A friend and I plan to hike Mt Tom in mid August. After following the old jeep trail up from Horton Lake and reaching the southwest ridge of Mt Tom, it appears there are two routes to the summit: (1) follow the old road to the abandoned tungsten mine, and then head up to the top or (2) follow the southwest ridge to the summit. We'd appreciate any advice on the advantages/disadvantages of these alternatives.

It was many years ago, but I ascended the SW ridge and descended the steep chute to the mine. There's some class 3 scrambling along the upper part of the ridge that made it a much more enjoyable ascent route than all that loose scree in the chute above the mine. The chute IMO is a nice descent route.

Here's a photo of Mount Tom I took during that trip from Peak 12200+ to the west. Both routes are easily visible.


Hope this helped.

Edit: A few more pics of the SW Ridge:

This looks up from near the beginning of the class 3 sections:

A view looking down at the same section of ridge from the summit:

This view looks up from along the road to the mine. The summit is in the center; the upper SW ridge is along the right skyline.

^^^^
What he said.

I wrote up my experience using the steep chute (there are actually a couple - you cross into different ones) here (did it last september). As mentioned above, the upper ridge has some really nice scrambling that was incredibly welcome after the loose crap in the chutes. It was not a pleasant climb. I was just coming back from a broken foot so was extra cautious, but I wouldn't do it again.

Thanks all for the helpful advice and calipidder for the trip report.

Just to close the loop, I summitted Mt Tom on August 19. After crossing out of Horton Lake Valley, I took the road toward the tungsten mine for about one-third mile and then ascended to the southwest ridge and followed the ridge toward the summit. After a couple of false summits, I found the true top, marked by a tall rock cairn. Given deteriorating weather, I descended via the loose scree trails directly to the tungsten mine.

Although I strayed a bit from the ridge (was probably about 600 vertical feet below the summit when I figured it was time to turn up), the talus and boulder-hopping on this route made for a much more enjoyable hike than my aborted attempt in 2012 directly up the scree trails from the tungsten mine.

Thanks again for the very helpful advice, particularly to boyblue and the additional pictures.

Ambret wrote:Just to close the loop, I summitted Mt Tom on August 19. After crossing out of Horton Lake Valley, I took the road toward the tungsten mine for about one-third mile and then ascended to the southwest ridge and followed the ridge toward the summit. After a couple of false summits, I found the true top, marked by a tall rock cairn. Given deteriorating weather, I descended via the loose scree trails directly to the tungsten mine.

Although I strayed a bit from the ridge (was probably about 600 vertical feet below the summit when I figured it was time to turn up), the talus and boulder-hopping on this route made for a much more enjoyable hike than my aborted attempt in 2012 directly up the scree trails from the tungsten mine.

Thanks again for the very helpful advice, particularly to boyblue and the additional pictures.

I'm glad you had a successful adventure.