Huron Peak

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 10/7/2012, By: Muskie5280
Info: Trail below treeline has spotty snow sections, getting increasingly frequent the higher you go. Once above treeline, you are in snow all the way to the summit, although its not very deep (3-4 inches). Microspikes definitely helpful for the last 500 feet. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 10/3/2012, By: Wentzl
Info: Snow on the upper 800‘ but still easily hiked in summer shoes. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 7/8/2012, By: shredcrazy
Info: I take my 2wd up many rough roads, but didn‘t want to risk it on this road. Hiking the road was extremely easy though! There is one section of the 4wd road (pictured) that had a couple inches of water flowing over it, which we easily walked around without getting wet. The trail is in good shape and dry except for tiny trickles running across which you can easily step over. I didn‘t do a trip report, but did document the trip in my crew‘s latest video episode, so if you want to see mountain skateboarding, wildlife, and better views of the trail and scenery, check it out here (note there is a short intro before the Huron Peak footage starts) http://acstoke.com/New-Action-Sports-Videos.html#episode24 

Route: Standard
Posted On: 6/10/2012, By: mountain_man
Info: Trail is completely dry. No special equipment needed. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 6/1/2012, By: scrambling
Info: The 12-mile stretch of dirt road from U.S. 24 to Winfield is washboarded, but otherwise fine. The 2.1 mile 4WD road from the lower to the upper trailhead is in decent shape. Clearance is probably more important than 4WD...there are 2-3 places where high-centering could be an issue W/O good clearance. Otherwise it is fine; no snow, trees, mud, etc. The trail is in great shape up through trees. In the flat grassy area above treeline, prior to gaining the ridge, there is some snow and it is the postholy variety. However, you can serpentine a bit if you like and avoid most of it. Plus, there is not that much to begin with. Higher up, nearing the summit, there is a bit of mud and it is a little slippery in places but it‘s not that bad. This is a great hike and this seems like a good time to go. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 5/19/2012, By: csmith
Info: 4WD road is clear all the way to the upper trailhead. The trail has some snowy parts but we didn‘t have any problems, only minor postholing in a few spots. We hiked early in the morning so the snow was still hard. Microspikes weren‘t necessary but may be helpful in places. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 4/21/2012, By: ColoradoLawDobe
Info: The road is dry and passable by 2wd cars up until the 4x4 road. I think only the most highly modified 4x4s could make it up the 4wd road and still probably not very far due to the snow drifts. The trail is snow on and off. Unfortunately snowshoes were difficult to use due to the inconsistent snow conditions. Above tree line snowshoes might be handy in the future when the snow is soft enough due to the continuous fields. Today however snowshoes were not "necessary" as each step only caused an inch or so sink to occur. Trekking poles or an axe would come in handy as would microspikes. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 4/1/2012, By: climbingbiz
Info: Road is dry to the Oxford/Belford/Missouri trailhead. After that there are only small spots of snow until about 1.5 miles short of Winfield. There is a drift across the road that higher clearance cars wont have much trouble with since a few trucks have driven through it. Lower clearance cars will scrape for sure, especially in the morning when the snow is hard. There is a second snow pile about the same size 100 yards before winfield. The parking lot just past winfield is mostly clear. I tried to keep driving past there and quickly got stuck. Walking the 4wd road is easy in the morning, but slushy and muddy in the afternoon. I broke a trail from the upper 4wd trail head to tree line staying on top of the snow half the time and post-holing the other half. Snow was knee to waist deep, though I sank in to my chest a few times. Above treeline there is one more snowfield to cross before you get on the peak proper, and snowshoes are needed in the afternoon but not morning. From there the route is clear with just patches of snow. No spikes or axes needed on the upper route. From treeline back to the trail head I post-holed almost the whole way in wet slushy snow. Getting through the trees was pretty miserable going both ways, but the upper part of the route is in great condition. Avalanche danger is non-existent unless you manage to trigger something in the trees. I started hiking around 6:30 and was back to the car before 2pm Pictures are of the upper part of the route. 

