7/18/2021 Route: Northwest Slopes Posted On: 7/31/2021, By: seth0687 Info: Huron was a blast. Road was easily passable with our stock 4Runner all the way to the upper trailhead. The river crossing was a non-issue… Peak was dry and the hike was beautiful. This is my 21st and probably one of my favorites for an easy hike! If you want to see summer conditions check out our video! https://youtu.be/0NVhz9OElKU |
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7/7/2021 Route: Northwest Slopes Posted On: 7/7/2021, By: cisnerosab Info: Great weather, clear trail all the way up. Started at 4am from the 2WD lot and was the first to summit, but saw loads of people on the way down; more than I expected for a Wednesday, even on a busy route. |
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7/2/2021 Route: Northwest Slopes Posted On: 7/2/2021, By: Evan_Hikes Info: Summer conditions all the way to the summit. Not once did I step on snow, some snow melt streams running across the upper trail. Started from the 2WD TH, took 3:26 to summit and 2:05 to return. Little steeper than I was ready for. Really wouldn't advise anything less than high clearance 2WD to this point. Definitely 4WD to the upper TH, only a few puddles. |
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6/30/2021 Route: Northwest Slopes Posted On: 7/1/2021, By: derekpetrie Info: Summer conditions. Slightly muddy in a few spots due to the frequent rain. Flowers and streams are in pristine condition. |
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6/28/2021 Route: Northwest Slopes Posted On: 6/29/2021, By: laurenedie4 Info: Completed on 6/28/21. Started at 6 am from the 4WD upper lot. My friend drove her Subaru Crosstrek up the road and we made it just fine. Just have to take it slow. Took us 2:25 to summit. Spent 30 minutes at the top. 1:50 to get down. Great day for it. Dusting of snow at the top from the cold front that came in over the weekend. Some spots on the way up were slick, frozen ground, icy rocks, etc. We had micro spikes with us but didn't use them. Just watched our footing especially on the last 500ft. Very doable 14er! Navigable path, no issues with route finding. Had awesome views at the top of The Three Apostles and beyond. |
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6/27/2021 Route: Northwest Slopes Posted On: 6/27/2021, By: gggrams Info: Was an excellent choice to fourwheel the extra couple miles to the trailhead, just make sure you have 4wd and decent clearance as there are a couple of spots that were close to impassable in my stock '06 4runner. Summited easily under 2 hours, it snowed the night before however so the spots that normally were clear had a bit of snow and the ones that normally have water were icy in the AM, but melted on the way down. Should be full normal summer conditions by tomorrow. |
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6/23/2021 Route: Northwest Slopes Posted On: 6/23/2021, By: Terrapin17 Info: Summer conditions the entire way. Started just above the lower TH at 9pm on 6/22 and summited at 1am (6/23). Returned to the car at 4:20am. |
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6/21/2021 Route: Northwest Slopes Posted On: 6/21/2021, By: BigfootUSAF Info: Summer conditions, no traction needed. Trail is in great shape, only hard part to follow is the Class 2 crux of the route near the summit.....a bit loose, trekking poles were helpful |
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6/12/2021 Route: North Ridge from Lulu Gulch Posted On: 6/12/2021, By: SamWerner Info: Just an addition to the previous report, there is a HUGE cornice on the summit area. Make sure you don't stand on it when you're on the summit. Other than that, nothing to add from prior report. Unfortunately didn't remember to take a picture of it, but looking from below, it looks like about 4-5 feet of the ~8 foot wide snow at the top is overhung. |
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6/12/2021 Route: Northwest Slopes Posted On: 6/13/2021, By: kimbuk2 Info: Started from the upper trailhead, 4x4 road could be spicy for lower clearance vehicles, 4x4 recommended. Drove up in my non-lifted Land Cruiser just fine. Started at 4:30 am. Summer conditions except for some snowfields in the basin. The trail is super easy to follow & consists of a bunch of mellow switchbacks up until cresting over the treeline into the basin (2~ miles). There was a freeze the night before so we were able to walk on top of the snowfield on the way up, and only post holed into the slushy snow a few times on the way back (8am~). Might be sloppier later in the day. Past the basin, a more vertical walk up to the ridge and the last bit to the summit had some snow that is completely avoidable, some super light scrambling, but generally still a walk to the summit and stellar views of The Three Apostles. Gear consisted of: La Sportiva Bushido trail runners, tights, light ss base layer, sun hoodie, R1 layer. Brought extra socks just in case they got wet in the snow but ended up not needing them. Easy-to-follow, well-maintained trail throughout. |
