Sangre de Cristo Mountains > Little Bear Peak > Climber's LogLittle Bear Peak Climber's Log
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| K_G_Wright | You Call Those "Fixed" Lines?  Date Climbed: Jul 25, 2007 | |
| Started at 0400 at the big parking lot just off hwy 150 (8000ft). 0930 I made Lake Como. Approx. 1215, I made it to the "Hourglass Couloir." By 1300, I was on the top. 1345 to 1500 got hailed and rained on, and by 1900 I was back to the car. The "fixed lines" were pretty manky (one had a ten foot section of missing sheath), and both had been cut out and retied, but they held me on descent. It's probably safer to do as a spring snow climb. Glad to have been solo up in the "bowling alley". Outstanding time! | |
| Posted Jul 31, 2007 6:24 pm | ||
| ClearSkiesAhead | The Hourglass Date Climbed: Apr 22, 2007 | |
| We went up and camped in one of the huts at Lake Como on the 21st and woke up and headed up the first couloir up to the ridge around 4:45AM. On top of the ridge we had some fantastic views of the alpenglow consuming the valley as the sun rose. The hourglass was in fairly good shape, although there were a couple spots where the snow was so hard that we were simply frontpointing it with our crampons as if we were climbing a waterfall in Ouray or something. Anyways, this is perhaps my favorite 14'er to date as both the climb and the views from the top were absolutely breathtaking. | |
| Posted Jun 28, 2007 12:13 pm | ||
| bernardhohman | Snow Climb in the Hourglass Date Climbed: May 12, 2007 | |
| Great snow climb of the Hourglass. Great weather and a great summit! | |
| Posted May 14, 2007 2:25 pm | ||
| Old Ickabod | Hourglass Snow Climb Date Climbed: May 12, 2007 | |
| Awesome weather and spectacular snow climb. Mostly snow in the hourglass all the way to the summit. Some tricky downclimbing, but a great glissade back to the lake. | |
| Posted May 13, 2007 9:21 pm | ||
| GerryS | Route Climbed: Southwest Ridge Route Date Climbed: Aug 4, 2006 | |
| Yep, a long, endless talus route - considering the tread wear on my Asolos, I left about $40 dollars of boot on the ridge. However, I didn't have to dodge any rocks or yell a single embarrassing "ROCK!" from rocks I kicked loose. The traverse from South Little Bear to Little Bear took almost 2 hours - lots of route finding. But the return trip took just under 20 minutes (we knew the way by then). Use a GPS with trackback turned on for the bushwhacking! | |
| Posted Dec 10, 2006 7:15 am | ||
| TiogaBradford | Hourglass Date Climbed: Jul 8, 2006 | |
| Fantastic climb - my first Class 4 peak......and I loved it! We started hiking the Lake Como road at 2:00am, reached the lake by 6:00am, and summitted around 9am. We were fortunate to be the first up the hourglass that day, which lessened the risk of rockfall. We only saw 3 other people on the mountain that day (with very good weather too!) | |
| Posted Sep 23, 2006 12:32 am | ||
| shanahan96 | three's a charm Date Climbed: Jul 25, 2006 | |
| March 15, 2013- winter summit with emily and jason via the southwest ridge. terrain got interesting just before the southern summit, and didn't relent. the ledges leading to the main summit are fantastic when covered in snow! May 6, 2007- jamie and i climbed the hourglass today. it was alot steeper(55 degrees) than expected. perch made for an awesome snow climb on really hard snow....feet still hurt from kicking steps! July 25, 2006- climbed the northwest face(hand route) in 1:59 from the como area high camp in preparation for the traverse to blanca. it wasn't super exposed like i expected, but it was nice to ascend another way than the hourglass. jamie | |
| Posted Aug 11, 2006 2:21 am | ||
| Brian Kalet | West Ridge Date Climbed: Jul 8, 2006 | |
| What Brad said. Daytrip from the road. | |
| Posted Jul 10, 2006 11:06 pm | ||
| Brad Snider | Standard Route in Rain Date Climbed: Jul 8, 2006 | |