Route: standard
Posted On: 2/6/2012, By: FireOnTheMountain
Info: DannyG23 and I put in a trench on Huron this weekend so go get it while the pickings are good!! I was able to drive my Toyota Tacoma with bald tires to within 1.75 miles of the Winfield turnoff. Avy danger is pretty minimal on the standard route but we definetly heard our share of whoomfs. I swear to you people, we whoomfed on the valley floor and caused an avy about 400 vert above us...craziest thing I have ever seen!! I know it sounds really contradictory that I said avy danger is minimal but it really is, it was just a freak occurance. The picture you see of the avy is literally where we were standing when we triggered it. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 1/6/2012, By: Nelson
Info: Climbed from Winfield on January 4, 2012. There is a good trail the whole was. No snowshoes, ax or crampons were required. 

Route: Southwest Slopes
Posted On: 12/11/2011, By: Matt Lemke
Info: Climbed Huron Peak from the Winfield TH today. What a fantastic day it was! Not a cloud in the sky and warm with no winds. I was able to easily drive my 1987 2WD Toyota Camry to Winfield with no problems at all. Get out there tomorrow while we still have one more nice weather day! Route was pretty snowy. The 4WD road leading to the wilderness boundary was snowy and we skinned it to the start of the Huron Peak Trail. We followed snowshoe tracks up the steep slopes through dense trees until they ended (assuming they turned around?). We continued the rest of the way to treeline via a post-holing nightmare. Snowshoes may have helped but since most of the way below treeline was marked by previous snowshoers, we only had about 300 or so vertical feet of post-holing. Above treeline, in the large valley below Huron there wasn‘t much snow. Rocky areas were very abundant. No avalanche danger right now. Some nice firm snowfields made easy ascending with microspikes. That being said, one should be comfortable and equipped with basic snow traveling...duh. Fantastic views!!! We had the entire area surrounding Winfield to ourselves today. No one else there, no one at the Missouri Gulch TH and no one at the Mt. Hope TH...all day. Nice weather lasts through tomorrow (Monday) so head there NOW! 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 10/30/2011, By: jmanner
Info: The snow along the route is only about 6-8" deep below tree line, which makes for somewhat easy route finding(it should be easier now that we walked a path). The snow will likely melt in some portions of way we treaded over, so, it could possibly be a much quicker hike before the next snow Wednesday Nov. 2nd(‘11). We turned around because, the slow pace(mixed with over sleeping) of getting through the dry powder, forced the possibility of not getting back to Denver before dark. We did get to about 12,300. From that vantage point, the North Ridge looked like the wind was scouring it of much of the snow. If you wake up early enough and are not on a schedule you could easily summit,particularly, if you start from the trailhead and not Winfield.-PM if you‘d like some pics. 

Route: West from Clear Creek TH
Posted On: 10/24/2011, By: wincoder
Info: Trail is mostly dry from the TH with a few light snow patches in the trees. Above tree line to the shelf at 12,400 is bare and dry. Above 12,400 the trail is snow covered to a depth of 5 or 6 inches. Some wind-blown spots are deeper. Trail is hard to see above about 13,000. (I used micro spikes). There is a pretty well defined direct ascent route that has been stamped in the snow by several people. Enough snow to glissade down in a few spots. There is no water where I camped at 12,400. Plenty of snow to melt though. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 10/17/2011, By: ilium
Info: There are patches of ice on the trail just below treeline. The trail switches back over the icy section about 8 times. Above treeline, the trail becomes faint in places. There are footprints everywhere, and the snow can be about shin deep. While I didn‘t use any aides, gators were a plus. On the descent I was able to glissade for only a few hundred yards. Overall, the trail is in good condition. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 10/3/2011, By: lackerstef
Info: Climbed it today (Monday) and it was dry to the top! There was some storm clouds moving in around noon as I returned to the car. The road is def. 4WD. I drove a Nissan Versa up about .25 miles up the 4wd road and had to camp from there. Luckily I ran into a nice couple from IL and they gave me a ride back to my car from the trailhead on the way back (along with good convo!). The first pic is from the summit, the second is from the Collegiate Peak Overlook just east of Johnson Village looking at the storm moving in.