Distance: 21.5 mi.
Elevation Gain: 6000 ft.
My friend Ben lives in Colorado and has been climbing the 14ers over recent years. He had only 2 remaining peaks to complete the list and he wanted to complete Snowmass as a bachelor party trip with a group of Illinois high school friends (Andy, Brian, Sam, and myself).
Ben had secured a permit and we had been planning the trip for a few weeks. Snow has stuck around longer than usual in Colorado this spring and it was looking that we would be camping and the lake would still be completely frozen over. Brian, Sam, and I flew in on Thursday and we all ended up in Fraser at Andy’s place that night to prepare for the trip.
We left at a leisurely hour and headed to Glenwood Springs for lunch at the Charcoalburger Drive-In. After stocking up on calories we headed toward Aspen and were at the Maroon Snowmass Trailhead by about 1PM. We did some last minute gear shuffling with 3 of us carrying skis and the other two with snowshoes and headed up the trail.
The trail was very nice with a gentle uphill grade until about 5.5 miles in where we started to encounter patches of snow. It was pretty warm and with the heavy packs we were pretty regularly postholing, so our pace slowed considerably. The snow stopped for a bit when we go into some more open areas just before the logjam crossing. The crossing was pretty easy with lots of different logs to choose from. We took a little break on the other side just before 4 PM.
The hike continued past some marshes and then up one set of switchbacks where we entered post hole hell again. This late in the afternoon it got pretty soft and we were pretty regularly postholing. We really should have put on snowshoes and skis at this point but we tried to power through. We also managed to get off the trail at one point also and made things harder for ourselves as there were additional blowdowns and other obstacles. We eventually got back on track and were able to stay afloat a little easier as we got higher, finally arriving at the lake at 7:30PM. Unfortunately there was one melted out camp spot which was already taken so we had to just find a flat spot on the snow to set up. Ideally we would have gotten here a little sooner to be able to setup camp and eat dinner a little more comfortably.
We all had wet boots, shoes, and gloves and we ended up with one flat sleeping pad in the night. As a result, the snowshoers elected to forgo the summit attempt which the skiers planned a 4 AM start toward the summit. Andy, Ben, and I made a delicate snow bridge and log crossing of the creek near the lake outlet and then did a lot of skinning side hilling on pretty firm snow around the lake. Unfortunately the lake was still mostly frozen over but definitely not enough to venture out onto the lake for easier skiing.
We easily made our way over to the gully in the initial steeper slopes that take you to the massive upper snowfield. We were making pretty good time through here and then below the steep north face of Hagerman Peak and making our way to what looked like the easiest slopes up to gain the SE ridge of Snowmass. We were following skin tracks most of the way but the travel got difficult as the slopes got steeper and the snow got softer. I attempted to skin the whole way with my ski crampons but Ben and Andy decided to drop skis and packs at a relatively flat spot below the steep part. This slope got steeper as we went up to a maximum of 50+ degrees for a little bit and the sun was really warming this part, to the extent we had to wallow up creating a trench for a bit (my ski crampon broke and I carried my skis up).
Eventually we reached the ridge top where I dropped my skis and we continued up the ridge to the summit with mixed easy snow and class 3 scrambling. Doing this in ski boots wasn’t too bad but I was finally starting to feel the altitude and the scrambling required care in the boots. We reached the summit around 8:45 and spent a little while taking pictures before retracing our ridge back to my skis. It was about 9:30 by that time and there was some weather building around us. I waited for Ben and Andy to carefully boot down the mushy snow to their packs before I skied down to them. It was steep but really fun and we were on to the good part!
We all enjoyed the ski in the upper bowl before realizing we were a little too far north to get down the lower slopes. We made a quick traverse to the right place and had a little bit of fun on the really dirty and somewhat sticky snow to the lake. We put on skins and did the somewhat tedious sidehill back to the creek crossing and camp around 11:15AM. We were pretty tired by then but we weren’t looking forward to another cold night so we took our time packing up before hiking out that evening.
It was about 1 when we left the lake but we did so on skis and snowshoes which was much better than our choice on the ascent. We tried to go as far as we could on them, which was almost back to the switchbacks before the logjam. We hiked back across the logjam and took a good break. We were all pretty exhausted on the way out and elected to take multiple breaks along the way before finally reaching the cars at about 7 PM.
We had a long drive back to Fraser so we stopped in Glenwood Springs again for some quick Jimmy Johns. We took the exciting route back through Wolcott and the Trough Road which gave us some entertainment in the night before finally reaching our beds around midnight. A great adventure for my first Colorado 14er and Ben’s penultimate with some good middle/high school friends. We all managed to make it back to our respective homes (CO, IL, OR, WA) in the next two days and are looking forward to the actual wedding!
(Download the free Gaia GPS app on your phone to view tracks and then get a Gaia GPS membership if you want offline access. Discount below!)
Recommended brew: Upslope Brewing West Coast IPA
Gear:
- Aluminum crampons
- Backcountry boots/skis/skins
- Backpacking tent
- Bear canister
- GPS
- Helmet
- Overnight pack
- Ski crampons
- Sleeping pad
- Stove
- Trail runners
- Trekking pole
- Water filter
- Whippet
- Winter sleeping bag
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