Route: Blanca and Ellingwood Posted On: 9/20/2023, By: clando Info: Conditions for the good ole lake como peaks 09/19/23 Little bear: -5/10 Blanca: 6/10 Ellingwood point: 8/10 Hourglass is covered in ice and til it melts, its a death trap. Little bear side of the traverse is pretty sketchy with the melting snow. Blanca half is fine. South faces are dry, north faces are highly variable. Hopefully it melts out, but Im not holding my breath. Blanca has a some snow on the ridge but there isnt much sloping rock, so its not an issue. Ellingwood had maybe one patch of snow. |
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Route: Blanca and Ellingwood Posted On: 7/31/2023, By: MrWaanderful Info: Complete summer conditions. No snow crossings at this point. Some water on trail along road and at headwalls but nothing to be concerned with. |
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Route: Blanca and Ellingwood Posted On: 7/17/2023, By: ashleyelizabeth0312 Info: We summitted Blanca and Ellingwood on 07/04. Perfectly summer conditions besides two snow fields, no spikes or anything needed. Best sunrise ever once on the ridge. Highly advise the traverse from Blanca to Ellingwood, not sketchy and easy to follow. Going back down and up Ellingwood looked like it would be a slog. I left a brand new green Patagonia jacket that folds into itself on the trail somewhere, if you happen to find it, please let me know! |
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Route: Blanca and Ellingwood Posted On: 6/30/2023, By: Cadorade4403 Info: More or less summer conditions. Neither peak requires any snow gear for summiting and any snow is entirely avoidable. Spikes may have been nice for some small snowfield crossings near crater lake early in the morning, but it was doable without. |
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Route: Blanca and Ellingwood Posted On: 6/27/2023, By: jen022789 Info: Hiked Blanca and Ellingwood via the traverse. A few snow crossing on the approach, but spikes are not needed. Currently, have to make some tricky moves on Blanca near the summit to avoid ice/snow (think it will be melted out in a week or so). The traverse was straightforward and clear all the way to Ellingwood. The nasty 4wheel drive road up/down is an awful, hot, slog, but other than that it was a fun day! |
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Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 6/25/2023, By: NickMoline Info: Dry through Lake Como and large patches of snow above tree line. Nothing crazy though. You can get this done with micro spikes easily as these patches are low angle for the most part. It can be very icy in the morning so be careful. Ridge along the saddle is pretty dry but be careful because there are still cornices hanging over the east side of it. If you step on snow while along the ridge be sure you know there is rock directly below it. There is still a big patch of snow that runs almost directly to the summit from the upper basin. This can be climbed like a steep couloir in the early morning if temperatures allow (it did for me!). Top has a little scramble to gain the upper ridge. Though I used crampons for the climb up, I was able to manage the descent along the ridge without any traction. I wouldnt recommend leaving traction at home though quite yet. Also, bring bug spray. I couldnt stop for 5 seconds below the lake without being eaten alive. I slapped my calve and killed 6 misquotes at once all trying to rob my blood of the energy gel I just inhaled. |
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Route: Little Bear-Blanca Traverse Posted On: 6/12/2023, By: AndyFromDenver Info: I did the Little Bear-Blanca-Ellingwood traverses. The approach up to Lake Como is a long, hot slog. Honestly Saturday going up there with a 40lb pack was harder than Sunday doing the traverses. I started up the standard route of Little Bear around 2:15 a.m. and encountered the first real snow as soon as I left the road. The talus is absolutely brutal, steep and loose, but fortunately the first gully is probably 80% snow still and that made it safer and easier with crampons and an ice axe. After exiting the notch, the ridge is snow-free until several hundred feet below the Hourglass, minus one snowfield that required crampons again. The Hourglass is awesome right now--it's a straight couloir climb full of good, hard, packed snow, but it's melting quick. I bet it's got maybe another week or two before the snow breaks up in there. Above the Hourglass, it's almost all talus with a few icy rocks and small snow sections. I wouldn't want to climb below someone up there because there's so much loose rock. After summiting Little Bear at about 6:45 a.m., I started the traverse over to Blanca. It's in really