Lead King Basin - Legal Parking near Crystal

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cougar
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Re: Lead King Basin - Legal Parking near Crystal

Post by cougar »

Someone posted on FB the other day about climbing Hagerman from that side. Don't remember much about conditions.

I've also heard you can access Crystal and the trailhead from Schofield Pass.
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Re: Lead King Basin - Legal Parking near Crystal

Post by Chicago Transplant »

cougar wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 9:22 am Someone posted on FB the other day about climbing Hagerman from that side. Don't remember much about conditions.

I've also heard you can access Crystal and the trailhead from Schofield Pass.
Beyond Scofield Pass the road is gnarly and definitely 4WD, not as bad as Como, but its not recommended for stock vehicles. The drive from Scofield to Crystal would be far worse than Marble to Crystal. Google "Devils Punchbowl Crested Butte" and you can see that road.

You could of course hike the road, but If the road is too snowy to get to Crystal from Marble, it would still most likely be better to walk that than to come in from Scofield. Less mileage and elevation as you would have a good 1200' reclimb to exit to Scofield after your hike.

The other option people use to get to the west side is the upper Lead King loop road, I did that years ago when I had an XTerra and there was an unmarked high trail that traversed from Silver Creek and joined the Geneva Lake trail above normal trailhead.
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NatDog
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Re: Lead King Basin - Legal Parking near Crystal

Post by NatDog »

handonbroward wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 7:11 am
Ssgustafson wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 6:14 am I'm thinking about Snowmass this Sunday via Lead King Basin. Will probably drive-up in the early morning.
Any recent conditions reports for back there? That route is a serious pain in the ass to get to if there is still a lot of snow back there. Tried to tough it out last year early and didn't even make it to the base of the route.
I haven't seen any reports of the road from this year but I do have a satellite image from this week. The road looks to be totally snow-free and I don't see any snow on the route at all until up by Little Gem Lake. S-Ridge looks more or less dry and the W Slopes route still has 2 or 3 large snowfields lingering.
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Re: Lead King Basin - Legal Parking near Crystal

Post by Dayute »

Im thinking about heading up next week from the high road. Was planning on the Whitney group but looks like I may be smoked out and need to find a backup plan for my days off.
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