6/19/2025 Route: East Slopes Posted On: 6/20/2025, By: TechBison Info: Originally planned to drive the road in a 2018 4WD Honda CRV, but was forced to turn back after encountering some dusty ruts along a switchback ~1 Mile up the road. Ended up walking/hitchhiking my way up with the help of some very kind drivers, and started hiking at the towers around 11,000 feet. I noticed several vehicles with 9 or more inches of clearance parked at the towers. The road is snow-free up to the trailhead (and in visible sections past the trailhead), but still has very few places to pull off or turn around, so time your drive up very early in the morning or very late in the evening so as not to encounter oncoming traffic. The trail itself is in full summer condition by now. Zero snow along the entire trail, with a handful of snowbanks lining the ridge that do not need to be walked over. Some loose boulders have obstructed the trail, so be prepared to scramble over talus fields until you find the path again. This is especially noticeable after gaining the ridge and climbing along the final ascent, where most, if not all, of the climb is class 2 scrambling on medium-large boulders. The route is still loosely marked by a series of cairns, but a cell phone GPS (Gaia) helped me stay on trail. Summited around 11:30, and was back at the 2WD lot at 16:00! |
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6/16/2025 Route: East Slopes Posted On: 6/16/2025, By: notidealbutfine Info: Started at 11,000' just above the towers. Made it with no problems on the road in a stock AWD Honda CRV (6.8'' clearance). Started at 5:15AM. Summer conditions: didn't touch snow once! Bring your running shoes! Amazing bluebird day today, no wind whatsoever. 6.85 miles / 3,035' gain / 3 hours, 46 minutes |
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6/16/2025 Route: East Slopes Posted On: 6/17/2025, By: weinbe Info: 100% dry, it's summer timeeee! Saw the largest marmot of my life. Parked above towers, looked like the road up to chalet was practically if not 100% dry too |
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6/14/2025 Route: East Slopes Posted On: 6/18/2025, By: jgregory Info: Started around 3:30AM. Be warned, the road going up to the trailhead is a bit rough in sections, and very narrow. Ended up parking at the towers because I did not know how the road conditions were past it, and I did not want to reverse down a mile of that road in the dark. In a stock 4WD pickup truck, you could easily make it to at least some switchbacks while still in treeline (if there's parking available). The trail was great and dry the entire way. There was still some snow where the road meets the trail, but it should be gone soon. There's an established way up that avoids the snow, though. Not a difficult 14er by any stretch, but be warned. My party's tracking put us at around 9 miles round-trip starting at the towers, so just take it with a grain of salt. Be sure to bring plenty of water and sunscreen, because once the sun comes up, you'll start baking quickly. This route is on the eastern face of the mountain, and there is virtually no shade. As you go around "Tigger Peak" on the approach to the ridge, there is a small, rock cave-like thing you can stop in to get out of the sun or shelter from the weather. Overall, great day. I recommend starting early to ensure you have parking. Enjoy! |
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6/13/2025 Route: SW Ridge Grouse Canyon Posted On: 6/15/2025, By: thebeave7 Info: We ascended the South/SW side from Grouse Canyon. The trail up into the basin from Alpine is in good shape. No snow all the way to the ridgeline, and even then all snow on the ridge was easily passable and we didn't use our spikes at all. Descended the East ridge route, snow is a non factor on that side. Though the trail is rubbly and full of talus per usual. |
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6/13/2025 Route: East Slopes Posted On: 6/13/2025, By: Martinhill5 Info: Trail conditions essentially the same as previous reports. There are 3 snow crossings that accumulate to maybe 30 feet of non summer conditions. The trail from the top of the switchbacks to the summit is both in poor conditions and braids in multiple areas. Nothing too serious but it makes the ascent a slow slog uphill. The biggest takeaway is the rut in the road approximately 1.5 miles up from the 2WD trailhead. It is very hard to maneuver and I would not attempt it without at least 10 inches of clearance. |
