Many will tell you how different Colorado's winter snowpack is from the one you'll find on the West Coast in spring. Besides, if you come to Colorado to practice glacier travel, chances are you'll be disappointed. Having said that, there's plenty of worthy winter mountaineering objectives that will allow you to practice with crampons and axes.
As already mentioned, make sure you check conditions regularly for some time before your ascent. The
CAIC is a very useful resource. Eli Helmuth's
Climbing Life often has up-to-date condition reports.
It may well be that you already know all of the above. Not knowing you, I'd rather err on the side of caution.
The safest routes in Colorado's winter tend to be ridges (like the aforementioned Bancroft Ridge).
Kelso Ridge on Torreys would be a good one, but you have to pay attention to slides from Kelso Mountain on the approach. An alternative is to climb
Torreys from Loveland Pass, going over Grizzly Peak. Easy approach, and relatively safe.
Another nice ridge is
Villa Ridge to Drift Peak. It is reasonably safe, but not immune from avalanches.
In RMNP, some south facing couloirs may be in conditions in December. For instance,
Martha Couloir on Mount Lady Washington. Careful, though, because the approach crosses a rather dangerous slope. Once again, check conditions. Most people rope up for Martha, while most people do not carry a rope on the climbs I mentioned previously.
Longs Peak's North Face,
Flying Dutchman,
Dragon's Tail and
Dragon's Tooth may be in, but they may also be avalanche traps. The same applies to
Dreamweaver, where this year two climbers have already been injured by an avalanche. (Fortunately, not seriously.)
On the mellower side, there's
Andrew's Glacier, and
Storm Peak. This list is far from exhaustive, but hopefully others will add to it.
Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2009 6:35 pm