Route: Birthday Chutes Posted On: 2023-05-30, By: Christensenje Info: Skiers left chute is a much better ski right now than lavender. Had a blast on really smooth snow. Dropped at 10:30. Corn in lower half. Slightly firm still on the top portion. Lavender is a tougher ski with how much its been traveled. Do this one instead. |
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Route: South Slopes Posted On: 2023-05-29, By: Agstrohmeier Info: Agree with previous conditions. Skied today, dropped at 10:30. We started early but waited quite a while at the top for it to soften. Upper couloir skied decent but was pretty muddled with the bootpack in the middle. Great skiing from lower couloir, down the scree slopes and to the car. Notch is probably easier in it's current condition than in summer conditions, a pretty easy step through. Then easy ridge walk to the summit. Some of the chutes off the top looked connected through but there's a lot of wet slide debris. |
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Route: South Slopes Posted On: 2023-05-29, By: runningbuff Info: Continuous snow from the trailhead. Icy enough in the morning (started at 7:30) to boot up the entire way to the summit, but it was softening up fast by 10:30 or so. Skiied lavender col from the notch near the top. Catchy, wet snow in the top section going down at about 11ish. Much nicer in the main couloir until getting down below the upper trailhead. |
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Route: South Slopes Posted On: 2023-05-26, By: durkan Info: Drove up to lower 4wd th (stock 4runner). Snowshoes not needed in the morning, but the heel bar proved effective all the way to the top of the south slope. Transitioned to crampons after, and notch was filled in enough to keep them on until summit. 2 skiiers and one other hiker out. |
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Route: Up South Slopes, Down Snake Couloir Posted On: 2023-05-11, By: Nobleman Info: Ascended the south slopes, skied Snake Couloir on Monday, 5/8. Overall conditions on Sneffels are quite good. Used ski crampons to the Lavender Col at 13,500, and used ski crampons on the re-ascent to Lavender Col. We had a couple inches of snow from Sunday's small system windblown into the Snake (strong WSW winds the previous days) that made for some surprisingly enjoyable dust on crust. This new snow did not bond particularly well to the crust, but did not form a slab, and only minor sluffing was encountered. The underlying crust was vey firm, but quite edge-able. The choke is well filled in, and the apron and descent back to the car was some of the most perfect corn I've ever had the pleasure of skiing. The day's weather conditions were perfect for spring skiing, which definitely helped. Check the Ouray County Road facebook page for up to date info on the road status: https://www.facebook.com/OurayCountyRoadandBridge. The road was closed at Atlas Mill, but plowed through the 2wd TH (about a quarter mile or so from the road closure) and up into the 4WD road. They do seem to be aggressively trying to plow out the 4wd road up to the 4WD TH, and when we got down on Monday the 4WD road was plowed significantly further than when we left earlier that morning. Kinda a bummer for the skiers, since the current closure/plow work necessitates a bit of a walk up the road before you hit skinable snow. I expect the closure/parking situation be be dynamic through the next couple weeks, and hopefully they open to the 2WD TH pretty soon. The new snow forecasted for this week (5/10-5/12) should help freshen things up further, although obviously keep an eye out for potential surface snow problems, especially in the Snake which, depending on wind direction and speed, can load significantly more snow than the ascent route. Enjoy! |
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Route: South Slopes Posted On: 2023-05-06, By: Wentzl Info: Started at 10:30 and snow was firm, no snowshoes used going up. Snow and blowing snow made for wintry conditions. Got as high as Scree Col and turned back, crampons would have been useful to continue and I wasn't dressed for the cold. Easy plunge stepping down entire S. Slope. By 2:00 snow softened up enough to make snow shoes useful. Cold enough to freeze camelback hose. Update: there has been a lot of traffic up this way this year and right now there is a bootpack up from Scree Col to the summit that makes this relatively quite easy. If you have been thinking about Sneffels as a snow climb, now is about as good as it gets. Photos from today (5/8/23) added. |