good shape right now--no snow on the ridge (although it's so narrow I don't see how snow could ever accumulate there!). Most of the gullies that you have to cross between the little peaks on the ridge have some snow. Most of them I was able to cross without crampons, but a couple of them were too steep and long to risk it. I was surprised at how straightforward that route is--there aren't many options and most of the time you really just go up over the ridge crest. And it sure is exposed! The last bit up Blanca was pretty easy and didn't even require crampons in the snow up there. I summited Blanca at about 9:30 a.m. The descent towards Ellingwood was really easy and quick with crampons and an ice axe. The snow on that side hadn't seen much sun yet since it's more west/northwest facing. But as soon as I started ascending Ellingwood, that had all been baking all morning and it was a posthole fest basically the entire way up. I finally gave up on trying to snow-climb it and headed up to the ridge and rock hopped. I'd recommend that unless you're doing it first thing in the morning right now. I topped out on Ellingwood a little before 11 a.m. and then descended shortly after due to the forecast (although no storms ever came). The descent down Ellingwood was as brutal as the ascent was. Mashed potatoes snow and postholing to my waist at times, I finally decided the only way I was going to make it without breaking a leg was to glissade, even though I didn't have snow pants, and that was successful, but wet and cold. The standard trail up Blanca and Ellingwood that I took back to Lake Como was intermittent snow fields, but for the most part, it was packed enough that the postholing wasn't bad. The Crater Lake is still 95% ice, but looks like it's about to melt, and the lower lakes are ice-free. I was back to camp around 1 p.m. making for almost an 11-hour round trip. The weather could not have been better. It was warm even in the dark on the way up and hot once I was in the sun after Little Bear. I switched to shorts midway through the LB-Blanca traverse and didn't put my light trekking pants back on until the descent of Ellingwood. Camping by the lake was great and I did not encounter another person all weekend until I got back camp Sunday afternoon. Going down the road, which is the spiciest road I think I've ever seen, I encountered two Rubicons and an ATV very close to the lake. Hats off to those folks. I parked my Crosstrek at about 8,150 feet, and shortly after starting up on Saturday, saw a 4Runner bottom out only about 100 feet higher than where I parked. That road is something else. |
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Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 6/5/2023, By: Brandon0135 Info: The road to Como is completely dry. Snow starts right after the lake but isn't a problem until about a mile after Como, then snowshoes are recommended. A snow storm Saturday brought 2-3 inches of fresh snow to the peak. Because of the snow I probably was not able to find the proper route along the ridge to the summit. With this snow this is absolutely not a class 2 route to Blanca. I got caught in some high class 3, or possibly class 4 sections trying to summit. Ice axe and crampons were essential. This one was sketchy, so I cancelled my plan for Ellingwood. Wait for some of this snow/ice to melt off the summit area if you are planning for class 2. If you are comfortable with ice axe and crampons on class 3-4 then go for it. |
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Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 4/15/2023, By: Will_E Info: Got up Blanca and Ellingwood yesterday. Lake Como Road is dry about halfway to the lake, then snow is intermittent until just before the lake, there's a pretty good trench in the snow covered sections. Snow was pretty good yesterday, on the way up I followed Josh's trench, didn't need snowshoes until around 12,200, had them on for maybe a mile on ascent. On the way down I used them from 12,800 to just past the lake. Pretty cold above treeline and not much sun out, I showed 18 degrees at summit. I used ice axe for security on a few slopes, crampons wouldn't have been a bad idea, but I'm kinda lazy. |
