Sayres Benchmark

Route: Grand Central Couloir
Posted On: 5/14/2024, By: davisrice4
Info: Snow is continuous from the La plata trailhead after the last storm, but the first mile will likely melt out quick. Above 11,000' has a deep snowpack. A fair bit of wet loose debris scatter the basin, but Grand Central and X rated both ski well currently. 

Route: X rated
Posted On: 5/5/2024, By: jbealer
Info: X rated was in great conditions today, we went up X, came down grand, there was Evidence of a old bootpack up the grand but we did not see any tracks on X. A pair of skiers ended up using our line midway through the day today. So it's probably bomber. We did not use snow shoes till about a mile in, very punchy, we hiked in sat night, camped and got an early start today. No Evidence of slides on either route, but there are some in the valley. 

Route: Grand Central Couloir
Posted On: 4/22/2024, By: slawrence2011
Info: Started at around 5 from the La Plata TH. I was determined to correctly follow the standard La Plata NW ridge route and not get suckered into heading toward La Plata basin this time after the day previous, but I mistakenly followed the first gulch (I believe S Fork Lake Creek), which is the sketch narrow bridge with low hand rails), when I should have followed the second, which is the small log bridge. So wasted about an hour skinning up that basin until I realized my mistake, broke one of my poles in the process. I made fairly quick progress when I retraced my steps to the main track, and I don't blame myself for missing the main trail the day before. The main track cuts off toward La Plata basin in the process of the steep switchbacks up, and essentially didn't cut far enough right. I found some tracks going the right way, but they could very well have been from the party who started just after me, but easily passed me after my route finding fiasco. Following their tracks went great, following mostly flat terrain in the drainage under the west flanks of La Plata, to the base of grand central. FWIW, I don't think there is a very clear track on the summer trail of La Plata yet, as it should have taken off somewhere in there. Thank God for the party ahead of me who put a bootpack all the way to the summit ridge in grand central. They skied down shortly before me, I dropped at 1 to a couple inches wind drifted snow above a pretty edgeable base. Thrilling skiing with only one pole, I thought about X-rated, but couldn't even consider with one pole. Most challenging skiing was in the apron, as the snow felt very sticky and grabby there. Very frightening trapdoor conditions starting even above 11K, Many ski trapdoors falling 1+ ft. Most of this terrain was low angle, but I was nervous for the lower avalanche terrain. Fortunately, a good track, and I followed it carefully, side stepping down areas above avy terrain, trap-doored several times. Lower road had several melted spots new at end of day that were not there when I started. 

Route: Sayres Benchmark, 13460, 13300F, and 12614 loop fr
Posted On: 8/21/2023, By: JasonKline
Info: I wanted to do a loop of Sayres Benchmark, 13460, 13300F, and 12614 from the La Plata trailhead, but the only results I found online descended 12614 to the west into the private property clearly marked "No Trespassing." The route to the east of 12614 didn't look too horrible on the map, so I tried descending that to the La Plata trail and taking that back to the trailhead. Mercifully, it worked out fairly well (although it wasn't anywhere close to what I would describe as pleasant). I went back part of the ways to the 12164/13300F saddle before descending. It was annoyingly loose for the first several hundred vertical feet, but got better as I descended. I had to go around one section that nearly cliffed out, but it wasn't too hard to find a route around the difficulties. I made a few class 3 moves, but one could probably have kept it to class 2 with more careful route finding. By piecing together clear sections between the trees, it was possible to keep bushwhacking to a minimum except for a few hundred feet of unavoidable willows just before rejoining the La Plata trail. It looks like I'll have to put together a trip report for this route! 

Route: East ridge
Posted On: 8/4/2023, By: blazintoes
Info: It goes. From La Plata saddle. Mostly 4th class choss on the south side. Low 5th north side. Descended straight down the southeast side towards the high alpine lake at 12,800. There is one cliff band to negotiate. Skirted around the shoulder and straight down to the north fork main trail. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 7/21/2023, By: kwhit24
Info: We left Denver around 4:45am and parked before the bridge crossing described in other TRs. For the second creek crossing we found a sturdy log since we didn't see any other areas to cross. Once across we joined up with the road and followed that all the way to the cabin. The road is very easy with a lot of switchbacks all the way to the cabin and beyond. we saw some ATV tire tracks in the morning all the way up near 13,200'. When comin down we saw a few vehicles coming down from the cabin. Instead of traversing/side hilling to the saddle between Sayres and 13460 we just stayed on the road up to 13,200 to get to the ridge. This only added a little distance and gain. The rest of the route to Sayres BM is obvious just taking the ridge. Then over to UN 13,460 we again stayed on the ridge. Before heading to UN13,300F we decided to leave our packs at the point where we'd take to the grassy slope described in Trotter's TR. We ran over and tagged UN 13300F (great views of La Plata) and and back to our packs. It did added like 150' back to the packs but the grassy slope was worth it. Once near 12,200' we turned left to aim for one of the switchbacks in the road. We contoured using game trails and working through a few bushes and joined the road at 11,600'. As mentioned before we utilized Trotter's TR a lot especially the route back to the road and it avoided a whole bunch of bushwhacking. (12.01 mi; 4,662' gain; 7:01:18 time) Start at TH 7:05am; Sayres BM 10:15am; Un 13,460 11:50am; Un 13300 F 12:20pm; Back to TH 2:05pm 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 7/17/2023, By: drop_bear
Info: Summer conditions. Initial stream crossing was a bit chilly in the morning but felt nice on the return. Ridge is clear all the way to PT 13300F. 

