6/17/2023 Route: East Slopes Posted On: 6/17/2023, By: mattdecoste Info: No snow on 4WD road to radio towers. Started hiking there. Road above mostly clear but some non-passable snow slides higher up. Trail clear until around 12,300 where some snow and ice starts. Above the saddle mostly snow covered rock talus to the summit. Probably 1 in of new snow fell on us starting in the morning and off and on all day. Microspikes VERY helpful. Also glad we had poles for crossing high angle snow fields covering trail. |
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6/13/2023 Route: East Slopes Posted On: 6/14/2023, By: Levi L4 Info: Subaru forester to the switchback around 11.3k. Was a small patch of snow, probably could have made it to the next switchback if I tried. A few slick snow crossings made challenging by the weight distribution of skis on the back, but a bit of fresh snow gave more traction. Opted for no spikes given lack of continuous snow. Followed footprints but got off-route a bit. A lot of loose scree scrambling. Not the most efficient. Started at 6:35, summit at 8:25. Transitioned and skied off the summit for about 30 vertical feet. Traversed quite always across rock and snow to the top of the longest continuous line. Dropped that at 9, a marvelous ski down to 11.1k, then a bushwhack and a half with choss mixed in back to the car. Back around 10:20. If you ski that far down, Id recommend trying to climb up out of the bs and over to the trail |
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6/11/2023 Route: East Slopes Posted On: 6/11/2023, By: hellmanm Info: Went up the standard route. Road is dry to the radio towers, but a snowbank shortly thereafter will hinder anything but 4wd vehicles with high clearance. Another snowbank past the first will stop all vehicles looking to drive to treeline. The route itself is surprisingly clear of snow, but there are several mandatory snow crossings with long runouts into the wrong drainage. Ice axe/spikes not mandatory, but helpful and probably still a good idea. |
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6/3/2023 Route: East Slopes Posted On: 6/3/2023, By: Mmorett Info: Started at Mt Princeton road got a 4am start, the weather was perfect even though the forecast called for rain and snow. Made it to the summit around 8:30 with no problems. Microspikes were essential throughout the route, and I also used an ice axe for extra security. Overall it was a great hike, coming down the weather started to turn foggy, and also started to snow. Ended at 12pm |
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6/3/2023 Route: East Slopes Posted On: 6/8/2023, By: katiejacksons Info: Started at around 7:30am, snow was well packed on the way up. Spikes were neccessary and an ice axe was helpful. Summitted around 10:00am. Snow had started to mashed potato on the way back down; I really liked having my axe for security. Summit was in a cloud on the way up, but cleared for some views at the top. There is lots of good camping up by the 4WD trailhead so I would recommend camping out the night befor and getting an earlier start than I did! Great time. |
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5/31/2023 Route: South East Bowl Posted On: 5/31/2023, By: Christensenje Info: Skiers: leave the ice axe, skins, and crampons at home. Wore runners to the summit. Micro spikes could be used for people who want more security. Both lines are still in if you hike down the ridge a bit and youre willing to work around some exposed sharks on the top part. Bowl skid really well. Don't think the lines will be in much longer. |
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5/28/2023 Route: East Slopes Posted On: 5/28/2023, By: Briere Info: Road to 4WD TH is free of snow and mud. I went up via Tigger and down via the summer route. I brought along snowshoes for the hike but never used them or micro spikes. My ice axe came in handy on the snow crossing. Snow crossings were hard packed snow that were warming up throughout the day. |
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5/28/2023 Route: East Slopes Posted On: 5/30/2023, By: L_Macalister Info: Was a bit of a sufferfest. Road was clear to the radio towers and a little further beyond, ending at the first switchback past the towers. Took the standard route up and back. Up was pretty smooth traveling on crusty frozen snow. Decided to be super safe and used spikes and an axe to cross the snow slopes, but some people I met made it without either. By the time we hit the saddle the sun had softened up the snow to slush. The final 1000 ft was intermittent trail, loose rock, post holing, mud, and slush. Beautiful day on the summit, mostly clear and sunny! Down was worse than up. In hindsight, my hiking buddy and I both felt that it would have been faster to ride the ridge back to Tigger and descend the steep but dry rock (or possibly still a chance to glissade down part of it) back to the trail. Might be worth considering this if you hike it anytime soon after Memorial Day. |
