Garfield Peak

Route: From McNasser Gulch
Posted On: 10/12/2024, By: SimplePole
Info: The conditions were perfect the day of the hike. The worst part of the road to the trailhead was about 1.3 miles from Hwy 82 with large potholes and some rocks. If you can get through that, you might as well drive all the way up to the gate. I used whileyh GPX track from this website. The crux is the climb of a loose gully to a saddle at 13,550. A temptation is to go as high up as possible on the grass and then do an ascending traverse towards the saddle. The angle of ascent appears moderate but the terrain is steep and all rocks move, even the bigger ones and it is just long enough to be annoying. It might be better to follow whileyh descent track which is entirely on a scree/dirt path. The path, see the pictures, first goes to a flat spot at 13,150 and then ascents more steeply up to the saddle. 

Route: East Ridge via McNasser
Posted On: 7/1/2024, By: PeakMiller
Info: This was one of my favorite bicentennial adventures. Starting from the La Plata TH, I mtn biked into the basin, hiked from the top gate, and then gained the ridge right before the summit. It was tempting to gain the summit earlier in the basin, however the ridge looked quite gnarly after summiting. There are still patches of snow to glissade or they can easily be avoided. The ride back to the TH took less than 20 mins and was super fun. 

Route: From Red
Posted On: 10/22/2023, By: aholle88
Info: I went up the standard route of Red which was dry. Traversed the fire swamp ridge to Garfield and back to Red. The ridge was dry. The standard route of Garfield had snow, though it looked manageable with spikes. I was expecting a lot more snow there so I planned for an out and back from Red to stay on South and west facing aspects. The ridge really wasnt all it was cracked up to be from the trip reports, a little loose, sure. Route finding wasnt too complicated though and there was only one section of class 3/4. Just stay on the trail thing when its there and never stray too far from the ridge, hugging the rock band is far simpler than getting way off in the scree. 24 from Red to Garfield and 20 back to Red. Beautiful fall day, most of the Sawatch north aspects have quite a bit of snow but south aspects are mostly all dry. 

Route: Combo: Garfield from Grizzly
Posted On: 8/19/2023, By: sarahmariekirk
Info: Echoing what previous posts have mentioned - there is a lot of scree on this peak! The descent was loose, and we scree skied most of the way down. The class 3 sections were so short and felt almost like difficult class 2. We saw 14 goats today bounding down from Red Mountain A towards Garfield and it was an epic sight. Great day out today and fun combo! 

Route: North Slopes / East Ridge
Posted On: 6/18/2022, By: Grover
Info: FS 394 is clear now to the gate closure; any downed trees in my path this morning were cut through when I departed. I only went for Garfield, so I used the valley to the headwall, went left of it and gained the upper basin via grassy ramps. The Scree Slope of Misery, eluded to in various TR's here, is real and does require some nimble feet to avoid sliding waves of scree, piles of choss and even large pieces of talus. I cut it at angle and climbed up the left side, choosing talus heaps when possible. Let's face it: If you are out here just looking to summit Garfield Peak, you have already suffered through countless other shitty scree fields on various obscure 13'ers, so this section will not be anything you have not seen before. Once on the ridge it is a quick hike to the primary summit block, and the Class 3 moves to get around the tower - on the North side - and up to the summit are easy. 

Route: Combo: Garfield from Grizzly
Posted On: 6/6/2021, By: angry
Info: From Grizzly, dry to summit. Easy descent off north slopes with a couple good glissades. No summit register. 

Route: Northern slope
Posted On: 11/8/2020, By: TheHikingTexan
Info: Started at the McNasser Gulch lower trailhead, easily driven in my RAV4. Able to get up and down without flotation or traction. Great Fall day with some wind up top. 

Route: Combo: Garfield from Grizzly
Posted On: 6/22/2020, By: Trotter
Info: Summer conditions Note, Garfield needs a new register, container, and pen. The one up there was smashed and damaged. Beware the broken glass on summit. 

Route: North slopes
Posted On: 10/14/2019, By: Jay521
Info: Summer conditions still... Going up the scree is significantly more difficult than going down - at least for me... 

Route: Combo: Garfield from Grizzly
Posted On: 8/24/2019, By: dwoodward13
Info: Didn't find many cairns, but the route was straightforward. Descent back to the basin was loose and not much fun but still manageable. 

Route: Mcnasser gulch
Posted On: 7/14/2019, By: cottonmountaineering
Info: The road is blocked by avalanche at the switch backs, doesn't add much mileage. Snow begins after the mining cabin. Mostly supportive. Didn't need any snow equipment to get up Garfield, fun little summit block 

Route: Combo: Garfield from Grizzly
Posted On: 7/15/2019, By: supranihilest
Info: From the summit of Grizzly to the summit of Garfield is entirely dry. It's all easy but the vast majority of it is incredibly loose, whether it be simply walking on talus or scrambling to the summit. I dropped down a ways before making the final summit push to Garfield but you'd probably be better staying on the ridge crest for the last bit, it seemed more solid. If you're descending back to the Lincoln Creek drainage instead of McNasser Gulch do your best to go down the trail, if one exists - it would probably be at the Grizzly/Garfield saddle. I simply went down one of the west gullies (not knowing anything about the descent, since I came up Grizzly couloir) and it was steep and ridiculously loose. Thousands of vertical feet of talus and scree was slow and potentially dangerous but eventually if you follow it down into the trees (avoid the willows, the trees are easier and faster) it will spit you back out on the road. You'll probably have to hike down the road to get back to your car, there's a large avalanche blocking the road a couple of miles up from the reservoir still. 

Route: Combo: Garfield from Grizzly
Posted On: 9/4/2017, By: LetsGoMets
Info: Summer conditions up Garfield from Grizzly, and down the scree field back into the basin. Scree field is loose but pretty easy. Rock on Garfield is pretty crappy, check your hand holds and foot placements. Great summit. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 6/14/2017, By: TakeMeToYourSummit
Info: Clear except for a single patch of snow driving to the TH (the mud was minimal too). Patchy snow starts in the trees past the TH. We followed the trail until almost the mine; then just worked uphill right of the drainage. Tedious (& currently dry) talus greeted us on the hike up to the saddle with PT 13,740'. A bit of snow along the ridge led us to the class 3 ledges mentioned in the RD. We'd seen the ascent wasn't a go - neither was a summit descent at this point. We went west along the ridge - dropping a couloir we'd seen from about 13,600'. Tracing our ascent (more or less) gave us a few sections of hiking between the rideable snow.