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Snowmass Mountain 14,092
9/20/2003
West Ridge
I climbed Snowmass with 14erworld member Bob Callahan. We drove to Aspen from the Springs and then through the town of Marble to the 4WD Crystal trailhead. We almost stopped at the wrong place between a series of switchbacks, but eventually found the clearly marked parking area.
We car camped Friday night and hiked out at about 5:00 a.m. It was 35 degrees at the start of the hike, but we were plenty warm and followed the somewhat winding trail north up past some waterfalls above the river. We were originally going to take the “S” ridge, but we went a little too far to and hiked to Siberia Lake.
From the lake we headed straight west up the face and then entered a snow filled couloir. We self belayed with our axes and the snow was in great condition. We were able to kick steps in the hard crunchy snow, which would be perfect for crampons, but we didn’t use them. I would say the couloir’s pitch was around 45-50 degrees.
There is no need to enter this couloir, which can be easily bypassed to the south, but we had our axes with us and it looked like a lot of fun. If you take this route and spot the snow filled couloir, enter it then climb south to a ridge on the west face.
We hit one false summit on the way up the ridge, which is around 300 ft. below the actual summit. After this point it is easy to see the real summit because there is high rock tower directly on it.
Snowmass does not give up its summit easily! We had to climb on an exposed loose ridge, skirt some large boulders, then make an exposed ascending scramble to the top. The views from the summit were incredible. The Bells and Pyramid were snow capped to the south, and looking north at Capitol’s south face was incredible. We made the summit at 9:00 a.m. and the temperature was 26 degrees with 9 m.p.h. wind gusts under clear skies. My water and granola bars began to freeze so after 25 minutes on the summit, we started our descent.
Make sure you start this climb early because a fast escape off this mountain is not feasible. There was not a lot of snow on the west side of the mountain, except in the couloirs, but there was a lot of ice around 12,500 ft. If approaching this mountain from the east, be ready for a lot of snow, and bring crampons for the large snowfield.
The hike back was very scenic and there is a great view of the Bells in the lower valley past the lake. I counted 5 waterfalls in this valley and it would make a great day hike in itself. That’s the report, and hopefully I will be able to do plenty more snow climbs this year. |
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