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6/10/2021 Route: North Ridge from Lulu Gulch Posted On: 6/11/2021, By: Kook-Meister-Flex Info: Did the full loop starting from Lulu Gulch and coming down the standard route. Road was dry till the 2nd road junction going into Lulu Basin. 4 patches of snow from there to the beginning of switchbacks up Middle Mountain. All of which are easily avoidable. Ridge from Middle Mountain to Browns is also dry minus 2 snow patches towards the Peak of Browns. Knee deep postponing for a very short distance to Summit Browns. Ridge from Browns to Huron was dry. Coming down Huron on the standard route there are 3 large snowfields in the Basin before tree line. All 3 were knee deep post hope city with the last one practically being a giant puddle with some slush floating on top (worst part of the whole route, took over 30 minutes to get through the snow). The trail was dry from there to the 2WD trailheal. Minus the snowfield in the Basin, the standard trail was very nice and I was blown away by the efforts of the Colorado 14ers Initiative in making that trail. 11.5 miles loop, 4,000 ft gain, 6.5 hours moving time, start 6:30- end 4:00 |
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6/9/2021 Route: Northwest Slopes Posted On: 6/10/2021, By: kbnellie Info: Road to TH is open and manageable. Past Winfield is a lower parking area because past that, the road gets rough and 4x4 is needed. We made it up pretty easily with our Chevy truck, we also saw an Outback that made it to the top TH. We made it to the TH at about 8am and there were 4 other vehicles. Lower TH had about 4-5 vehicles.Trail conditions were great and snow-free up to the basin, with very manageable elevation gain. There is still some snow in the basin but appears to be melting fast. On the way up, we could walk on top of the snow, on the way down, we post holed a few times. The snow patch along the trail in the basin is about the length of about 2 football fields, so maybe 10-15 minutes to cross. I hiked in shorts and trail runners and never used my yack tracks. After the basin, the elevation gain gets intense and there is some bouldering needed to get to the summit. Our dogs did great! Some snow between the basin and the summit which was easy to navigate around. The views on the summit and on the ascent are spectacular. We came into this hike prepared to turn around depending on the snow conditions, and pleasantly found very manageable trail conditions. Highly recommend this 14er, would still pack micro spikes or yack tracks in the near future, just in case. -Kara from Wisconsin |
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6/6/2021 Route: North Ridge from Lulu Gulch Posted On: 6/6/2021, By: clairekm Info: Road is dry to the junction at 11,400 then drifts of snow occasionally cover the road until the start of the switchbacks up Middle Mountain. Direct route up Browns from there still has snow cover on the upper portions. No snow on the Middle Mountain switchbacks or any of the ridge line between PT 12622 and Pt13462. There is one snow crossing required to summit Browns from the saddle with PT13462. |
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6/1/2021 Route: North Ridge from Lulu Gulch Posted On: 6/2/2021, By: Ryspriggs92 Info: Some post holing in trees. Not bad. Snowshoes def not needed. Spikes helpful. On and off throughout day. Ridge to Huron is amazing. Patches of snow. Not an issue. |
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5/26/2021 Route: Northwest Slopes Posted On: 5/26/2021, By: Omatt89 Info: Parked easily .5miles from Winfield intersection in big pull out on right. Road gets narrow and pretty rough here. 1.5 miles the rest of the way to the th in which is easy hiking ; the road has little snow. No snow on the Huron trail until 1/4 mile before treeline or so in which the trail becomes very, hard to find. Flotation pretty much needed here. Then trail goes bare above treeline in sun. Plenty of snow in basin, on ridge and on slopes though. Hit basin around 9am in some sun and it solid. Hiked straight up side of face thru hard snow with poles and snowshoes. There was plenty of snow on the summit but a large patch of rocks couple hundred yards down you could not ski over. Snow at descent was still hard up top at 1015am but nice corn in the basin. Still alot of snow on the ridge and standard route. The last 100feet is steep and slippery. |
