Huron Peak

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 11/11/2013, By: Dobbs77
Info: I parked at the two-wheel drive trailhead at Winfield and hiked up the road to the trailhead from there. I do not recommend anyone take a four-wheel drive vehicle passed Winfield due to the amount of ice and snow covering the road. It doesn‘t seem like to me it is worth potentially sliding off the road to save a few miles on this hike. From the trailhead the trail is snow packed through treeline and slick in some spots. Traction was useful here. Above treeline the trail enters a basin that requires postholing to get through. I was glad I wore my gaiters through this section. On the upper slopes of Huron Peak it was a mix of rock and snow that I highly recommend wearing traction to climb up due to how slick some spots were. All in all I could not have asked for better trail conditions in November and recommend people take advantage of it before a major storm comes in and covers the trail with fresh snow. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 10/26/2013, By: Amadisofgaul
Info: Trail has intermittent snow and ice, generally hard packed and easy to follow. Spikes were quite helpful. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 10/22/2013, By: Char7311
Info: Had the mountain to myself today. There is patchy snow and ice starting from the 4 wheel drive road. Becomes pretty consistent starting from the trailhead and anywhere from nice packed snow (when I was actually on the trail) to thigh deep postholing above the basin. I wore my spikes all day. If anyone hikes this in the next few days, I‘d advise you NOT to follow the freshest (my) tracks above the basin because I pretty much went all over the place haha. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 9/29/2013, By: mrschaible
Info: Huron is mostly dry up to 12,200, then continuous snow to the summit. It is boot packed to the summit but you will need gators and microspikes as it is still deep snow and slick on the summit push. Beautiful day with very little wind. Fall colors are almost at the peak. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 6/26/2013, By: climb4ever
Info: Route is in excellent shape. The trail / summit are clear of snow. For the road, I had to park in between Winfield and the parking lot (right before the water flows over the road). I have a Subaru Outback so the clearance isn‘t the best and I didn‘t feel like breaking my car on that mud hill that‘s there. But if your car has good clearance and you make it past that, you‘re free and clear! I met some cool people on the way up and hopefully we‘ll get to climb some more 14‘ers! 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 6/23/2013, By: mtn_nut
Info: Route is in great shape. water is flowing well at 12,300 too. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 6/16/2013, By: sheller
Info: Huron is open for summer business. There are only a couple of 20-30‘ patches of snow left in the snowfield that can easily be avoided. A little windy, but a great day. The first river crossing also didn‘t give us any troubles. 

Route: Southwest Slopes
Posted On: 6/18/2013, By: psycholoco
Info: No snow issues on the southwest slopes. The trail was fairly easy to follow. At one point I lost the trail and unnecessarily crossed the creek. If you find yourself crossing the creek (not to be confused w/ easy stream crossings) head left uphill. Gets harder to follow as you approach the cairned boulder field, but once you come out of the forest, the cairns are quite obvious. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 6/3/2013, By: transplant_hiker
Info: The route starts of great all the way to the stream crossing. Once there, you may end up getting some wet feet as the water level of the stream is pretty high (especially in the afternoon on the return trip). From there, you will cross a few minor snow patches all the way up to the basin on the north side of Huron. Once in the basin, there is a large snow field that is nice and firm in the morning, but turns into post hole city by 11. The ridge up to the summit is a mix of snow patches and rock. The trail is pretty well snowed over but was able to be followed. The summit block has a lot of snow and I was unable to find the summit marker. There are several snow fields that I was able to glissade on the way back, but I have a feeling these snow fields will be melting fast. I did not use any flotation or microspikes. Flotation might be nice in the snow field in the basic, and microspikes might help in the upper snow fields, but I didn‘t feel they were necessary. 

Route: Std
Posted On: 1/26/2013, By: Yikes
Info: Poaching a Huron Snowflake. Wanted to check out Huron since the road to Winfield was passable. Wasn't sure if there was still a trench from last week's group, so I went without any expectations of making the summit. Parked at Winfield and headed up the road about 7:45 (late start for me). Someone had driven to the summer TH, so I was able to walk the vehicle tracks on the road. Some icy sections make me wonder how they managed to drive back there. At the summer TH, was pleasantly surprised to see a solid trench. I don't think I would have made treeline w/o the trench (thanks a million to the group that set the trench). The trench religiously followed the summer route. No snowshoes required except for the back half of the basin where floatation is appreciated. The upper slopes were pretty dry and pretty easy to stay on the summer trail. Nice snowy ridge up to the summit from the saddle. Beautiful day, about 25 degrees with no wind. There were some clouds that blocked views on Missouri. Summit at 12:15. Started snowing a bit on the hike down (after 2pm). Back to the car about 3:15. Glad to make it back to the highway (that would be an expensive tow from Winfield). Cheers. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 1/18/2013, By: SnowAlien
Info: Was able to reach Winfield in a Subaru. Bigger 4x4 can make it another 0.2 miles, but that's about it. Bootbacked trail to summer TH and snowshoe trail after that. Kept snowshoes to about 13k which allowed to minimize postholing in the upper basin. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 11/19/2012, By: mollykay
Info: My sister and I attempted Huron on Sunday under beautiful conditions alternating between snow and sun. From the trailhead to treeline the trail was semi-boot packed with 2-4 inches of snow. Above treeline the trail was mostly covered with 4-6 inches with larger drifts up to a foot in places. Although we didn‘t make it to the top, another group of hikers told us the very top was much the same and no need for an ice axe. We wore micro spikes all day and would have had trouble without them. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 10/28/2012, By: cory1223oh
Info: The trail was fairly easy to follow for most of the hike. There was about 2" of snow below treeline. Above treeline there is a few inches of snow on the switchback that were shielded from the wind. The other 1/2 of the switchbacks have been blown mostly clear. I had gaiters with me but never encountered anything deep enough to warrant putting them on. Microspikes were helpful and were worn for a majority of the day. Our chances of summitting would have been greatly impaired without them. The snow was melting down low as we were descending, but there was enough shade I would expect some of it to remain for a few more days. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 10/20/2012, By: MtnClimber82
Info: Very little snow on the peak itself. N Ridge has soft packed/packed/icy conditions the last 500‘ and spikes are helpful, some slight exposure just before the summit that an axe in your hand may make you feel more comfortable if exposure bothers you. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 10/9/2012, By: bhess86
Info: There are some melted sections above treeline now, but not so many that spikes aren‘t useful. I was glad to have mine although my friend and many other people summitted without them. Top 500 feet is still almost solid ice and snow on the trail.