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5/21/2023 Route: East Slopes Posted On: 7/5/2023, By: kciarlet Info: This is posted a bit late but when was up on princeton back in May I found a crampon. Looked like it was dropped within the past few days of when I skied on 5/21. If it is yours message me and we can work on getting it back to you. |
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5/20/2023 Route: East Slopes Posted On: 5/21/2023, By: carpincho97 Info: Went up Princeton via Tigger Peak on the way up and standard route on the way down. The 4WD trailhead at 11,000 is accessible and snow-free, but everything higher than that is fully covered in snow. We used both microspikes and snowshoes on the way up and needed both--- the snow is very soft and postholing was a problem throughout the hike, even in the early morning. We also brought ice axes and used them regularly to mini self-arrest as you need to cross steep slopes covered in snow several times. Certainly not my favorite 14er experience, but at least it's done, right? |
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5/6/2023 Route: East Slopes Posted On: 5/7/2023, By: dementedavocado Info: Started from the 2WD lot a little after 3am, summitted a little after 9am, got down a little before 1pm with someone who gave us a ride down the service road. There were a couple cars that found a spot to park a little ways before the radio towers and a car that had made it all the way up to the radio tower. Snow isn't an issue for cars until directly after the radio tower, then the road is impassible. My group decided to bypass Tigger Peak and do the normal summer route, can't necessarily recommend that but it worked for us. I think you have to pick your poison either way but if you do the summer route plan ahead and be careful. We did it with no traction devices whatsoever and it was a little sketchy in the morning. The snow was extremely hard to dig into and we were balancing our way across an extremely steep slope of icy snow. If you were to slip it would be difficult to stop yourself and it would be a bad day if you hit one of the rocks/boulders on the way down. Was better on the way back when the snow softened up but we were making our way across pretty obvious avalanche chutes, I wouldn't feel safe doing that in the afternoon. We did the whole thing with no extra gear/flotation, but hit some gnarly postholing in rocky terrain on the way back down the summer route which was asking for a rolled ankle. If you do the Tigger route I don't think you'd need any traction/flotation, but if you do the summer route you definitely need to start early and you could save yourself some trouble by bringing poles and spikes, maybe an ice axe if you really want some extra grip in the steep spots. You definitely don't need snowshoes but you could bring them to avoid slushy postholing on the way down. Overall great hike though! |
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5/6/2023 Route: East Slopes Posted On: 5/7/2023, By: colekics Info: We were able to get up to .5 miles from the 4WD trailhead in the car. There was little to no snow to that point, and we didn't want to try to get all the way up to the top because someone in a previous TR mentioned that it starts to get snowy before the actual trailhead. However, it was dry by Saturday so you definitely can make it all the way in a 4WD car. We started hiking by 11:15 pm on Friday night. The trail was snowy all the way to the Tigger Peak ridge, which we went over and continued to the summer trail. We stashed snowshoes there and never ended up using them. It was still snowed over on the north face section of the summer trail, and it was icy for the most part. We had spikes and an axe, so we stomped out a boot track to make it easier on the way back. Some areas of the snow gave more, but others were bulletproof and we couldn't press tracks in. I probably had 10-15 mini self arrests on this section of the trail because of that, so I think sometimes it is best to actually walk sideways with your boots facing uphill to get the most traction possible out of your spikes. Crampons are probably preferrable when the snow is this crusty. Once we gained the ridge it was mostly rocky with only a few snowy areas. The way down was basically the same since we didn't get down until right after sunrise. I think our route is still preferrable to Tigger peak even though it was a little slippery. |
