Herman's Gulch conditions

Colorado peak questions, condition requests and other info.
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PaliKona
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Herman's Gulch conditions

Post by PaliKona »

Has anyone hiked up into Herman's Gulch recently? Can you make it to the lake or is the snow up there really deep? Are there avy zones to keep an eye on, in particular, the area just at treeline where you switchback up to the lake?
Thanks
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Steve Gio
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Re: Herman's Gulch conditions

Post by Steve Gio »

Was up there Sunday. No need for snowshoes but gaitors will help in some areas. We went to the lake then North on the CDT to the pass. There is now a bit of a trail to follow. Micro spikes also helpful.
PaliKona
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Re: Herman's Gulch conditions

Post by PaliKona »

Thank you. Are there areas along or above the trail to the lake that you'd consider moderately dangerous avy zones?
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alpinenut
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Re: Herman's Gulch conditions

Post by alpinenut »

Any steep slopes that face NE N E or SE are your typical danger zones in the FR. Looking at the map, you would want to very cautious with any slopes under the ridge running S from Pettingell. All these slopes generally face some variant of E. Then anything under the ridge that runs EW from Hagar to Mt Bethel. Most of those slopes generally face some variant of N. This is of course a broad generalization!!
PaliKona
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Re: Herman's Gulch conditions

Post by PaliKona »

Right - thank you.
To anyone that's been up there recently, has enough snow built up on those slopes to pose a danger? Or has everything blow down into the valley?
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alpinenut
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Re: Herman's Gulch conditions

Post by alpinenut »

I drove up and down Loveland Pass 3 times yesterday (The snow depth and profile should be very similar at Herman Gulch). Once from A-Basin, twice from Loveland. There's more than enough snow on the E and N aspects for avalanches. There are some slides slides that have already occurred on NE aspects. That being said there was a bunch of ski tracks on steep terrain on E Aspects up high.

Check here for avalanche and backcountry observations -
https://avalanche.state.co.us/obs/avi_report.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The one titled Loveland Pass-Southside seems pretty relevant. That's one that I noticed driving over. There was also couple on the Seven Sisters about a week ago (N Facing).
PaliKona
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Re: Herman's Gulch conditions

Post by PaliKona »

thank you for the info and link.
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