For a friend - hiking conditions in Colorado mountains?

Janice

Janice

Member
.
Joined
Dec 5, 2017
Messages
1,367
Trying to help a friend who's visiting the U.S. plan an early May trip. He would enjoy hiking in the mountains, Colorado if possible. But is it still too snowy/icy? We know this was a low snow year and are wondering if this is a possibility. Any specific info about places that could work would be greatly appreciated.
 
Kullaberg63 said:
For Colorado 14ers.com has a wealth of constantly updated info. Sure it’s about peak bagging but still useful for hikers

www.14ers.com

Peak Conditions

14er Peak Conditions: Find current conditions on a peak or post updates.
www.14ers.com www.14ers.com
Click to expand...
This is VERY helpful, especially when I changed the display to listing by most recent. Thank you - I will pass this along!
 
I often check the snowpack line charts: https://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/ftpref/support/states/CO/products/#state=co&element=wteq

If you click on a region, you can see the current snowpack and compare with other years. For example, right now the melt is a little over a month ahead of the median year throughout much of the state (the black line is about 4-5 weeks to the left of the green line on the charts). So if an area is normally good to go in mid-July, then I would plan on mid-June or maybe early June. You can even view a 14ers.com trip report from a previous year, and pull up the snowpack line chart from that year (just click that year on the right side of the plot), and compare to the snowpack shown for this year. This method isn't perfect but it's what I often do (I'm interested in if other people use this approach; I'm still trying to figure this kind of thing out myself!).

As you get close to your date, you can also check satellite imagery for your specific area if you're going off the beaten path (if you have the paid version of caltopo, it includes this). Or if you're doing a very popular hike like the four-pass loop, you might get the best info from facebook groups or alltrails or the like.

But to your original question--I'm guessing that even this year, early May will be too early for most of the classic backpacking options. The Lost Creek Wilderness will probably be good to go, but I would expect it to pretty crowded (and it's not exactly what most people think of when they think of classic CO backpacking). If I were coming from out of state for a backpacking trip that time of year, I would go to UT and hit some watery canyons in Escalante or Grand Gulch or Zion area or CRNP or Paria or...
 
RyanP said:
I often check the snowpack line charts: https://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/ftpref/support/states/CO/products/#state=co&element=wteq

If you click on a region, you can see the current snowpack and compare with other years. For example, right now the melt is a little over a month ahead of the median year throughout much of the state (the black line is about 4-5 weeks to the left of the green line on the charts). So if an area is normally good to go in mid-July, then I would plan on mid-June or maybe early June. You can even view a 14ers.com trip report from a previous year, and pull up the snowpack line chart from that year (just click that year on the right side of the plot), and compare to the snowpack shown for this year. This method isn't perfect but it's what I often do (I'm interested in if other people use this approach; I'm still trying to figure this kind of thing out myself!).

As you get close to your date, you can also check satellite imagery for your specific area if you're going off the beaten path (if you have the paid version of caltopo, it includes this). Or if you're doing a very popular hike like the four-pass loop, you might get the best info from facebook groups or alltrails or the like.

But to your original question--I'm guessing that even this year, early May will be too early for most of the classic backpacking options. The Lost Creek Wilderness will probably be good to go, but I would expect it to pretty crowded (and it's not exactly what most people think of when they think of classic CO backpacking). If I were coming from out of state for a backpacking trip that time of year, I would go to UT and hit some watery canyons in Escalante or Grand Gulch or Zion area or CRNP or Paria or...
Click to expand...
Thanks, @RyanP. Cool idea to check the snowpack charts and compare to prior years. I have the version of Caltopo that shows current imagery, but I was having trouble knowing how much snow is ok just from looking at the images. He's decided to do dayhikes rather than backpack and would love to spend time in the mountains if possible. We've also talked to him about southern UT, and right now the thinking is fly to Denver, drive through the mountains on 70 with a few hikes along the way, and then continue on to the Moab area to do some canyon hiking. If hiking in the mountains weren't a good option, he perhaps would fly to Grand Junction instead (more reasonable than we expected) and cut out the mountain part. But based on the 14ers and AllTrails info I'm seeing (as of today at least), I'm hoping he'll be able to have a great western US experience combining both mountains and canyons.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Don't like ads? Become a BCP Supporting Member and kiss them all goodbye. Click here for more info.

Back
Top