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5/3/2023 Route: East slopes winter route via tigger peak Posted On: 5/3/2023, By: zcrennen Info: Started at 1:30 am at the 2WD trailhead to try to catch the sunrise and avoid postholing the descent. Road is snow free until just before the radio towers, where it seems like theres just a little too much snow to drive through right now. With a lack of parking spots before the towers, currently it only seems possible to start at the 2WD. Hit the towers at 2:30, where the snow picked up significantly. Steep banks on the road make for some knee and waist deep postholing, while also being tough to snowshoe or skin. Broke treeline at 3:30 and found a good footpath guiding you in the right direction. Ascended via tigger peak. Although this route is the optimal route for snow given its relative safety from avalanche terrain, it is one son of a b*tch. Choose your own adventure of large boulders hungry for a rolled ankle. Summitted tigger around 5:00, and summitted Princeton at 6:30. The descent was slow going, as it is a long way of miserable class 2 terrain. Made it back to the road at 9:30, and still had some decent postholing. Smooth sailing after the towers. RT 1:30-11:30, just under 10 hours. A rough day on a 14er beats a good day at the office! |
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4/9/2023 Route: East Slopes Posted On: 4/12/2023, By: Eagle Eye Info: I summited Sunday 4/9 from the 2WD TH, also on the recent trend of going up 13er "Tigger" and staying on the ridge to the summit. I caught an early morning snow firmness in (probably) a day before persons' descending snowshoe track, thank you. The road is a long way from being drivable, even a short distance and especially so past the Radio Tower. It's still in deep drifts. I wore micro spikes from the start and that worked out well 1) for many road sections that are smooth & icy and then 2) for the side sloping switchback parts of the road. There was only one well-traveled deviation from the summer route, a straight up connection that shortcut a switchback. So I carried snowshoes all the way to the Tigger summit cairn and left them there. It's still a mile on the ridge to the Mt P summit but I have always enjoyed that way/view. I mostly stayed climbers left on the ridge crest. A couple of false summits later...arriving on the summit! WHAT A VIEW. There's even an old style (but very new) Colorado Mountain Club PVC summit register tethered up there. I met a skier guy w/his dog coming up when I was halfway back to the Mt P/Tigger saddle. Back down off of Tigger, at the junction of the trail/road/trees snowshoes became an absolute must. It had become incredibly warm, soft & rotten since my cold ascent trip & I needed the snowshoes for miles -even past the Radio Towers. The guy I'd met early had successfully gotten up/skied down (one of the East side gully's) fast and we crossed paths again. They were the only ones I saw on this almost windless, sunny Mt Princeton Day! I'll post about the road condition in Trailhead Conditions but in a word here DONT$DO$IT. --happy trails!! Mike Via |
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4/8/2023 Route: East Slopes - winter variation Posted On: 4/8/2023, By: AlessiaAscent Info: Summited Princeton with Logan5280 this morning. Great conditions, although some weather rolled in towards the end, so we got down quickly. We brought both snowshoes and skis, but opted to leave the skis because the road is dry for the first 1/2 mile. There are many sections of continuous snow on road, but theyre pretty broken up and would be a bad ski. We were very grateful to have opted for snowshoes - floatation is necessary unless you like knees/waist postholing. We took the standard route to about 12,000 ft, when we summited Tigger Peak instead of taking the normal trail across the north Tigger slopes. There are some wind loaded gullies above the normal trail from 12,000 to the ridge, so we stayed high, summited Tigger, and then descended that ridge onto the Princeton ridge. This is the play - every other group that we saw also took this route. Summit and summit ridge were both snowy and rocky, but we didnt use snowshoes, opting to rock hop. The East Couloirs ski descents on Princeton look like theyre in, but seem a little sketch because of wind loading/aspect. Also, like I said before, north gullies above standard route are no bueno - very high avalanche probability. We met three guys close to the summit of Tigger peak- we kept hoping to run into you again because Logan got a great picture of you! Posting it here in case you see this |