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6/11/2025 Route: East Slopes Posted On: 6/11/2025, By: Cuttlefishette Info: Looks like conditions are holding, same few ~20ft stretches of snow, pretty easy to avoid for the most part. Trail's pretty poorly defined once you gain the ridge, not a lot of consequences for bad routefinding given the lack of exposure, but it can get exhausting after a while. Maybe a tenth as many cairns as Yale next door. Gives a more rugged feel to the climb, more natural, but could definitely be upped to Moderate routefinding. Met a few other groups also just sort of wandering aimlessly upslope, too. Parking at the radio towers is pretty limited and the pulloffs are tiny, got my OBW up there no problem, but had to sleep in the car since there was definitely not enough room to pitch a tent. Ended up on an angle anyway, which seems pretty unavoidable up there. |
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6/6/2025 Route: East Slopes Posted On: 6/8/2025, By: andibertolina Info: Snow was almost completely melted on the summer trail...just a few 20-30 foot sections of snow to cross but the snow isn't very deep and there are previous postholes that you can easily travel through. Otherwise no snow or completely avoidable on the remaining 98% of the route. We were able to drive up to the radio towers to start in a nissan rogue pretty easily- there was just one section with some deep ruts that requires careful navigation. Otherwise the road is snow free until about 1.5 miles past the radio towers. |
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6/5/2025 Route: East Slopes Posted On: 6/5/2025, By: kmoss2 Info: It's a postholing party in 2-3 spots around 12-12.5k!! -- at least waist deep and in a few spots, chest deep! But up until then, much of the snow can be avoided, as is the case for the remainder of the way up to the summit. Did it in trail runners, no microspikes, and trekking poles. I typically don't hike with poles but was glad to have them today for stability. Only saw 3 people on the trail! First shoulder season 14er for me and was greatly humbled by overall time.. 6 hours 52 minutes!! Left 6:45am, missed turn to trail off the road around 1.5miles in, and what should have been 7mi RT was 8.5. But hey! Every 14er I hike is a magical journey. Nice to have so much solitude on what can be well-trafficked in the summer. |
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5/27/2025 Route: East Slopes Posted On: 5/27/2025, By: WinterisClimbing Info: Snowfields on the side of Tigger (summer variation) are rough on the way down. Probably ill-advised to attempt the summer variation without an axe for the time being. Switchbacks up to the ridge from the summer route are now visible, especially if you keep COTREX handy. |
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5/26/2025 Route: East Slopes Posted On: 5/26/2025, By: paigemoney Info: Standard Route (Did Not Summit Tigger) A few small sections of snow remain on the road, but they’re easily passable when hiking. After leaving the road near the chalet, the trail stays snow-free for a short while before beginning to cross snowfields. Early in the morning, the snow was firm and easy to traverse using the existing boot pack with just spikes, up to around 12,700 feet. Between 12,700 and roughly 13,000 feet, I couldn’t see the switchbacks and didn’t find a trafficked route I liked, so I scrambled over loose, snowy, untracked talus—some of it large. Above 13,000 feet, a “trail” does exist, but I didn’t spot it on the ascent. Most of the way to the summit, I scrambled through the talus field, which was mostly dry. On the descent, I was able to follow the standard trail from the summit to around 13,000 feet. There’s a cornice along the ridge that had been tracked through, but I wasn’t comfortable hiking on it as it was in the sun and mostly diverted around the lingering snow patches in this section. On the way down, we attempted to follow the standard trail switchbacks that start at 13,000 feet but only located the first one or two. The rest were covered in snow and tough to follow, especially with soft snow on top of talus. Ultimately, we took a more direct descent path that had some boot pack. The snow here was soft and slick; we needed and used our ice axes. Don’t recommend this route unless the snow is firm. We kept our ice axes out as protection for the remaining snowfield traverses as well. Weather was interesting today—a cloud inversion moved in below ~13,000 feet fairly early, so the snowy sections didn’t get much sun. I was surprised at how much the snow still softened despite the lack of sunlight. As for gear, I wore mountaineering boots with microspikes, used trekking poles, and carried an ice axe. I opted not to use crampons to avoid damaging them on mixed terrain and to reduce gear changes. Snowshoes would not have helped in these conditions and could have been dangerous. Regular warm/waterproof hiking boots would have been more comfortable; I’m glad I didn’t wear trail runners as I think my feet would have been very wet. Overall, this trail remains in spring/winter conditions. It took a lot longer than expected today with the terrain challenges. |
