7/11/2015 Route: Northwest Slopes Posted On: 7/11/2015, By: lconnelly126705 Info: Trail completely snow free to the summit. Very dry as well, minimal mud/wet spots. Go Get it! |
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7/11/2015 Route: Northwest Slopes Posted On: 7/13/2015, By: Blue6String Info: Summer conditions. Some good water still in the wet meadow areas. Do the alpine a favor and walk in the mud. Lots of evidence of people choosing their boots over the fragile environment (cutting switchbacks, dodging mud puddles, etc...) Lots of wildflowers right now, bring your camera! |
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7/4/2015 Route: Northwest Slopes Posted On: 7/5/2015, By: Flock14 Info: No snow on the trail, no special gear required. Upper section of trail has running water down it with some mud, about 12,500-13,000. Can‘t be avoided without damaging area around trail. Nothing hiking boots can‘t handle. Offroad trail was fine, just a small stream crossing at the start. My friend took his 2006 Subaru Outback up it and I took my 2001 Nissan Pathfinder (crappy shocks) - both were fine. Pics and more info at link: https://everythingoutdoorscolorado.wordpress.com/2015/07/05/huron-peak/ |
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7/3/2015 Route: Northwest Slopes Posted On: 7/4/2015, By: shaberer0511 Info: Great conditions up there. A bit of snow in several patches, but nothing really on the trail. The creek crossings do run a bit high in the afternoon due to snow melt, and there is a bit of mud and running water on the trail, but as long as you have good tread on your boots you‘ll be fine. |
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6/30/2015 Route: Northwest Slopes Posted On: 6/30/2015, By: C-Shepguy Info: Good to go. The pesky aforementioned snowfield in the basin is down to like a hundred feet long and not very deep. Summertime up there. |
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6/28/2015 Route: North Ridge from Lulu Gulch Posted On: 6/29/2015, By: mojah Info: A tiny bit of snow to contend with going up Browns, but otherwise dry the whole way. Standard route looked to be 99% dry |
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6/26/2015 Route: Northwest Slopes Posted On: 6/27/2015, By: lfishsays Info: Hiked Huron on 6/26. The 4WD road is in good shape. A few rough spots but as long as you have good clearance you should be fine, although we did see a church van at the upper trailhead (props to them)...we got my buddy's Subaru up there last year but took my Jeep this time and it was way easier. Anyway, it was an absolutely beautiful day on the mountain. Camped at the trailhead and started the hike a little after 6:30am. As the other reports stated, no snow along the route until the basin and along a few portions of the upper route, which the husky was more excited about than we were, but nothing unmanageable. I did the hike in trail runners and didn't use my spikes - I would definitely recommend waterproof shoes as there is a lot of runoff above treeline. We postholed through the basin but it's not really a long enough stretch to worry about. Summited around 9:15 and had the obligatory beer...the weather was awesome so we stayed up there for about an hour before heading down at 10:15. Back to the trailhead at 12:15, so overall it took us about 3 hours up and 2 down. Solid day! |
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6/20/2015 Route: Northwest Slopes Posted On: 6/22/2015, By: jwgrosser Info: No snow on the trail until the Basin. In the Basin there is still a snow field that was giving everyone without snowshoes problems. The snow was holding after a freeze earlier in the morning (~7:30am) but shortly after that most people were post-holing to about thigh high. After the basin on the final pitch up to the summit there are scattered snow fields. Most were solid early and could be avoided if not. Snowshoes were worth the haul this weekend but not sure how much longer that will be the case. Microspikes were handy at the top on some remaining snow fields but might not have been entirely necessary. Creek are flowing but the crossings are fine with a little bit of a leap and some careful balancing. |
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6/20/2015 Route: Northwest Slopes Posted On: 6/22/2015, By: r_grizz Info: Cruised up Huron on Saturday 6/20 with 14ers.com user Crowdsurf. The road up to the trailhead is rough but doable with 4wd and decent clearance. Easily made it up in my F150. Saw lots of folks parking their Subarus 2-3 miles down the road though (which must have sucked at the end of the day). Hiking at 5:30 AM and it was already warm enough for just a t-shirt. Trail is completely snow free up to the basin. Basin is post hole shit even in the morning. Snowshoes got us through. Drank multiple beers on the summit, which got pretty busy at about 9:30. We mounted a sweet (and what looked to be the first of the day) glissade down the North Face from 13,600 ft. to the run out area at 12,400 ft. This was definitely the way to go as it allowed us to skirt around the edge of the basin and never have to touch the snow again. People choosing to go back down the standard route and through the basin were in for an afternoon of pain. It looked like all those poor suckers were literally swimming their way through it. Most chose to follow us down the corn once they saw how sweet our tracks were. According to GPS, it also saved us 0.9 miles on the total distance. |
