1/1/2025 Route: From Tincup Pass Posted On: 1/1/2025, By: Will_E Info: Cold and windy on Fitz today, as expected. Snowmobile tracks end maybe a qtr mile before the pass, not much trenching today. From Tincup Pass I went over 12,780, left my snowshoes about halfway up 12,780. No traction needed today, just a bunch of layers and goggles. 12,780 had some fun sections, I wasn't expecting that. Blustery first half of the day, views opened up just before reaching Fitz summit. Nice time today. |
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12/22/2024 Route: From tincup pass Posted On: 12/22/2024, By: yaktoleft13 Info: Parked at the trailer parking and booted the road, which is packed down by snowmobiles. Hiked up to the pass, then went over the 12er and over to Fitzpatrick. Snow was variable going up and over the 12er, but rock-hopping made it bearable. Descent to saddle was largely dry. Able to find some dry tundra and rocks to use up Fitzpatrick, but the snow was firmer here. For the descent, we took a direct line off the mountain, across the willows, and back toward the open area at sawmill hill, where the road first pops out of the trees. Needed snowshoes for the willows and was the worst part of the day. No traction or flotation needed or used, other than that short snowshoe section. 14.5 mi, 3600 ft, 7:40 car to car |
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4/19/2024 Route: skied from St. Elmo Posted On: 4/19/2024, By: rachel Info: Started from St. Elmo at 0500. Skinned up the Tincup pass road and into the basin to the summit of Fitzpatrick on continuous snow. The road is melting fast. Summited at 1000, waited 30 min for snow to soften and it didn't. Too much wind and clouds. 5 hrs up, 1.5 hrs down. 14 miles RT, 3100' gain. |
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4/14/2024 Route: from Tincup Pass Posted On: 4/15/2024, By: kyrawhitworth Info: Continuous snow from St Elmo to Tincup Pass (road is very tracked out). The ridge to Fitzpatrick is pretty corniced right now. We decided to take a more direct line up the NE face as that was our intended ski route. We gained the ridge a 150ft or so below the summit over a small cornice. Snow felt very consolidated, no signs of instability. Snow was firm but skied great when we dropped around 9:30am (we started from camp in the basin at 6:15am). Could have waited a bit longer to descend on softer snow but we knew the long road awaited us and we didn't want that to be too slushy. Beautiful day! |
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2/5/2023 Route: From St Elmo Posted On: 2/6/2023, By: jbealer Info: lkk8815 came up with this grand idea as it was a 13er neither of us had done yet and bonus snowflake. we followed the tracks Kevin Baker posed about a few yrs ago, going up tincup pass using the snowmobile tracks all the way up, if you have to hike a road for 6miles it was nice to have it "groomed". we went up over 12,780, took the ridge to fitzpatrick and by then the winds were really blowing and neither of us wanted to go back over the 12er. we saw the clearer ribs kevins crew took and we followed them, there are some steep sections and it was slaby but also still filled with exposed rocks, an axe would have been nice for that section but no where else. we hit the snowmobile tracks in the valley and followed them back up to the groomed road to the pass. it had taken us 7hrs at that point and we booked it back down the road for a just shy of a 9hr day. lkk8815 could have done it way faster but she waited for me on the uphill and i kept up with her on the down. we wore snowshoes from the pass till we got back to the road. we tracked just over 14miles and 4100 gain. |
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2/19/2022 Route: From St Elmo Posted On: 2/19/2022, By: hr011242 Info: Usual excellent snowmobile trail without a ton of whoops for once. Not sure what's up with that, but the road was 8x better than I recalled from last year on my splitboard. :-) Booted to 11,800, and then I put on snowshoes and turned east off the road to stick to the easiest terrain. There was some postholing in spots, but the sections were brief and the route was pretty painless. And boring. Didn't use my axe or spikes. Wore snowshoes out. It took just over 3 hours from my truck parked at the 'lot' when you enter town to get to the summit. ~3500 vert, ~13.5 miles. Highlight of this trip: several Texan snowmobilers giving me the Forrest-Gump-shrimp-boat-wave from their rig. Freaking hilarious and made my day! |
