Fletcher Mountain

Route: Fletcher+Drift Traverse
Posted On: 8/21/2015, By: BagginPeaks
Info: Decided to do some Centennials since I did not have a partner for Pyramid today. Planned to do the Fletcher-Drift traverse, but after going up and over the talus of Fletcher starting the traverse super high winds coming up the slopes on the North side of the ridge drove me off. There are two snowfields on the steep slopes in the high basin and you can go straight between them and pick your way up the rocks and cliffs to reach the flat area at the base of Fletcher's SE ridge. No snow on the traverse to Drift. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 7/30/2015, By: BoulderBarb
Info: Only one section of snow you have to climb up. I used microspikes and poles and was happy to have them, especially on the way down. Saw someone go up in just sneakers and a walking stick (but he was much younger than me ;). Rest of the hike was clear. I found the scree challenging climbing up from the lake, very loose. *EDIT* just looked at the picture of route Bill posted. No snow when his picture was taken but it has you going directly up the large snowfield that was there when I went. I went up to the left of the snowfield and it was very steep and loose. When no snow left the rout is probably a bit easier 

Route: Fletcher+Drift Traverse
Posted On: 7/13/2015, By: screeman57
Info: Climbed the East Couloir on Drift yesterday, and conditions were perfect at 7am. A nice snow climb of about 250-300ft. Snow in the crux notch on the traverse to Fletcher made things "exciting," but doable with extra care. As per previous Fletcher report, there‘s still quite a bit of snow up there--a nice snowy ridge finish, and several fields on the ascent (my descent) that could probably be avoided (but why?). The day was going so great, and the weather holding clear, that I threw down for the West Ridge of Quandary as well (which is in excellent shape). Sorry that I have no photos, but if anyone wants beta on anything out that way, I do have a good memory... 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 5/31/2015, By: a day in the life
Info: The road was open most of the way to the reservoir. Short and easy boot up the road, and we skinned from just north of the reservoir to summit of Fletcher. Great coverage, plenty of snow. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 5/4/2015, By: dpage
Info: Continuous snow from the summit to the reservoir. In the morning the snow was firm enough not to need floatation. I could kick steps in without needing crampons but my partner used them along the upper ridge. The return trip involved some postholing and glissades. I‘m not the best at describing snow conditions but along the ridge were small wind slabs that would break away. For the early part of the day I only sunk 4 inches into the ridge at most. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 4/24/2015, By: JtheChemE
Info: Blue Lakes road plowed, melted out to dirt up to the chained off section, approx ~11,500(?). Snow conditions highly variable. Used snowshoes for much of the route once past the dam. Approached the SE ridge with a line higher on Quandary‘s flank than the summer route due to snow conditions. Took the winter variation of SE ridge to avoid the basin, given the recent snow, and recent CAIC observation of large human triggered avy in that area. SE ridge stable snow, but the line we took still had 1‘ of new snow over the older layering. Intense sunshine prior to noon made the descent a bit sloppy, recommend early start. Saw party of 2 ascent drift peak east couloir. Observed solo skier intentionally trigger avy on a North Star ridge couloir, @ ~13.2k 15-20‘ wide which propigated nearly down to the reservoir @ ~11.8k. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 3/23/2015, By: BillMiddlebrook
Info: Skinned up the entire Monte Cristo Creek before booting up to the Drift-Fletcher saddle. Stable snow all the way and the skinning was easy with firm, supportive snow. From the summit, we skied the SE ridge down to the top of the hanging basin (normal summer route), we found stable snow and were able to find a safe ski route. Excellent corn skiing down to the dam. We didn't ascend the normal, winter ridge because we didn't want to bring crampons and we knew the entire area had a firm base so the long way around would be easy skinning. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 2/11/2015, By: BillMiddlebrook
Info: Skinned, hiked and cramponed the "winter line" up the ridge south of Fletcher with a plan of skiing the peak from the summit. We found dry conditions above 13,300' and not much snow upper Monte Cristo Creek. There's also a bit of dicey snow along the standard, SE ridge, just below the summit. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 10/19/2014, By: jmanner
Info: Short conditions report. Few us went up Fletcher yesterday... Snow above 12,000 feet. In the Ten Mile/Mosquitos North facing aspects still carry a considerable amount of snow, but southern facing aspects do not. Although, none of us had down Drift before, we didn't see a snow free way to traverse to Drift... There are some nice snow filled couloirs that could allow quick access to it's summit. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 8/10/2014, By: LetsGoMets
Info: Good amount of snow en route to west ridge area. The "rust gulley" is completely snowed in, and unless you have an axe and spikes you have to detour it and scramble up around the left. Rest of snow is pretty avoidable. Fletcher itself has a large patch of snow just below the summit, but again, avoidable. Great peak. Here are pictures I took today of the gulley/upper region and then pictures from 2012 when I was up doing the West Ridge. Scramble up and around the gulley climbers left. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 7/29/2014, By: Kitten
Info: Hiked from Blue Lakes. There is just a snow patch in the last gulley (before reaching the flat area below Fletcher) which could be avoided, but it is nice to have microspikes and an ice-axe for the glissade down. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 7/18/2014, By: LivingOnTheEdge
Info: Went up Fletcher with the plan to traverse to Drift. There are still at least 3 areas where steep snow blocks the easiest route. We were able to string rock piles together with minimal snow crossings and I was able to kick step any snow that could not be bypassed and did not need any snow gear. The ridge to the top is closer to Class 3 with significant exposure right now because of a cornice that is hanging around on the South side. Had to scrap the traverse to Drift because of incoming weather, but it looked snow-free. Snow was perfect for glissading around noon and sped the descent quite a bit. I will note that my GPS logged a distance of 7.3 miles rather than the listed 4.25. Some of that was likely a bit of wandering and re-routing because of snow, but I'm sure it's longer than it's listed distance. Let me know if you'd like pics of the area. 

Route: NW Couloir
Posted On: 6/4/2014, By: DeanS
Info: Couloir is in good shape for climbing. A little melted out at the top, but no big deal. Lots of bumps due to slide a few days (a week?) ago, so glissade wasn‘t ideal, but all in all an awesome day. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 11/3/2013, By: Grover
Info: Unfortunately, I know this update on Fletcher Mtn. will be wiped out by the storm that is about to bring more snow to the mountains, but I will still leave some beta. The road to the Blue Lakes Dam was clear with minimal snow packed on the route. No snow at the parking areas at the dam. I used microspikes at the beginning of the hike. As I moved higher into the valley, at around 12,300 ft., I switched to snowshoes for the rest of the way, all the way up to the summit. The snow was over 2‘ in the flat parts of the valley. So snowshoes are a must. I did not use the crampons or axe I carried on my bag. The snow coverage along the ridge leading to the summit and the summit itself was not as bad, as you could see the wind had stripped away the snow. 

Route: Southeast Ridge
Posted On: 6/7/2013, By: spong0949
Info: As of 6/6 still plenty of snow on Fletcher standard route. Snow equipment, ice axe necessary.