Snowmass Mtn from Trail Rider Pass w/ SM Peak & Hagerman

[climbinfool]

Looking for beta on the ridge from Trail Rider Pass through Snowmass Peak and Hagerman Peak to Snowmass Mtn. Is that a route that is done very often? Anyone know of good links to info about that ridge? I haven't had a chance to take a look at trip reports on Hagerman yet.

Matt

[John Landers]

Have done this several times from the west with a camp at Geneva Lake. Take the trail from the lake to Trail Ride Pass. After the pass, the climb up to Snowmass Peak goes up a rotten gully, the difficult section is fairly short, but be careful. No real route finding issues for this portion. From the summit of Snowmass Peak the descent to the saddle connecting to Hagerman is a short down climb that is a little loose, but not too bad. The climb to Hagerman is not as hard as it looks and there is fairly good rock just to the right of the gully. From Hagerman to Snowmass Mountain is the main challenge, primarily in the first half of the traverse which has many pinnacles on the ridge. Stay close to the ridge crest and when you encounter something that does not go because of getting cliffed out on a pinnacle go to your left and drop a little bit to bypass the obstacle. At about halfway point to Snowmass Mountain the difficulty eases off and you can stay on top of the ridge. I have descended back to Geneva Lake by continuing north of Snowmass Mountain's summit about 200 yards and dropping down a broad gully that is somewhat miserable. At the bottom, hang a left and follow the drainage towards camp. Although there are other ways to descend back to Geneva Lake.

[climbinfool]

Thanks a lot for the feedback, John. Sounds awesome! I'll be coming from the Snowmass Creek side, but I definitely want to check the Geneva Lake area too. I took a closer look at some trip reports by lordhelmut, maverick_manley and Matt Payne (who climbed those peaks but didn't do the Snowmass Mtn-Hagerman Pk Traverse). That ridge is no joke! Looks pretty burly and will take some more planning (I'd have to make arrangements for my dog for one thing). Here are those trip reports that include the Snowmass Mtn - Hagerman Peak traverse:

lordhelmut report: http://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepor ... ki=Include" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


maverick_manley report: http://www.summitpost.org/snowmass-hage ... rse/338595" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That'll be a great trip for another time, if anybody wants to go. I gave a little thought to going up Mt. Oklahoma instead but decided that I'd rather avoid the crowds of the Mt. Massive area and still want to get some backpacking in with my dog. I'll be getting a late start but think I'll still pack up to Snowmass Lake this afternoon. Tomorrow, I'll hike either Snowmass Peak and Hagerman or just Snowmass Mtn, but I'll hit that traverse later.

Have a fun weekend

[kaiman]

Not to discourage you from Hagerman and Snowmass (I've climbed both, although not together, and they are both worthy objectives) but mount Oklahoma is a great hike from the North Halfmoon Trail. Once you get passed the Mount Elbert trailhead and continue up the road you probably won't see anyone at all. When I was up there a few years ago I only saw one other person coming off Mount Massive and not a soul on Mount Oklahoma. Although Oklahoma is no where near the same league technically it is definitely worth checking out. Also if you want a technical mountain in the same area take a look at Deer Mountain: http://www.summitpost.org/deer-mountain/152927" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; it's got some serious Class 3 scrambling if you want it.

Kai