| Kalet and I had this peak all to ourselves on a very rainy day. Started the traverse to Blanca, but couldn't see anything b/c of thick fog, and everything was dangerously wet from the incessant rain. Turned back, climbed back over LB and descended via the soaking wet hourglass. | |
| Posted Jul 9, 2006 1:07 am | ||
| Ryan Kowalski | NW Face to traverse Date Climbed: Jun 10, 2006 | |
| What a climb! We reached the summit in 1hr 45 min after leaving the trail. Good rock, not too loose, with steep exposure. A great appetizer to the main course of the LB-Blanca traverse | |
| Posted Jun 14, 2006 5:12 pm | ||
| jratk | nw face Date Climbed: May 25, 2006 | |
| 4 wheeled for a while up the road, hiked in and did ellingwood and blanca. Great weather, set up a bivy and climbed little bear the next day via nw face. Fantastic 4th class climbing. Descended the hourglass, scary rockfall. All in all, best 14er to date. | |
| Posted Jun 13, 2006 3:41 am | ||
| km_donovan | The Hourglass Date Climbed: May 29, 2006 | |
| Great climb as good as it gets. | |
| Posted Jun 5, 2006 2:36 am | ||
| F Bomb | Hourglass Route Date Climbed: May 29, 2006 | |
| Good fun, the hourglass is everything it is hyped up to be. Start early. We had perfect weather and the summit all to ourselves. | |
| Posted May 30, 2006 3:53 pm | ||
| miztflip | Hourglass Date Climbed: May 28, 2006 | |
| Fun outing, I second the Gator Farm and for Pete's sake, don't bring you dog on this climb. | |
| Posted May 29, 2006 9:17 pm | ||
| coloradoiceclimber | West Ridge (Hourglass) Date Climbed: May 28, 2006 | |
| Good Times! Be sure to stop by the Gator Farm and the UFO Observation Tower on the way out of the valley! | |
| Posted May 29, 2006 8:20 pm | ||
| Kiefer Thomas | NW Ridge Date Climbed: May 24, 2006 | |
| The keyword for this mountain is route-finding! Had perfect weather though, mountain to myself. Ice in the hourglass in the AM and a veritable stream in the PM. BE CAREFUL! It is MUCH looser above the hourglass than what you might have read. If you take your time, this is actually an enjoyable climb. | |
| Posted May 27, 2006 11:39 am | ||
| shknbke | via nw face, descent of hourglass Date Climbed: May 13, 2006 | |
| Easily the most difficult route on any mountain I have done, but I am not much of a rock climber. Very airy ridge indeed. I was testing the hand and footholds! We hoped to have a nice snow climb in the hourglass but the lack of snow made us go with the n.w. face. | |
| Posted May 17, 2006 5:56 am | ||
| TM | up NW face down Hourglass | |
| Seeing climbers heading up Hourglass we picked the NW face. Fun climbing, though pretty spicy for those not comfortable with big exposure and loose rock with some actual climbing moves. For those OK with the above, a fun time (though it wouldn't be fun to get stuck there in bad weather, to put it lightly). Very cool mountain and area, as we were hiking out 2 hour lightning/hail downpour was pretty epic. Almost as epic as the drive up!! | |
| Posted Apr 10, 2006 5:43 am | ||
| Mountain Jim | From Blanca via the South ridge Date Climbed: Jun 23, 1969 | |
| We climbed Blanca first from Como Lake, then descended south into Blanca Basin and climbed up the South Ridge of Little Bear in a snow storm. Descended the Hourglass Couloir and worked our way back to Como Lake. | |
| Posted Mar 14, 2006 7:27 pm | ||
| 1mvertical | Route Climbed: West Ridge Route Date Climbed: August 4, 2004 | |
| We were the only group on the mountain this day. The scramble up to the West Ridge was not too bad, except for the fact that we were a bit confused by what the obvious notch was. Once that was sorted out, it was pretty straighforward. I would argue that the hourglass is in fact the best climbing on the route. Easy 4th class, just dangerous in terms of rock fall potential. The section above the hourglass seems much worse, especially if you get off route. This would be awesome with late May/June snow. | |
| Posted Nov 23, 2005 5:06 pm | ||
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