Lake city to Ouray via Cinnamon Pass & Yankee Boy Basin in Mid-May

[aggiemountainman]

Thinking of doing the following route either May 15th/16th on a 2015 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk. Is this feasible? Also, roughly how close would I be able to get to the TH for a Sneffels summit attempt?

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Mill+Cr ... 033265!3e0

Thanks

[Scott P]

There's no way you can drive over Cinnamon Pass in Mid-May even in a drought year. This year you will be lucky if it is open by August (depending on how the dust storms have affected the snowpack).

PS, March, April, and May is when the snow deepest in the high mountains (at least in most years).

Also, what is your proficiency with an ice axe? If you aren't proficient with an ice axe, Sneffels is not a good idea in May or June and in this year probably not most or all of July either.

[nsaladin]

There's no way you can drive over Cinnamon Pass in Mid-May even in a drought year. This year you will be lucky if it is open by August (depending on how the dust storms have affected the snowpack).

PS, March, April, and May is when the snow deepest in the high mountains (at least in most years).

Also, what is your proficiency with an ice axe? If you aren't proficient with an ice axe, Sneffels is not a good idea in May or June and in this year probably not most or all of July either.

Except last year. Drove from Lake City to Silverton on May 13, 2022 and Silverton to Lake City the following day. Engineer wasn’t open, but cinnamon definitely was.

IMG_5567.jpeg (203.67 KiB) Viewed 2924 times

[LetsGoMets]

There's no way you can drive over Cinnamon Pass in Mid-May even in a drought year. This year you will be lucky if it is open by August (depending on how the dust storms have affected the snowpack).

PS, March, April, and May is when the snow deepest in the high mountains (at least in most years).

Also, what is your proficiency with an ice axe? If you aren't proficient with an ice axe, Sneffels is not a good idea in May or June and in this year probably not most or all of July either.

Except last year. Drove from Lake City to Silverton on May 13, 2022 and Silverton to Lake City the following day. Engineer wasn’t open, but cinnamon definitely was.

IMG_5567.jpeg

Time is a construct to the Land Cruiser.


Side note, isn't Lake City to Ouray direct over Engineer Pass, which is a bit more beast than Cinnamon Pass?

[Scott P]

Except last year. Drove from Lake City to Silverton on May 13, 2022 and Silverton to Lake City the following day. Engineer wasn’t open, but cinnamon definitely was.

Last year snowpack in that part of the San Juans was at record low by May 14. Right now snowpack is 51 times greater than it was on the date that picture was taken. I guess I should have said it can only be driven in Mid May once every 40+ years.

[Chicago Transplant]

Some of the roads in the San Juans get plowed in the spring, they like the business from the Jeeps and don't wait for them all to melt out. Off the top of my head, Cinnamon and Ophir are ones that get plowed and usually open by Memorial Day/Early June, I think they might plow Engineer some years too? That said, 2019 there was a huge slide near the Burns Gulch trailhead north of Silverton and the Alpine Loop road didn't open until July. That slide was estimated to be 100' deep at the road by San Juan County.

Yankee Boy is already open to Silver Basin Road/Atlas Mill, 1.1 miles from the "Bathroom Parking" at the bottom of Teakettle. This is from a TH status posted to this site on 5/4.

[nsaladin]

Except last year. Drove from Lake City to Silverton on May 13, 2022 and Silverton to Lake City the following day. Engineer wasn’t open, but cinnamon definitely was.

Last year snowpack in that part of the San Juans was at record low by May 14. Right now snowpack is 51 times greater than it was on the date that picture was taken. I guess I should have said it can only be driven in Mid May once every 40+ years.

Haha fair!

[nsaladin]

There's no way you can drive over Cinnamon Pass in Mid-May even in a drought year. This year you will be lucky if it is open by August (depending on how the dust storms have affected the snowpack).

PS, March, April, and May is when the snow deepest in the high mountains (at least in most years).

Also, what is your proficiency with an ice axe? If you aren't proficient with an ice axe, Sneffels is not a good idea in May or June and in this year probably not most or all of July either.

Except last year. Drove from Lake City to Silverton on May 13, 2022 and Silverton to Lake City the following day. Engineer wasn’t open, but cinnamon definitely was.

IMG_5567.jpeg

Time is a construct to the Land Cruiser.


Side note, isn't Lake City to Ouray direct over Engineer Pass, which is a bit more beast than Cinnamon Pass?

Engineer is a rougher pass for sure. Especially coming out of Ouray.

This heavy piece of machinery was sunk into the earth at the top junction where whatever road connects cinnamon to engineer is.

IMG_5569.jpeg (286.3 KiB) Viewed 2827 times

[yogiberraofbadnews]

2019 was an awesome year for my first visit to the San Juans. Got there in July, the same week they opened most of the roads. The scope of the avalanche debris was absolutely incredible and gave me a whole new appreciation of the hazard they can pose.

[DaveLanders]

If you had to wait for the natural melt, then it could be mid summer before things open up. But the Jeep rental business is so big in that area that a lot of the 4wd roads get plowed out well before they would melt out naturally. The price of a Jeep rental in the Lake City/Ouray/Silverton area includes a fee that goes to the various county roads departments to pay for this.

I agree that mid May is unlikely this year, but your best bet would be to contact the county roads departments and see what their plans are.

[Dave B]

Engineer is a rougher pass for sure. Especially coming out of Ouray.

Engineer is definitely rougher, saw this Tacoma that rolled a few miles up from the Ouray TH (not sure why pic is inserting rotated).

La Tacoma Rodante.JPG (230.79 KiB) Viewed 2804 times

[Chicago Transplant]

This was from 2019, this isn't the Burns Gulch slide, this is a lower one just above Eureka. Taken 5/30/19.

AlpineLoop2019.jpg (131.92 KiB) Viewed 2801 times