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6/20/2015 Route: Northwest Slopes Posted On: 6/23/2015, By: AlexeyD Info: The creek shortly above the upper trailhead is running pretty high - a pole is definitely helpful for the crossing. There are currently 2 areas of significant snow on the route: one in the flat basin just above 12,000 (Photo 1), and then on the NW-facing slopes from about 12,700' to just below the saddle at 13,400' (Photo 2). The last very short section, maybe 100' or so, of the summit ridge (Photo 3) has a large amount of snow as well. Despite a light overnight freeze (evidenced by the presence of frost and ice on the trail), the crust on top of the snow in the basin was unsupportive even around 7AM, and downright horrendous on the return. We brought snowshoes and were happy to have them for this section, although at times we broke through anyway. The second snowfield was more consolidated on the way up - easily done with microspikes, although snowshoes worked as well - but again, a rotten mess on the way down. Glissading seemed to be the best option for descent, as the snow was too deep and soft for plunge-stepping, but even there it was hard to maintain speed. I would definitely recommend, at a minimum, some type of traction if going up early in the morning, as well as an ice axe if planning to glissade on the descent, and snowshoes if you don‘t want to posthole thigh-deep crossing the basin. Other than that, it was a pretty easy hike in summer-like conditions, and beautiful scenery. Lots of people out! |
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6/19/2015 Route: Northwest Slopes Posted On: 6/19/2015, By: jmark Info: Stream is running fast, so walk up the hill to the third crossing which is narrower. Trees are virtually snow-free, and trail is easy to follow. Snow in the basin and up the NW face, although melting fast. Micro-spikes recommended for the ascent of the NW face. Terrific glissading down. Saw some skiers and snowboarders. Snowshoes recommended for the basin on the return. |
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6/18/2015 Route: Northwest Slopes Posted On: 6/18/2015, By: telescreen Info: Perfect weather. Left TH at 12:40 pm (yes, afternoon), made summit, and back to TH at 6:20. I hadn't planned on summiting until figuring out I could navigate the snow. Snow in basin for about 150 yards. Postholed 30 times which I deserved for very late climb. Surprised it held my weight most of the distance following snow shoe tracks. After that you can avoid snow except for a few patches and of course at the summit. Trail is visible for last 400' gain to summit. Cornice at summit has calved some so stay well to right. Two snow boarders went down with a dismount to traverse rock. I wore trail runners and Dexshell waterproof socks. I brought microspikes but couldn't use them much in soft snow. Next year I'll buy snowshoes or start early. |
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6/17/2015 Route: Northwest Slopes Posted On: 6/19/2015, By: codogg81 Info: Did Huron on 6/17. Dry all the way up to the basin. Consistent snow there after. I would advise everyone to bring snow shoes unless you like post holing to your belly button. I had to learn the hard way and pretty much low crawled across the basin on the way down! |
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6/15/2015 Route: Northwest Slopes Posted On: 6/21/2015, By: rmendon Info: Sorry for the late post but Huron was a great climb on Monday 6/15. The trail head is driveable all the way for a decent clearance vehicle. We drove within around 1/2 mile to the trail head before stopping in front of a large mud puddle. Driving a Subaru Outback we were unsure if we could make it through but once we hiked to the trail head we found another group of hikers also driving an Outback that made it the entire way to the trail head. We were able to start our from the trail head at 5:45 am and summitted at 8:10 am. There are a few snow patches in the trees on the way up but nothing unmanageable. Once you hit the basin, however, it is pretty much snow all the way to the summit. Starting as early as we did, we were able to hike with minimal post-holing issues. We did bring spikes but never used them. If you start as early as we did, you should be fine with just some good traction boots. |
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6/13/2015 Route: Northwest Slopes Posted On: 6/13/2015, By: Tim A Info: If you start early enough, you should be able to leave the snowshoes at the car. I started up at 5am from Winfield, summit at 930, back to Winfield at 1pm. Patches of snow on the upper half of the switchbacks in the forest, but given the bootpack through them routefinding isn‘t an issue, and postholing was minimal, even on the descent. Previous report mentioned posthole hell coming out of treeline, but this is no longer an issue, as trail was dry at treeline. Basin completely covered with snow but a fine snowshoe track through it held me up sans snowshoes during my descent at 1030. Any later than that, probably want snowshoes. The standard trail is easy to get mixed up as it is fairly snowcovered with various sets of boot-packs merging into and out of it along the entire route. I elected to follow stay on snow as often as possible and found well-set bootpacks along the upper route until the last few hundred feet, where I put in my own to reach the summit from the East side of the ridge. I wouldn‘t have been comfortable without crampons given the firm, icy snow higher on the route early in the morning, but most people I saw on the route seemed to do fine with microspikes, as they stayed closer to the summer route which featured more rocks and lower-angle snow. |
