Snowmass west ridge

[PMockler]

Looking to Climb Snowmass via west slope in July.

Has anyone cut over to the west ridge and gone up from there? See picture. Cutting up and across that scree may suk, but I'd rather do that and scramble the ridge than go up 1000+ feet of gully. Thoughts?

Thank you!

[oldschool]

Been there twice...I'd go vertical, not traverse.

[bobalob]

I agree, go vertical. The class 4 entry is much nicer in my opinion because the rock is nice and relatively solid. If you really want to avoid the gully you can follow the rib to the left of the route in your picture. There are cairns all over this face unfortunately but it is a good way to do snowmass.

[pmeadco]

I agree, go vertical. The class 4 entry is much nicer in my opinion because the rock is nice and relatively solid. If you really want to avoid the gully you can follow the rib to the left of the route in your picture. There are cairns all over this face unfortunately but it is a good way to do snowmass.

Ditto that. We did that route (the rib to the left of the standard route) last year and found it to be a good hike. Not in the gully, which is often filled with snow, and not too much loose rock.

[RonfarZ3]

If you're looking to bypass the gulley of rock on the west slopes by taking the ridge, might I suggest the "S-Ridge"? My dad and I did it last year and it was really solid (as long as you keep on the Class 3/4 on that first gulley going back down).

Here is a helpful trip report (one of many) that we used: http://14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.ph ... ki=Include" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[DeTour]

+1 on S Ridge. Great route, minimal scree, nice air but not terribly exposed. (We passed on the exposed "class 4 crux" referred to in the TR posted above.) It's a Roach "classic," with ~1800 vertical feet of mostly-great scrambling. Beats the west slopes hands down IMO.