Tag Archives: Little Bear Peak

Sangres Six Pack: LB to EP, Plus 3

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I need to give Kiefer of 14ers.com the credit for coming up with this itinerary in a discussion last year. He couldn’t make it this year, but Ryan “Mountain Socialite” Marsters agreed to come along for the fun, and upped the ante by adjusting our schedule so we could accompany Andrew Hamilton for just a mile or two as he set out to try and break the speed record for the Fourteeners. (Ryan’s high school lacrosse coach is a friend of Hamilton’s.) Thanks to Ryan for his usual great company, for exercising restraint to allow me to lead some sections, and for some excellent photos – more than half in this report are his. Keep reading…

Little Bear via the Southwest Ridge

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Normally by January Colorado’s snowpack has reached respectable totals, enough to make inbounds skiing a priority. This year has been different. Inbounds skiing has been a bust, and even backcountry prospects are few and far between and marginal in quality. Rather than sit around and whine about it, a few friends and I decided to go ahead and take what Colorado seems to be granting this year; a solid window for winter hiking. Continue reading…

Little Bear Summit Ski Descent

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Originally Matt and I planned on hitting Kit Carson and Challenger on Thursday, a long but doable day which would have included two classic ski lines on two spectacular peaks.  Needless to say Matt and I were pretty stoked, then an email came in from Brittany on Tuesday which was enough to convince me the South Face of Kit wasn`t skiable.  Matt and I began looking at other plans and remembered Little Bear was in. Keep reading…

Little Bear/Blanca Traverse & Ellingwood

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For about three months now Stu and I have been seriously considering a Grand Slam attempt on the Little Bear Group. We decided a week prior to the climb that this point in the summer seemed like a good time to go for it and our conflicting schedules dictated that it would have to be Monday the 16th. We departed Boulder at 10:00pm on Sunday the 15th and reached the Lake Como Road at 3:00am. We were able to drive to an elevation of 9,500 ft. (thanks to the 4-Runner), our official start time was 4:00am. The hike up the road revealed why exactly this is one of the nation‘s worst. Pretty amazing stuff. The hike to the trail turnoff was approximately three miles, we arrived at the cairned junction at 5:30am and began the southward ascent up Little Bear‘s west ridge. From the top of the west ridge the route cuts east across the ridgeline to the bottom of the hourglass. We basically stayed on or near the ridgecrest until we arrived at the hourglass. Keep reading…