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10/10/2021 Route: From St. Elmo Posted On: 10/10/2021, By: ScottLovesRMNP Info: Road from St. Elmo to Tincup Pass is a little muddy but otherwise dry (for now). Hiked over Pt. 12,800 with some snow on the rocks near the top (slippery, so be careful). From there to Fitzpatrick is a straightforward ridge walk with a few inches of snow that can often be avoided by stepping on the protruding rocks. Winds were tough today (wind chill was probably 10 F at best). Definitely felt like the high country is on the cusp of winter! For the descent, there is a wonderful trail that heads back to the 4WD Tincup Pass road from the 12,800-Fitzpatrick saddle. I was glad to avoid re-climbing the 12er and going back across the slippery rocks and snow. |
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6/29/2021 Route: Cumberland Pass Posted On: 6/29/2021, By: tjf242424 Info: Went over Napoleon Mountain and down to Napoleon Pass, then directly up the west slope of Fitzpatrick. The whole thing is snow free and there are quite a few ATV tracks to follow along the way. The slope going down from Napoleon to its namesake pass is loose talus, but it's only about 500 ft, so goes fairly quickly in both directions. Any vehicle can make it to Cumberland Pass. The whole thing took about 4 hours. |
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6/12/2021 Route: Tincup Pass Posted On: 6/14/2021, By: Jon Frohlich Info: Road to Tincup Pass has one remaining snowfield that can't be driven around on the last switchback but there are places to park right below that. Route to Fitzpatrick over 12780 has some low angle snow patches but almost all dry. Basically summer conditions at this point. Someone should take a new register. The existing one is in very bad shape. |
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11/13/2020 Route: From St Elmo Posted On: 11/13/2020, By: WildWanderer Info: The 2WD road to St Elmo was icy but I saw several 2WD vehicles navigating fine. The 4WD road to Tincup Pass was icy and I wouldn't attempt it in a stock 4WD. I wore microspikes until the upper basin, and then snowshoes once I left the road. I did not take the ridge, as it was very windy today and there was a cornice at the access point. Instead I summited by heading up the east face. There were a lot of moose tracks along the road and in the basin. I came across two male moose in the willows on my way down. It was snowing on my descent. |
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8/5/2020 Route: From Tincup pass Posted On: 8/5/2020, By: Trotter Info: Note, Tincup pass is a long, long rough 4wd road. Takes a long time, saw tons of ATVs, but very few stock vehicles. Read bergstieigens report, theres a good shortcut to Fitzpatrick that avoids the climb and reclimb of the 12,700 ish 12er along the ridge |
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12/21/2019 Route: North Ridge via Tincup Pass Posted On: 12/21/2019, By: supranihilest Info: The road to Tincup Pass is nicely groomed. From there to the 12er snow conditions are pretty good. I wore my snowshoes literally the entire way up and down, including around the coxcomb ridge prior to the 12er and up the Class 2+/Class 3 scrambling on the 12er's summit pitch. After the 12er is a large elevation loss, then Fitzpatrick's long north ridge. There's some steep areas on the ridge that are all avoidable. I descended the east face, linking less steep areas, which wasn't too bad until the willows. Then it was knee deep postholing all the way to the road. I thought it would never end. Definitely not an ideal route down - maybe go back up the ridge to the large shelf below the 12er, then to the pass. It'll probably take longer but you'll avoid the willows which were among the worst I've ever experienced. Axe and spikes not needed (you may want them for the scrambling up the 12er) but floatation is mandatory. |
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8/24/2019 Route: From Tincup Pass Posted On: 8/24/2019, By: Flyingfish Info: Dry from the pass to the summit |
