TRIP REPORT: Snowmass Mountain, CO by the East Slopes Route 8/31-9/1/96
This summer's 14er climbing has quickly become a sort of tour of the major mountain ranges in Colorado. After spending most of last summer in the Sawatch, me and my SO had now been to the San Juans, the Front Range, and the Sangre de Cristos. Continuing our exploration of Colorado's high country, we decided to head for the rugged and rotten Elk Range. A friend at work had told me that Snowmass Mountain was a nice backpack and climb, so we decided that would be our target for the Labor Day weekend.
We left Colorado Springs around 4:00 AM on Saturday (8/31) morning and didn't arrive at the Snowmass Falls Ranch Trailhead until around 8:30 AM. Snowmass Creek Road that leads to the trailhead is paved for about the first half and mostly in good condition all the way to the trailhead. The parking lot was already pretty much full, though not overflowing as I had expected. We gathered up our gear and hit the trail just before 9:00 AM with a nice view of Capitol Peak (I think) in front of us.
Initially, the trail took us across private ranch land that required passing through a few gates and making some minor detours for cows that didn't want to give up the trail (Nice bull, nice bull, ...).
After 1.7 miles, we entered the Maroon-Snowmass Wilderness and happily left the cows behind. The trail (the Maroon-Snowmass Trail) follows Snowmass Creek up a large valley through aspen groves and some surprisingly lush vegetation. Some of the higher up aspen trees were already changing adding color to this already beautiful place.
At 6.0 miles, the trail goes across Snowmass Creek on a huge log jam that creates a small lake behind it. We didn't have much trouble with the log jam due to the low water level, but this could be somewhat more challenging during the early summer. After the log jam, the trail begins a considerably steeper climb up to Snowmass Lake. We managed to reach Snowmass Lake around 1:30 PM and set up camp on the east side of the lake. Snowmass Lake is large for a mountain lake and incredibly beautiful. Snowmass Peak dominates the west end of the lake with Snowmass Mountain and its namesake snowfield set further back. It would be a worthwhile trip just to see the lake.
The lake wasn't very crowded when we got there, but people started to pile in later in the evening. An early bedtime allowed us to get an early start around 6:00 AM. The first leg is a 0.3 mile walk around the south side of Snowmass Lake. There is a trail, but in some places, the lush vegetation is trying to reclaim it.
Next, we started up a steep slope below Snowmass Peak. This starts out with some OK boulder hopping, but rapidly gets steeper and looser. We stayed to the far right (north) of this slope using the grass steps over there whenever possible. After reaching the top of the slope, we were still a considerable distance below the namesake snowfield. The climbing from here varied between decent boulder hopping and yucky loose stuff (more of the later). We were also joined by a friendly pair of climbers (Ron and Katherine I believe were their names) who were doing their 44th 14er overall and 12th this year. Upon reaching the snow field, we had to struggle a bit to kick step across its hard packed snow. The snowfield ran out a few hundred feet below the ridge, so we had to fight our way up some more steep, loose stuff before finally reaching the ridge just north of the rounded protrusion described in Roach's book (On the way back down, we found a small notch just south of the main summit that could be used to cross over the ridge. This would save some scrambling).
The ridge is pretty nasty looking, but dropping down about 20 feet on the west side provides an easy scramble below the ridge and up to the summit. There are a few cairns that generally mark the route, so it's not too diffcult to follow. Roach claims this is a Class 3 scramble, but I didn't find it to be as difficult as the supposed Class 2+ scramble on Windom. Be careful of people above you though. I had a little bit of a scare when I heard a loud noise and someone shouted, "Rock!" above me. I looked up to see a boulder about the size of a basketball coming down toward me, so I quickly scrambled for cover. The rock stopped before it got to me, and I think I would have been out of the way anyhow, but it still gets the old blood pumping.
We reached the summit around 11:40 AM and were greeted with quite a bit of haze in the air. We had a nice view of Capitol and Maroon Bells/Pyramid, but that was about as far as we could see. The summit was pretty crowded with about 15-20 people, so we didn't stick around too long. The trip down was fairly long and uneventful other than some OK boot skiing on the snowmass. We got back to our campsite around 2:30 PM (Wow! Did that really take 8 1/2 hours?) and then decided to pack up and head out. We left Snowmass Lake around 3:30 PM and some how I found enough strength in my legs to get us back to the trailhead by 7:30 PM.
All in all, Snowmass Mountain is a fairly remote peak with incredible scenery. I would recommend doing it early in the season (but not too early) in order to take full advantage of the snowmass when climbing. The backpack up to Snowmass Lake is great but expect crowds around the lake. I look forward to returning to this area to take on some of the more challenging Elk Range peaks next year.
-Tom
Stats:
RTD - Snowmass Falls Ranch Trailhead to Snowmass Lake: 16 miles Elevation gain - Snowmass Falls Ranch Trailhead to Snowmass Lake: 2600 ft. RTD - Snowmass Mountain East Slopes Route: 5 miles Elevation gain - Snowmass Mountain East Slopes Route: 3100 ft.