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Peak(s):  Snowmass Mountain  -  14,105 feet
Date Posted:  08/06/2008
Modified:  08/19/2008
Date Climbed:   08/02/2008
Author:  SteamboatDog
 Snowmass-S ridge   

We decided to climb Mt. Snowmass from the Lead King Basin Trail head. We camped right by Marble at the Bogus Flats Campground and our spot was super pretty, right on the river in the trees--site 12. We woke up at 5am, were out of the campground by 5:30 and on our way. We knew the road ahead was rough, 4x4
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but we did not think it would be such slow going. The road is VERY rough. It took us until 7:20am to get from Marble to the trail head.

Pictures of the stream crossing and road
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Once we got to the trail head we headed out passing the waterfalls
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and it took us about an hour to get up to Lake Geneva
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From Lake Geneva up to Gem lake, didn't take very long (
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) -pic 6 is looking back towards Lake Geneva on the way to Gem Lake.
Once we got past Gem lake and the base of Snowmass pic 7, it was about 9am.
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We hiked up the green patch on the left side and up the left chute to the side of the snow patch.

We brought climbing helmets and were glad we did. There was a lot of loose falling rock and we saw about 12 other climbers on this route that day, which meant lots of people to kick loose rocks above and below you.
Here is Emily, about 1/3 up
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Here is the view about half way up from the base of Snowmass itself
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This is about where 2 of us and our dog had to turn around because the dog was getting scared and it was getting very steep.

After dealing with getting the dog back down the steep section above the green area, to the left of the waterfall, I continued on.

The next photos are the view from the top and me on top.
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On the way down I used an ice axe lent to me by a fellow climber who did not want to glissade down. It was a lot of fun and shortened the hike down.
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From there I continued down and meet the girls and Bear dog at Gem lake and we headed back to the car and arrived at the car at about 3pm. So all in all it took about 7.5 hours, but we probably wasted an hour with the dog trying to see if we could get him up the steep section and then getting him back down. We heard from some people that the road from the trail head was not open the other way (longer way) back to Marble from the trail head, but we had others say it was. We only took the upper road both ways, which is open, but certainly requires 4x4. Apparently a normal car had tried to do it the day before and got stuck in the middle of the creek crossing and had to get towed out...



Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
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Comments or Questions
Kevin Baker
User
S Ridge?
8/7/2008 6:44pm
Are you sure you went up the S ridge? Your pics looks like the west face route. It looks like you had a nice day.


SteamboatDog
User
Re: S Ridge?
8/7/2008 7:42pm
I thought the s-route and west face were the same thing... the gully we followed was sort of ”s-shaped.” We left from Lead king basin.


firsttracks
User
West Face it is...
8/8/2008 2:04am
The S Ridge can be seen in your picture #5 above, starting above Geneva Lake. Your picture of it looks great -- you can see the ”S” shape. (You took the West Face route.)

I climbed the West Face route that morning, too. It was a great day. Thanks for posting your pics -- they turned out great!


JBS
Thanks for the report
8/17/2008 3:29am
It was nice meeting you on the summit and climbing down with you. And thanks for taking some pictures, particularly the glissade shot. That snow field looks a bit steeper than I remember it.



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