Late season this year?

[Dan England]

Hello! I was wondering anyone's thoughts here on whether the 14ers will have much of a climbing season this year. The answer is probably yes, but I wonder if it will be much later than normal. There's plenty of snow on some Front Range peaks yet, and I'm only seeing temps in the 80s well into June this year.
I wonder if Longs will even open.
I'm a 14ers finisher so I remember how all this works, but it feels like an unusual year. But then again, I could be wrong, as I've since moved to ultras and am not as familiar with the start of the season as many of you are. I know seasons have started in mid-June in the past. I usually started in July 4.

I wrote the story on Chris Fisher and another on Andrew Hamilton and Andrea Sasone for Colorado Sun


And yes, I know some do climb in the snow — I have before too — but I may write a story for the general public about the 14ers and was just curious what you all thought before I did that. I appreciate any thoughts.

- Dan England

[Dave B]

The summer/snow-free 14er season usually goes from July to late Sept (or even early Oct some years), so 3-3.5 months which is 25% of the entire year.

So, don't worry, there will be plenty of opportunity for hiking.

[Jorts]

Seems like above average SWE but fairly typical melt-off rate. There's certainly a stark contrast between this year and the last down here in the SJs. I don't think it would be unreasonable to extrapolate based on the snotel graph to estimate how far behind average melt-off is this year. Looks like a week to 2.

[JROSKA]

I think it will be a normal summer for hiking, which is around July 4 through the end of September. I have noticed that many people (myself included) try to force the “American” summer time clock of Memorial Day to Labor Day onto Colorado 14ers and then when that doesn’t occur, we tag it as “abnormal”. It’s a difficult mentality to shake due to longest days of the year, kids being out of school etc. But I’ve been at this for 14 summers and I don’t take June seriously as a summer month in the mountains. Not above 12 k. Summer at altitude is July, August and September; 2023 will just a normal summer for hiking.

[CaptainSuburbia]

Some crazy high numbers in the Gunnison area.

This summer might be another 1816, the year without summer

Screenshot_20230605-075017_Drive.jpg (84.71 KiB) Viewed 978 times

[cougar]

Snowpack is less than 2019, but seems to linger or be more. Lots of melt by July 4 that year. Very wet pattern this spring, seems to hold off rapid melt. Big question is if there will be any dry periods before the monsoon, where routes are mostly snow free, and intensity and length of thus summers monsoon. Last year started earlier, lasted longer, and was pretty wet.

[CheapCigarMan]

Some crazy high numbers in the Gunnison area.

This summer might be another 1816, the year without summer
Screenshot_20230605-075017_Drive.jpg

What do the numbers mean?

[CheapCigarMan]

Big question is if there will be any dry periods before the monsoon, where routes are mostly snow free, and intensity and length of thus summers monsoon.

Monsoon season already started last month.
How many weekends since May were rainy snowy overcast with socked in summits?

https://denvergazette.com/weather/wet-m ... e031d.html

[daway8]

It also various a lot between different ranges and peaks - if you browse the conditions reports page you'll see some people already reporting pretty much summer conditions while I can attest after today (see CR) that Longs is definitely NOT summer conditions right now nor will it likely be for a while. It of course is open but not currently for the faint of heart.

[dr_j]

Feels that way, doesn't it? At least where I am, down in NM, the snow has finally melted from the high peaks, and we've had a couple of weeks of steady rainy days without the hot temperatures. It kind of looks that way in CO as well, so I'm probably getting a late start to my hiking season, most likely mid-July. The closest equivalent that I remember is 2019, which was a big snow year, albeit with a fast melt off.

Hopefully this wet weather will blunt the wildfire season and lead to a nice bloom of flowers in the high country.

[Scott P]

Some crazy high numbers in the Gunnison area.

This summer might be another 1816, the year without summer

Even there, snowpack is three weeks behind schedule so there will be a summer.

[peter303]

Most of the Snotel melt curves are exactly their 30 year medians, save for the west San Juans which are melting more slowly. We are probably biased by recent draw years.

https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/wc ... o/products