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Route: Snake Couloir via Lavendar Couloir Yankee Boy Posted On: 2023-04-17, By: billyg3 Info: Road still closed at Winter Closure with Road Closed signs as low as Angel Creek CG. Parked at Winter Closure. Road dry to ice park then single track bulldozed up to Revenue Mine/Camp Bird. Objective hazards from icefall and wetslides on road to be heads up on in heat of day. Walked up ~3+mi to Camp Bird, then transitioned to skins. Easy approach to Blue Lakes/Summer TH and up to Col. Good bootpacking up Lavendar. Birthday Chutes appeared in decent condition with no major wetslide debris, but some talus and exposed rock to weave through that would break up a clean top to bottom descent. Descended Snake Couloir. Set up Anchor (looked around and could not find any old anchor, or summit register for that matter). Top half above dogleg was stout and challengeing dusty windboard with varying coverage of minimal powder. Below dogleg, 8" of soft powder that sloughed on crust it sat on as soon as it was touched. Crux was wide with enough room to make tight turns through. Nice turns out the apron. Snow in basin was wet with afternoon solar but ascent pitch back to Lavendar col in late afternoon was still wintery conditions with mix of powder, dusty windboard and variations of the two. No wetslide concerns while ascending back to col on this day. |
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Route: South Slopes Posted On: 2023-02-20, By: RobLowe Info: Social trails for ice climbing first two miles (this section of road was plowed by the time I returned for the downhill). Snowshoes after that until base of Lavender. Lavender Couloir not firm until final 10%. Upper couloir firm and closer to what Crestone Needle and Crestone Peak were. V notch filled in with 3-4 feet of wind-loaded snow. Went up chimney to the right of v notch. Went down a chute and traversed rock back into upper lavender (a route Dan and I have used in spring) because that chimney is not the best fit for me. A+ day outside. Saw no one. Best part—home before dark (a rarity for me in winter). |
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Route: Snake Couloir Posted On: 2023-02-13, By: Snow_Dog_frassati Info: Snake was in but snow was rather crappy skiing. Special thanks to Chris Fisher for setting the bootpack/skintrack up Lavender Col/Couloir. The snake itself was styrofoam crust to hardpack. It's only February, but the Cruz was definitely a lil thin. Made for challenging steep skiing. The climb out to lavender col was also barely edgeable hardpack which made for ideal cramping conditions, but was difficult/impossible to skin Annoying that the mine has plowed the road so far up Yankee Boy Basin. Made it a lil more difficult to ski all the way back to the car as the road is bare in many spots down low. Conditions will change drastically with the storm this week. We observed many near surface facet layers and wide spread crust layers. I'd expect things to get fairly dangerous fairly quick with new snow |
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Route: SS > Lavvvvv Posted On: 2023-02-07, By: Skimo95 Info: S/O to the OG Paul B. Set a track/boot pack today, don't continue after saddle unless you enjoy technical stuff. Quite warm this afternoon! Alpine start of 8 (@rose) |
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Route: South Slopes Posted On: 2023-02-05, By: paulbarish Info: Superb conditions! Get it while it's good! Great snow for skiing (wish I had my real skis instead of silveretta binding/mountain boots) Trail breaking was easy and the snow in the lavender Couloir was stable and easy to travel in. The v notch had a cornice and was full of snow but the feature immediately right of it was super chill and secure. Great day in the mountains! |
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Route: Southwest Ridge Posted On: 2022-10-17, By: Wentzl Info: Nearly summer conditions. Photos show only snow still on SW Ridge. Easily crossed without traction, axe not necessary. V notch on S Slopes route still has some ice that makes it difficult |
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Route: South Slopes Posted On: 2022-10-15, By: Outbounder Info: The route is completely dry except for the short approach (~50 feet) to the V notch and the V notch itself. I used spikes and an ice axe for this portion. I'd advise the spikes (I think you can leave the ice axe at home). I found descending the V notch with my back to the notch easier, as I didn't have a spotter and could more easily gauge my footing. The surrounding peaks are covered in snow and the views are gorgeous! |
