Lost Creek / Bison Peak Conditions
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jaxwilliams
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Lost Creek / Bison Peak Conditions
Know there was a thread on this a week or two ago, but curious if anyone has current info about conditions in Lost Creek Wilderness, specifically the 12,000 ft peaks such as Bison Peak. Curious about amount of snow, trailhead, and road conditions. Thanks for any help.
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Doug Shaw
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Re: Lost Creek / Bison Peak Conditions
South Tarryall is not far south of that...jaxwilliams wrote:Know there was a thread on this a week or two ago, but curious if anyone has current info about conditions in Lost Creek Wilderness, specifically the 12,000 ft peaks such as Bison Peak. Curious about amount of snow, trailhead, and road conditions. Thanks for any help.
Re: Lost Creek / Bison Peak Conditions
As Derek and Doug indicated, quite a bit of snow fell on Saturday night into Sunday.
The road from Deckers to the Wigwam TH was clear for 2WD vehicles on Friday. The road was slick and wet on Sunday, and just enough to be fun. But not even close to impassable. At least for AWD.
The hiking trail from the TH into Wigwam park (~9500') was mostly dry on Friday and Saturday and then the new snow fell. In the linked thread, Derek's pics show the before and after.
We climbed Pt. 11517 and Windy Peak from Wigwam Park on Saturday. It was mostly a bushwack between giant boulders and trees. We left our snowshoes at camp to be more efficient. And everything was fine and dandy until our return from Windy Peak. Instead of reclimbing Pt. 11517 we shortcut towards the Rolling Creek Trail. Bad choice. One mile feels like twenty when postholing from the knees to the waist on every other step. It reminded me of something Johnny Copp says in The Sharp End: you're not having much fun while doing it. But then looking back, it was fun in a mentally and physically exhausting way. Anyhow - I digress. This is before the new snow fell on Sunday.
Saturday - The view of McCurdy and Bison from Pt. 11517.
Saturday - The top of Windy Peak.
Saturday afternoon - fun stuff!
The road from Deckers to the Wigwam TH was clear for 2WD vehicles on Friday. The road was slick and wet on Sunday, and just enough to be fun. But not even close to impassable. At least for AWD.
The hiking trail from the TH into Wigwam park (~9500') was mostly dry on Friday and Saturday and then the new snow fell. In the linked thread, Derek's pics show the before and after.
We climbed Pt. 11517 and Windy Peak from Wigwam Park on Saturday. It was mostly a bushwack between giant boulders and trees. We left our snowshoes at camp to be more efficient. And everything was fine and dandy until our return from Windy Peak. Instead of reclimbing Pt. 11517 we shortcut towards the Rolling Creek Trail. Bad choice. One mile feels like twenty when postholing from the knees to the waist on every other step. It reminded me of something Johnny Copp says in The Sharp End: you're not having much fun while doing it. But then looking back, it was fun in a mentally and physically exhausting way. Anyhow - I digress. This is before the new snow fell on Sunday.
Saturday - The view of McCurdy and Bison from Pt. 11517.
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Re: Lost Creek / Bison Peak Conditions
And then Sunday morning and waking to four inches of new spring snow in Wigwam Park. Priceless.
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MikeyC
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Re: Lost Creek / Bison Peak Conditions
A friend and I did Bison on Saturday from the Ute Creek trailhead. At the time there was almost no snow until we got to the McCurdy trail junction. From there to the top there was some snow but we were able to walk on top of it. There were several drifts on the top of the plateau but we were able to either avoid them or post hole through them. It was a very fun day out!
-Mike
-Mike
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jaxwilliams
- Posts: 2
- Joined: 4/8/2011
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Re: Lost Creek / Bison Peak Conditions
Thanks everyone for the help. I'm an eastcoaster, but try to do one or two trips out west every year to get some big peak hiking in. I had to come for a conference so realize it is a bit early to try and do big peaks in the Denver area. Sounds like it might be worth giving it a go tomorrow. Hopefully the warm weather today will help out a bit with the snow as the snowshoes are back home in Massachusetts.