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Route: Lake Como Approach Posted On: 4/13/2023, By: joshgrundy Info: Lake Como road is totally dry until around 10,300 when the road takes a dip into the trees. Shortly after that, there are a couple flooded sections due to snowmelt, but there is dry ground to walk around. The stream crossing is going pretty strong and the snow is no longer strong enough to hold weight, so expect to get wet feet. From 10.5k-11.5k, there are a decent amount of dry areas depending on sun exposure, but there will still be slushy snow at times. Above 11.5k as you approach the lake, the snow gets consistently deeper and post-holing starts to be an issue. As of this writing, the snow is so slushy it cant hold any weight in this area. Snowshoes dont really help. Past the lake, I seemed to be the only one to attempt this peak for a while. The snow was horrible. Deep postholing in many areas with large areas is snow collapsing when you step on it. Really tough and slow-going, again snow shoes didnt make much difference most of the time, the snow is just too soft and slushy. I turned around at 12.4k due to this, but my guess is conditions would have improved above 13.5k. The ridges looked to be drying out. |
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Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 2/1/2023, By: highheeledhiker Info: We wore snowshoes past Crater Lake and up to the base of the climb for the Ellingwood/ Blanca saddle. Then we switched into crampons and used our ice axes for both Blanca and Ellingwood. Ellingwood involved more routefinding but Blanca was essentially a snowy boulder hop along the ridgeline to the summit. |
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Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 12/24/2022, By: Chipmunk Info: There were tire tracks all the way to Jaws 1. I'm not in possession of that sort of bravery, so we parked at a dry switchback at ~9800 ft. The road was snowy after this point. We booted to Lake Como where we switched to snowshoes, which were helpful through the basin. The slope up to the Blanca-Ellingwood saddle is quite bare for this time of year. Carried but did not use microspikes, crampons, and ice axe but spikes could be useful in a few spots. Nice trench all the way through the valley now, reinforced by a third solo hiker we saw out there. We did not get a sun hit until 11:11 when we topped out on the ridge. In the upper valley the sun is gone by 2:30, so expect to be cold with no direct sunlight for the majority of your hike! Beautiful bluebird day - we were sheltered from the wind the entire day in the valley and by sticking to the west side of Blanca's ridge. |
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Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 12/12/2022, By: yared0319 Info: Started approach to Lake Como on the road at 8300 ft, though a standard AWD vehicle / truck with a little more clearance (for rocks - there was very little snow/ice on the road) could have made it to 9000-9500ft. Hiking conditions above 9500ft were a mix of rock, ice, shallow snow, and hip-deep snow. SNOWSHOES REQUIRED - especially for the last 1000ft to the ridge. High winds were a problem near the ridge. Made it a little ways across the ridge 400ft below summit before having to turn around due to those winds. The ridge was otherwise doable, though there was no obvious trail to follow at that point. |
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Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 12/6/2022, By: Jacob11235 Info: Deep snow, ice, and wind seemed to be the theme of the day. There was someone who made it to Crater Lake on Thursday before my buddy and I were up there so we were able to follow tracks there...snowshoes were definitely necessary as there was waist deep post holing going on and if you get off the trail at all or new snow has covered up the old tracks then you'll be breaking trail which was not a lot of fun; the ridge was a bit windy put also covered in some ice and snow which made things doable but a little more interesting. All in all it was a great day in the mountains and full on winter conditions; I used micro spikes as well as snowshoes, oftentimes alternating every few miles. |
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Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 12/1/2022, By: joshgrundy Info: Attempted Blanca/Ellingwood today and made it to 12,700' before turning around due to high winds. As of 12/01, the Lake Como road is mostly snow covered above 9,000 feet, generally ankle deep. After Lake Como, the snow gets a bit deeper, with areas of shin/knee deep snow common. There was some occasional post-holing generally around Blue Lake, which was the area of deepest snow I experienced. Overall, decent conditions for this time of year. There weren't any other tracks out there for essentially the entire route, so the only tracks are mine. Hopefully they can be utilized. Though I wasn't able to do the last mile, nothing looked harder than what I had already done. The ridges to the summit were fairly wind-blown. |