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5/23/2025 Route: East Slopes Posted On: 5/23/2025, By: annamigl Info: Drove the road and parked just past the radio towers. The road above this still has snow drifts and is not passable. Started up 8:10am, back down 1:45ish. 5.8 miles RT, 3100 gain. Did not bring or need snowshoes but given the amount of snow still, needed every bit of microspikes+poles+gaiters. Wore water proof trail runners which held their own but eventually gave in to the soft snow and soaked through on the way back down! Snow is manageable on the way up but on the way down this holiday weekend expect ankle to knee height steps with the occasional roulette hip-high posthole for most of the way back. Princeton is very much doable now though with all the right gear and timing. Enjoy! |
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5/10/2025 Route: East Slopes Posted On: 5/12/2025, By: joshdasher Info: I'm mostly posting this to contradict the "almost summer conditions up there" update from about a week ago. I'm not sure if it had truly changed that much since or if I can't possibly understand what summer is like, but I encountered deep, soft and constant snow from where the trail splits with the road to the summit. In addition, I saw three very recent avalanche paths on the south side of Tigger/Princeton and would still not consider the standard route safe. There was a decent amount of fresh snow on Friday night as well. I posthole up and down pretty much the entire way, and the side of Tigger was totally snow covered with some exposed rock. Difficult to trust some of the rock here, even very large rocks were occasionally completely loose. Thanks to nearly perfect weather and not caring how long I was up there I did make the summit, but this is NOT summer conditions and the summer trail is barely visible. Met a couple of other hikers who also picked Princeton based on the "almost summer conditions" report and we were all collectively surprised by how much that wasn't true. (I know to expect snow in May, but the last few reports made this sound easier than it was) I used snowshoes for a bit on the ridge and probably should have used them a bit sooner than I did. Ultimately glad I summited and thankful to have met some other hikers out there, my dog also got to the top with me, but don't be fooled, there are no easy mountains in May! The 4WD trailhead is entirely clear of snow and accessible, so that advantage is there. I saw to camp sites in the dispersed area that were clear enough to camp as well. I'd give it at least two weeks before I'd consider the standard route to be an option, and it may very well not be safe until mid-June, Tigger is a misnomer, as it is neither bouncy, flouncy or fun, fun, fun, and adds quite a bit of challenge to this hike relative to the mild distance and elevation additions. Total gain was 4,000 even and total distance was 8.2 miles. |
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5/3/2025 Route: Up tigger, down east slopes Posted On: 5/5/2025, By: qkuech Info: Road: clear a little past the 4WD trailhead, some campsites at ~ 11k are snow free and starting to open up. Route: Road walk section from 4WD trailhead is a mix of snow and rock, floatation and spikes not needed. At the junction where the east slopes route splits off we continued towards the Tigger route on the road where we encountered about 1/4 mile of consistent snow travel. It was firm enough to not post hole in the morning around 8am, and spikes weren't needed but would have made it slightly easier. Route up Tigger was mostly snow free to the junction with the standard route at ~13.2k, standard route the rest of the way up Princeton was fine as well. No flotation or spikes needed. Original plan was to return via Tigger, but we decided to take the east slopes route as a change of scenery. A bit of snow to navigate but not anything that posed a significant risk in our minds. Not sure if snow shoes would have helped any on the snow crossings on the east slopes trail. Almost summer conditions up there. |
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5/1/2025 Route: Winter Route over Tigger Posted On: 5/1/2025, By: BrendoRuns Info: Parked at 2WD trailhead, but 4WD trailhead was entirely clear on my way up. Had gotten an inch by the time I descended but will melt fast. Snowed the entire ascent, probably 2 inches during my hike. Went up Tigger and descended the standard route which I Used snowshoes for. On the traverse to Princeton I switched to spikes and was much happier with that. No flotation necessary if starting early! Descended standard route and had a couple sketchy traverses along steep couloirs, happy to have my ice axe for that. Probably best to stick to Tigger detour for now. |
