off the summit to the south, then SE and finally East (sound of the ridge). This kept things to easy class 2. Maybe a little less than 100 feet descent on loose dirt, but not bad, just slipped once. Then around 13K feet I angled back towards the ridge w/o gaining/loosing elevation. This put me back on the ridge and skipped all the difficult class 2 for my descent. Put just a little extra mileage on by doing this, but not that much. |
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7/23/2017 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 7/24/2017, By: LetsGoMets Info: Came in from Sheep Gulch. Colorado trail is in great shape up to Hope Pass. Couldn't really find any semblance of a climbers trail from Hope Pass up to the summit, so basically just hugged the left of ridge, and then climbed straight up through the boulder wall versus cutting around to the left that looked really scree filled (just before the ridge point that you typically traverse to the left). Lots of loose rock and nasty scree up there, be careful, difficult Class 2 is an accurate rating. Summit log showed I was the first person in 4 days up there. |
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7/8/2017 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 7/8/2017, By: jasayrevt Info: Also, traversed over to Quail Mtn (13,461'). 13er summits are an inspiring, invigorating hobby. This classic route is another recommended, straightforward path. It has incredible views of many quality neighboring Sawatch Rangers (i.e. Belford, Blaurock, Ervin, Oxford, etc.). Conditions up high were moonlit. So, perfect for navigating these slopes and ridge line extremely well. Standard light pack plus trail runners approach was good. Pictures with a topographic map diagram have been included as beta. Climb safely out there mountaineers |
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6/30/2017 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 7/2/2017, By: mountainman102 Info: The East Ridge trail was free of snow all of the way to the summit, but there was still snow scattered along the rest of the mountain. Both the Southeast Ridge and Hopeful Couloir routes still retained snow. The couloir still seemed to have enough snow to climb, but the snow condition is questionable. |
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6/12/2017 Route: Hopeful Couloir Posted On: 6/12/2017, By: screeman57 Info: Couloir is in quite good shape for climbing, and is continuous from the benches above the lake. The cornice has receded enough that we were able to take the direct exit. Hope Pass is still very snowed in, with snow covering the trail from just above the Big Willis turnoff. |
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6/11/2017 Route: Southeast bowl Posted On: 6/13/2017, By: AlexeyD Info: Another Hopeful CR! We climbed and skied/glissaded the big east facing bowl/headwall just south of Hope Pass. For anyone looking for an early season snow climb or ski descent on Mt. Hope that is more moderate than the Hopeful couloir, but still has decent vertical (more than 1500'), this is a fun alternative! The trail from Sheep Gulch still has intermittent snowfields across starting at the switchbacks around 11,500'. Those were pretty firm in the morning and soft but relatively supportive in the afternoon. We broke off left from the trail at the last snowfield below Hope Pass. From there, it was all snow to just below the summit ridge. I was able to skin from about 12.4 to 13.3, before the angle got too steep. Thanks to at least 5 people who went up this way recently, there is now a good boot track all the way up the bowl. Snow was soft, but still supportive enough for good axe plants in late morning (I know..super late for east facing). Angle approaches low 40s near the top, but only briefly. Dropped in around noon and still had OK conditions for the most part...triggered a small sluff on the steepest section, but nothing too alarming. Would definitely recommend going earlier, though. Otherwise, almost 2k' of continuous, good quality skiing in mid-June - I'll take it! The glissading was fantastic as well - among the best in Colorado, so I was told! Get it while you can! |
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6/10/2017 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 6/10/2017, By: mbird Info: On the positive side, the glissading conditions were excellent. As for hiking, total suck once you get to the snowy part of the ridge - usual spring combo of mashed potatoes and thigh-deep postholing. Didn't quite top out, but there's a sketchy cornice near the summit that gave me some pause. Ice axe a must, microspikes handy, swearing mandatory. |
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5/14/2017 Route: Hopeful Couloir Posted On: 5/15/2017, By: druid2112 Info: Some evidence of older avy action on the lower apron, which made for a few sections of messy steps down low. After that it was great - consistently firm but not bulletproof. At least on this day, top exit was an option in a narrow, not-quite-a-cornice section, but that bears watching and may not have been the most prudent thing I've ever done. Last exit to the left before the top might be a better option. Fun in the sun! |
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7/30/2016 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 8/4/2016, By: dwemp6 Info: I did Mt Hope's East Ridge last Saturday morning. It was a perfect morning. I was alone for most for most it with a few thru hikers and trail runners on the way down Hope Pass, but nothing too bad at all... The crux of this route was a bit loose, I kept to climber's right of the the first gully (pic is from the top of the gully) and it wasn't too bad but loose enough to keep you on your toes. This was a fun one! |
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6/18/2016 Route: Hopeful couloir Posted On: 6/20/2016, By: screeman57 Info: Snow was in great condition even at 9-10 am. The usual, middle section is melted out, so I entered above this by hiking up the tundra. Willis gulch approach has no consequential snow, and hope pass is dry as a bone. Descended the east ridge, which is looser than usual with the saturated ground. Loved this climb - one of my favorite snow climbs to date. |
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6/11/2016 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 6/11/2016, By: zdero1 Info: Summer conditions, other than approximately 40' of total snow traverse above 13,700'. Leave any traction, flotation, or axes at home. The lower trail appears to have dried up substantially since the last conditions report was posted. |
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6/4/2016 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 6/5/2016, By: Unknown Info: Leave the snowshoes at home. There's still a couple of short snow fields, but spikes and ice ax should be all you need. Melting quickly and dry at Hope pass. There's a section or two down low (sheep gulch side) where the trail does a good impression of a creek. |
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5/21/2016 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 5/21/2016, By: KyleS Info: Climbed from Sheep Gulch today. Other than a few heavily post-holed drifts, there's no snow below treeline. Continuous skin-able snow starts around 11,400ft. We had originally planned on the Hopeful Couloir but changed plans due to a poor overnight freeze and lots of avy debris visible in the couloir from the Hope/Qail saddle. The ferocious winds weren't any help, either, since they were blowing from the south. Contrary to the previous report, large cornices looked pretty widespread along the north side of the east ridge. So instead, we skinned up the east facing bowl. The high winds kept the snow from softening too quickly, so much so that we actually used our crampons to gain the summit plateau around 8am. Microspikes would have been fine, and even that probably wouldn't have been necessary an hour later. When we dropped in at 10am, the summit plateau was still icy (down to about 13,600ft) and everything below about 11,600ft was mashed potatoes - in between was great corn. We did see both natural and human triggered point releases today, as well as a cohesive layer 4-6" thick that cracked across the slope but didn't really slide. |
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4/14/2015 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 4/14/2015, By: KTC88 Info: Climbed Mt Hope from the Sheep Gulch TH. Brought microspikes, but never used them. Did not bring snowshoes. Trail was mostly dirt with some patches of snow until just below treeline when the snow became continuous. No post holing on the way up. Once on the ridge the route is mostly dry, but there are a few sections where it is easier to ascend via snow. Snow softened up quite a bit by midday, but it was pretty easy to avoid post holing on the descent. If you‘re interested in the Hopeful Couloir, there was no cornice at the exit. |
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6/6/2014 Route: Hopeful Couloir down SE Ridge Posted On: 6/7/2014, By: benglish Info: Left the beaver ponds on 390 at 5am. Only a few patches of snow to Hope Pass. No flotation needed. Crampons and an ice axe recommended on the descent to the north of the pass. I found almost continuous snow from the pass to the top of Hopeful Couloir. Hit the summit at 9:00. I decided to explore the SE ridge (not the standard E Ridge descent) on the way down. Dumb idea. This was loose and nasty. |