Route: Grand Central Couloir
Posted On: 5/27/2023, By: cloudkicker
Info: This and X Rated are in, for now. It looked as if we were the first up and down the Grand Central in recent memory as no boot pack or ski track could be found during our ascent (hiking, crampons). That said, there was a fair amount of avy debris in the couloir and a lot of rock fall whizzing past us as we climbed. The X Rated couloir looked cleaner and we encountered a pair of skiers on the summit who climbed up and then dropped in. Their turns looked nice afterwards as we looked upon the couloirs from below. A couple adequate overnight freezes in a row treated this couloir well. Decent hard corn snow in the lower 1/3 (good for crampon bite) led to excellent kick stepping conditions in the middle 1/3. The area near the top (especially the area that hides in shadow) was more icy and slightly harder to climb. We entered the couloir at 7am and topped out at 10am (slow, we know). We exited climbers left about 50 feet lower than the traditional top out due to the icy snow and some small cornices. The dry ridge just left of the couloir leading to the summit is extremely loose and rotten. The worst rock I have ever encountered in the Sawatch. It felt more like an Elk range summit than a Sawatch. Oh yeah, the approach was as advertised. Awful, especially on the way back. Postholing up to the waist with snowshoes on. The skiers we met in the basin seemed to have a better time than us in this regard, but not by much. 

Route: Grand Central Couloir
Posted On: 5/9/2023, By: osprey
Info: My plan was to do the X-Rated Couloir but I was moving slowly and it took 4 hours to reach the apron at the base where the X Rated and Grand Central Couloirs start. The snow was already softening and I was not looking forward to the effort involved in putting in the trench up either Couloir. But there were 4 skiers punching in a trench up the Grand so I decided to follow them. It took another 4 hours to reach the summit. The first half of the Couloir was done with crampons and poles. The upper half was steeper and icier and required an axe. The snow had softened more by the descent so I could plunge step all the way back to the apron. Flotation was not needed in the morning but was needed on the descent back to the TH. The TR by yaktoleft13 noted that the descent took as long as the ascent due to the post holing on the descent. Heed his warning. The descent is post holing misery for those on snowshoes. It is almost constant post holing until reaching the upper bridge. 8 hours up and 7 hours 30 minutes down. 

Route: Grand Central climb, X Rated ski
Posted On: 4/29/2023, By: macg91
Info: Continuous snow coverage from the trailhead. As of today there is a skin track all the way up Grand Central, though the last 30-50 feet are windblown and icy so would consider booting or even crampons to top out. Both couloirs are in for skiing, variable snow in X Rated, better lower down. Overall a good time to go get it, though X Rated is pretty heavily tracked after today so could use a refresh. 

Route: Grand Central Couloir
Posted On: 6/2/2022, By: wfinley19
Info: No snow on the approach, has a small apron and pretty bare in some spots in the couloir. It's probably seen it's last ski, this season, unless you hit it after a new storm rolls through. X-rated is definitely out for the season. It was 12.5miles round trip due to not having snow to skin. Some serious bushwhacking is required and you gatta choose between staying high in the talus, scrambling, or along the creek going through some very very thick willow shrubbery. Super super fun and rewarding line, definitely recommend! Climbed about 4500 total vert. The ski down it about 2k. Get out there! 

Route: Grand Central Couloir
Posted On: 5/14/2022, By: LetsGoMets
Info: A freeze Friday night (and some previous days freeze/thaw) had Grand Central in excellent climbing conditions. Booted down GC around 9am, was still in good shape but warming quickly. Couloir is still full and in top to bottom. Approach was good on the way in, and turned pretty sloppy on the way back. Go Team C.W.A.D. 

Route: X-Rated
Posted On: 5/8/2022, By: stomblin7
Info: Started a bit later than desired around 4:15 am. Opted to put on snowshoes around 2 mi into the approach. Beginning was semi dry but snow become quite punchy in treeline across the last major creek crossing. Took 3 hrs to reach base of couloir where we dropped snowshoes. Couloir was pretty soft throughout but snow was very soft in upper sections making kicking steps difficult. Couloir took us about 1.5 hrs. Descended Grand Central and chose not to glissade due to snow and length. 3 hrs back to car with breaks starting 11:30 am and messy sloppy post-holing snow to enjoy :) 

Route: Grand Central Couloir
Posted On: 5/1/2022, By: cottonmountaineering
Info: snow is in great shape top to bottom, it appears someone glissaded down the entire route which created a bit of a pit/runnel, if you're on skis its a little annoying in a few areas near the top but then it opens up afterwards. approach was mostly snow, some postholing here and there but nothing crazy. 

Route: X-rated
Posted On: 5/1/2022, By: bangerth
Info: We took the X-rated couloir up and Grand Central back down glissading. Conditions in the couloirs were fantastic, with everything nicely covered in snow and no rock bands melted out yet. This might be the best couloir I've climbed in my life (which, however, still only covers two springs of climbing couloirs :-) ). We met two parties of skiers at the top, both having come up via Grand Central -- for a 13er, it was outright crowded. The relatively flat area from treeline to the base of the mountain was without trouble, but both on the way up and down, the stretch below treeline was on par with the worst postholing I've experienced in my life. The snow is soft, even in the early morning, and was just mashed potatos on the way down. Even with snowshoes it was tough, and the last two or three hours getting back from the high basin were spent in "death march mode".