Mount Sneffels - Lavender Col

Mount Sneffels is a 14er in the San Juan Range. Its an impressive mountain that towers over Ridgway and is the high point in the Mt. Sneffels Wilderness.

After hanging out on Lizards Head Pass, we decided to head towards Ouray to give Mount Sneffels a go. We were a bit nervous looking for camping on Sunday night and tried the amphitheater campground. We lucked out and there were open sites! We actually had a great view and a few visitors!

Spring skiing requires that early am wake up that you know is so hard to listen to but you have to tell yourself its worth it. We head up towards yankee boy basin and spot a porcupine (this was a cool sight to see even if we were half awake).

The road is not a simple road in pitch black, its narrow in spots and rocky. Also in some spots there was snow on the side of the road higher than the car. The county had pushed enough snow out of the way to make the road clear to the lower 4WD trailhead. This made the approach quite a bit shorter and we could skin from the trailhead! Perks of choosing a route with a high elevation TH.

This is a popular basin for spring skiing and we saw multiple parties going towards Sneffels and other objectives. The approach to the bottom of our route was pretty short. We intended to ascend and descent Lavender couloir. The route goes up a south facing slope to a col in which it then turns facing east and narrows heading towards the summit. We decided to keep the skins on and opt for ski crampons on the lower part to the saddle. Most of this was not very steep only a few kick turns felt icy and exposed. Once on the saddle we saw the upper couloir was still quite shaded and frozen. Ahead of schedule we decided to hang out on the saddle and have a little fun playing around with the drone.

We then headed up an old bootpack up the couloir. Once at the top of the couloir to gain the true summit you have to go up and out of it onto the face. In the summer time this involves an exposed rock step. In the snow it similar but felt less exposed as there was more snow to use to gain the top of the rock.

We left the skis at the top of the couloir and made it to the summit - since we wanted to wait a bit longer for the snow to soften anyway. In September of 2022 we climbed Mount Sneffels via the class 3 Southwest ridge. It was great to be on the same mountain in a different time of the year.

Returning to our skis, the snow was ready and we started down. the top of the couloir was pretty beat up, filled with holes from people booting up the couloir. About a third of the way down the snow improved and we were able to properly ski.

The skiing continued to improve down the apron to the valley, and was great all the way down to the car. Carving down some low angle corn is always a great time!

We were able to ski to the car and drive out through the always impressive San Juan mountains.

Video of the trip here: