BABs Sarah and Rachel are on a mission to get the rest of the 14ers (47 and 46 out of 58 respectively). We took a weekend trip to Maroon Bells Wilderness to get Snowmass from the West Slopes and Pyramid the following day.
We opted for the West Slopes because it is less than half the mileage of the East Slopes standard route for Snowmass Mountain. The major difficulty though in this route is the Lead King Basin 4WD road. You need offroading skills, 4LO and nerves of steel to be able to drive this 1.5 road into the trailhead.
Things to know if you're doing West Slopes:
* The rock is loose, loose, loose! Triple check every hold - it will make your hike longer but it's worth it to not send a rock flying (or you).
* The LKB drive is no joke. It took us 1.5 hours. It has equal parts up and down with super tight switchbacks at the beginning and end of the drive. Not a ton of places to turn around if you run up on another car so be comfortable with the prospect of reversing on a narrow road. Lots of people drive this as a loop with Crystal Mills. Pull over to let the ATVs pass you.
* There's a move that 14ers.com left out that we thought was Class 4. It's exposed and requires both hands and feet. It's right as you get on the ridge to begin traversing to the summit. Perhaps we went the wrong way but doubtful.
* Instead of climbing in the gully, we both thought staying on the top of the rib was a much better location. Not as loose as the gully. More class 3 climbing but WORTH IT! We did the gully at first and then traversed over to the ridge on the way up. We took the rib all the way down - 10X safer.
* Goes without saying but wear a helmet. We saw 3 dudes out there - 2 didn't have a helmet. WTF.
* This took us 9.5 hours and we're both pretty fit. The route finding took us a little longer than expected. The way down was much faster once we knew where we were going and what was safe.
* On our way down, instead of hitting the grassy patch near the base of the mountain, we stayed hikers left. You can see it on our GPX file. It was easier because there was ice, running water and more class 3 on that patch.
GPX file: / strava
0:00 - 0:32 Route Preview
0:33 - 1:39 Lead King Basin drive to TH/Camp
1:40 - 3:14 The Easy Part of the Hike (Geneva and Gem Lake)
3:15 - 5:50 Climb Up the Loose Slopes
5:51 - 11:41 Ridge Traverse to Summit
11:42 - 14:09 Downclimb Ridge Only (3x speed)
14:10 - 14:40 Hike and Drive Out through Yellow Aspens