Jagged Conditions

[rockyscambler]

Looking to do Jagged June 30th, does anybody if there is snow on the north face?

Thanks!

[dwoodward13]

The most recent clear scan from 6/4 shows a lot of snow in the basin below. Hard to really tell how much is really holding on the steep pitches, but I'd guess theres still some there along with plenty of wet rock.

https://browser.dataspace.copernicus.eu/

Capture.PNG

[ablocki]

Were you able to get out to Jagged on the 30th or did you push to another date?

[eskermo]

From 7/5:

https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/peakstat ... cnum=29951

Hoping to get up there this month, will post conditions if I do.

[Dan_Suitor]

Hoping to get up there this month, will post conditions if I do.

I've got train tickets for July 20th for an attempt on the 21st. Just seeing if anybody else will be out there.

[Jon Frohlich]

I don't know about the peak itself but saw someone else recently say that the Noname approach is absolutely awful this year. Good luck.

[supranihilest]

I don't know about the peak itself but saw someone else recently say that the Noname approach is absolutely awful this year. Good luck.

That'd be me. It's doable but it does suck. I'd take Sunlight Basin or even Leviathan Basin, both from Beartown, over Noname. I haven't been up Sunlight since 2020 but it wasn't bad at all when I was there. My most recent trip to Leviathan was in the fall of last year. Leviathan kinda sucks with deadfall but both times I've been up there it only took about six hours to do the approach, then it's a somewhat short though tedious talus/boulder hop over to Sunlight. Noname is vastly more work and more tedium than either Sunlight or Leviathan. While the Needleton to Noname drainage section isn't too bad it's still a lot of route finding and Watertank Hill is about as difficult as reputed - especially when wet. The approach up the creek itself is far worse. The deadfall back there is something else, the trail is hard to follow, and there's so much swamp it's kinda silly. We managed to go about five miles in four to five hours. If taking Noname plan for at least a full day approach. It took us about 12 hours split over two days from Purgatory, so you could save some time by taking the train (though still expect it to take you 10-12 hours or more), but if you're carrying technical gear you might lose that benefit. Overall Noname is tough and my group of three all considered it unrepeatable.

Source: went up Noname five days ago.

[hellmanm]

I don't know about the peak itself but saw someone else recently say that the Noname approach is absolutely awful this year. Good luck.

That'd be me. It's doable but it does suck. I'd take Sunlight Basin or even Leviathan Basin, both from Beartown, over Noname. I haven't been up Sunlight since 2020 but it wasn't bad at all when I was there. My most recent trip to Leviathan was in the fall of last year. Leviathan kinda sucks with deadfall but both times I've been up there it only took about six hours to do the approach, then it's a somewhat short though tedious talus/boulder hop over to Sunlight. Noname is vastly more work and more tedium than either Sunlight or Leviathan. While the Needleton to Noname drainage section isn't too bad it's still a lot of route finding and Watertank Hill is about as difficult as reputed - especially when wet. The approach up the creek itself is far worse. The deadfall back there is something else, the trail is hard to follow, and there's so much swamp it's kinda silly. We managed to go about five miles in four to five hours. If taking Noname plan for at least a full day approach. It took us about 12 hours split over two days from Purgatory, so you could save some time by taking the train (though still expect it to take you 10-12 hours or more), but if you're carrying technical gear you might lose that benefit. Overall Noname is tough and my group of three all considered it unrepeatable.

Source: went up Noname five days ago.

Was this the case all the way up the drainage? I went in 2021 and encountered a section of deadfall+swamp from hell, but going back I was able to stay higher up on game trails to avoid it. The rest of the trail was smooth sailing, too (albeit a bit of a fitness test for me...).

[supranihilest]

I don't know about the peak itself but saw someone else recently say that the Noname approach is absolutely awful this year. Good luck.

That'd be me. It's doable but it does suck. I'd take Sunlight Basin or even Leviathan Basin, both from Beartown, over Noname. I haven't been up Sunlight since 2020 but it wasn't bad at all when I was there. My most recent trip to Leviathan was in the fall of last year. Leviathan kinda sucks with deadfall but both times I've been up there it only took about six hours to do the approach, then it's a somewhat short though tedious talus/boulder hop over to Sunlight. Noname is vastly more work and more tedium than either Sunlight or Leviathan. While the Needleton to Noname drainage section isn't too bad it's still a lot of route finding and Watertank Hill is about as difficult as reputed - especially when wet. The approach up the creek itself is far worse. The deadfall back there is something else, the trail is hard to follow, and there's so much swamp it's kinda silly. We managed to go about five miles in four to five hours. If taking Noname plan for at least a full day approach. It took us about 12 hours split over two days from Purgatory, so you could save some time by taking the train (though still expect it to take you 10-12 hours or more), but if you're carrying technical gear you might lose that benefit. Overall Noname is tough and my group of three all considered it unrepeatable.

Source: went up Noname five days ago.

Was this the case all the way up the drainage? I went in 2021 and encountered a section of deadfall+swamp from hell, but going back I was able to stay higher up on game trails to avoid it. The rest of the trail was smooth sailing, too (albeit a bit of a fitness test for me...).

Yes. We did make attempts to find bypasses in the upper, rougher section and gave up after they proved more time consuming than just trying to stick to the trail as best as possible. It was a bit frustrating since the first mile and a half to two miles up from the Animas is actually in very good shape, which is fortunate since that's the steep part, but the remainder is pretty difficult and I can't recommend it.

[ablocki]

Thanks all for the great feedback here! Based on supra's comments I might look at having San Juan Backcountry shuttle us to Beartown in August

[Skimo95]

If it helps I’ve done both approaches to Jagged and would recommend Beartown. It’s pretty special back there, I could give you a ride up but would be on a different itinerary.

[Dan_Suitor]

Was this the case all the way up the drainage? I went in 2021 and encountered a section of deadfall+swamp from hell, but going back I was able to stay higher up on game trails to avoid it. The rest of the trail was smooth sailing, too (albeit a bit of a fitness test for me...).

Do you happen to have the GPX tracks from that trip?