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Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 10/3/2022, By: dsr80304 Info: Probably not a surprise to anyone, but things got pretty wintery yesterday in the Sangres (like everywhere else). Summited Blanca around 1030. Was a bit icy and maybe an inch of snow at that point. But snow was picking up on the descent, and was accumulating on the ground all the way down to about 11k on the road. Maybe we stuck too close to the ridge on the last few hundred feet or maybe it was just the wintery conditions, but felt like solid class 3 in 2-3 spots. |
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Route: lb to blanca Posted On: 9/6/2022, By: zootloopz Info: only note here is I felt like at the end of the catwalk, when it starts to steeply ascend, the large boulder at the base felt loose. test your rock. |
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Route: Blanca and Ellingwood Posted On: 7/11/2022, By: CharGalli Info: Approach from Como Rd was easy, well marked trail going up to blanca, sad to discover graffiti on the summit, traverse to Ellingwood was cake with lots of cairns and no need to find route… descending Ellingwood I suggest make it back on the traverse , the gully down is poorly marked and everything is loose from it's scree to big boulders … I didn't see a clear path on that standard route and climbed up to the traverse to get back on the blanca trail and made my way down back to como … got hit by a bad storm and hail on the way back , lots of jeeps/ off-roading vehicles changed some rocks of place , como Rd become a river yesterday |
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Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 6/29/2022, By: Istoodupthere Info: Surprise graupel storm (something I had never witnessed) yesterday caught a handful of people off guard, on or near the summit yesterday. Everyone safe. Forced me to set up camp .8 miles below Lake Como. Today was beautiful with zero chance of storms. Going up the face to gain the summit ridge entailed working your way around multiple iced areas. A couple inches of snow/graupel remained in the afternoon between the boulders. Crest of summit ridge was completely dry by 10:30am. Really enjoyed summit day. Beautiful area. I didn't think the Como road was quite as bad as expected. Group of 40 high school kids starting way too late. Another similar group of about 20 heading up to Como today. |
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Route: Northwest Ridge Posted On: 6/19/2022, By: Jacob11235 Info: I'll make a more proper trip report with pictures and everything in a few days but the conditions Saturday were pretty terrible; it appeared the weather that was expected on Sunday rolled in early...camped at 8,000(ish) ft., and started off up the notorious jeep "road" around 4 am; fog quickly became the issue and theme of the day...light drizzle, 5-10 ft. avg. visibility, 10-30 mph winds with occasional 40(ish) mph gusts (when you live in Dalhart, TX where they don't consider it windy until at least 25 mph you learn to get a feel for varying windspeeds lol) were the typical conditions all the way up to and through the summit; I went directly from base camp, around 8,000(ish) ft, making the route about 9 miles and with approximately 6,600 ft of vertical gain. The single push took about 5 hours to the summit; there were never times were I felt beyond my ability but there were definitely a few times where I was out of my comfort zone; I opted to skip the traverse to Ellingwood given the weather and come back another day...I could see no more than about 10 feet in front of me until I was just above Crater Lake on the way down so given this; I'd like to come back on a better day and go up Ellingwood then traverse over to Blanca for the views. If the weather starts to turn bad I would advise proceeding with extreme caution and bring a helmet; the rocks and scree become slippery and are more prone to become dislodged and falling; I forgot mine and definitely kicked myself for it. This peak is no joke, the final summit push can find you in some difficult class 3, borderline class 4 stuff if you get too far off trail on the ridgeline so be careful, if you stay on the trail, which is very well marked, and IF you know what you are looking for then the cairns are easy to spot and it isn't excessively hard to follow the correct trail. Everything tends to look the same above Crater Lake so it is easy to miss the cairns, once you find them it's not too tricky to discern the correct route to the next one, foggy conditions make this much more difficult so I would definitely suggest having a buddy with you if you decide to go up in inclement weather... All-in-all, weather on Blanca is a factor; especially in the summer with the afternoon thunderstorms which seem to be rolling in between 2-4 or so; it was a blast, I met some great people, and I definitely grew from this experience . |
