Thursday Friday Snowmass West Side

[Seek 14 Finish]

I have a Geneva Lake camping Pass and driver for this Thursday night hiking Friday. This will be #54 for me. Anyone going to be hiking that day or anyone interested in coming along LMK. I’m a moderate speed hiker and love more pairs of eyes on the route!
Matt

[lauradaughtry]

I wanted to chime in and say I just did this route yesterday, and you are in for an absolute treat as far as the wildflowers go. It was by far the most beautiful trail of wildflowers I've ever seen. I'm sure you know already, but the gully is daunting! Be careful, have fun!

[Seek 14 Finish]

Thank you so much for the info! Can’t wait to see the wild flowers!!


Did you go up and down the gully? I’ve been studying the S Ridge for the way up and the gully down? What are your thoughts? Did gully work for you?

[Ssgustafson]

I’ve done ascents via both routes, including the S-Ridge most recently on Sun 7/28.The S-Ridge is super fun and way more enjoyable IMO if you are comfortable with a long Class 3/4 scramble with some exposure. We used the right gully to gain the ridge which was fine. Looks like most people however choose the left gully. The West Slopes route is over 2000’ of steep and fairly loose Class 2+. We all slipped and fell on our butts a few times coming down on Sunday - kinda hard to avoid eating it a few times! Not a lot of fun, but not as bad as it’s made out to be either. Good luck either way and enjoy the endless fields of wild flowers!!!!

[climbingyogi]

I concur that the S Ridge is wonderful! Super fun sustained class 3 scrambling. We also took the West Slopes down yesterday - I assume it's much quicker to descend the West Slopes instead of the S Ridge. I just put up a CR if you want more details + photos. Have fun!

[hberry]

I also vote S Ridge up and West Slopes down. Just make sure you have GPS and study photos of where to start the West Slopes on the way down. I was fortunate to have someone that had just come up that way point me to exactly where to start down when I did it or I likely would have missed it.

[CaptainSuburbia]

Thank you so much for the info! Can’t wait to see the wild flowers!!


Did you go up and down the gully? I’ve been studying the S Ridge for the way up and the gully down? What are your thoughts? Did gully work for you?

S ridge up all day. Get Siberia while back there as well. It's seldom climbed but super fun.

[lauradaughtry]

Thank you so much for the info! Can’t wait to see the wild flowers!!


Did you go up and down the gully? I’ve been studying the S Ridge for the way up and the gully down? What are your thoughts? Did gully work for you?

I did go up and down the West Slopes gully; it was a a last minute decision, but my climbing partner and I determined West Slopes the "more straightforward" route between it and the S-Ridge. In full transparency, the ascent of the gully was fine, though long; I did, however, injure my ankle at the top of the downclimb. (It was my fault for not testing a rock that I thought was sturdy and wasn't!) I'm admittedly not good on scree or the loose stuff, but it may be no problem for you! As a whole, I didn't enjoy the route I took; but I'm not sure if the standard route would have been that much better for me.

Don't let my experience damper your climb! Just go into it knowing it's going to be a potentially long day!