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Route: South Slopes Posted On: 2022-10-10, By: kalestew Info: Standard route is fine, navigable without traction. The notch has snow loaded on the left so you do have to keep right which makes it only a touch more challenging. Gorgeous as always. |
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Route: Southwest Ridge Posted On: 2022-10-10, By: blonde_dinosaur Info: Climbed up via Southwest Ridge and down via the gully on the standard on Saturday 10/8. There was snow at the start of the trailhead, but mostly navigable without traction, especially in the morning when it was hard and crunchy. **Bring waterproof shoes.** The final scramble up to the summit had almost all dry rock, but some rock up to the ridge was wet and frosty. We did not use traction climbing up but I put on spikes to descend the gully, which had mushy snow during our descent. There were a few sketchy spots where ice axes would have been helpful (though we did not bring them). Saturday had beautiful weather and lots of sun. |
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Route: Southwest Ridge Posted On: 2022-09-26, By: ngreenster13 Info: Road to the Outhouse really ain't that bad with AWD (did it in a Crosstrek), just a couple iffy spots from washouts. I do not really get why the ridge isn't the main route, solid rock basically all the way up and way better than the gully on the standard route. Snow and ice all gone at the summit. Gorgeous day today. |
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Route: Southwest Ridge Posted On: 2022-09-24, By: gschmidt Info: Started from the end of the 2WD road, which was in bad shape from recent rain but still straightforward with some careful driving. Ascended SW ridge, descended south face. About an inch or two of snow was present on the south face, and there was some frost on rocks near the top. Missed the keyhole on the way down, but never exceeded class 3 climbing on the gulley just to the left. The SW ridge is mega-classic, secure, and never exceeds class 3 (though I'm a sport climber, so what do I know?). The route finding is fun and not difficult if you pause at the forks to assess. I straight up don't understand why the south slopes is the standard route; it sucks and yet still requires class 3 scrambling. |
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Route: Southwest Ridge Posted On: 2022-09-24, By: gschmidt Info: Started from the end of the 2WD road, which was in bad shape from recent rain but still straightforward with some careful driving. Ascended SW ridge, descended south face. About an inch or two of snow was present on the south face, and there was some frost on rocks near the top. Missed the keyhole on the way down, but never exceeded class 3 climbing on the gulley just to the left. The SW ridge is mega-classic, secure, and never exceeds class 3 (though I'm a sport climber, so what do I know?). The route finding is fun and not difficult if you pause at the forks to assess. I straight up don't understand why the south slopes is the standard route; it sucks and yet still requires class 3 scrambling. |
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Route: South Slopes Posted On: 2022-09-18, By: hsharma1414 Info: We started at the 2WD trailhead at 7 am. By the time we reached the upper trailhead all the snow if any had melted. |
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Route: South Slopes Posted On: 2022-09-19, By: razikimzungu Info: This is my 28th 14er summit. I have just finished climbing Sneffels on the weekend of the 11th under the impression of the South Slopes being a lower-end class three throughout. The latter part of the south slopes route required all climbers (several parties) on the day of my climb, to travel directly up a loose area of the slope, requiring scrambling almost the entire way. The veteran climbers to this peak brought helmets and harness to tackle the final 100 meters of the south side which in my experience reflects a higher rating than 3.0. The lower incline (12k-13k elevation) section of the route should have switchbacks to provide a path that minimizes the chance of rockslide within this zone, as there are several areas of loose gravel zones. Until switchbacks are implemented, I would strongly consider an upgrade of this path rating to 3.5, to ensure the safety of all new climbers on Mt. Sneffels. I have depended on the ratings of 14ers.com for all of my routes for 18 years now and this is the first time I have considered sending a review for your usually excellent route estimates. Appreciative climber and member, Josh |