Huron Peak

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 5/31/2020, By: McMountain
Info: Summer conditions, with the exception of the basin which is covered in approximately 3 ft of soft snow. Gaiters would've helped, but no traction/flotation necessary. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 5/27/2020, By: Thevirtualsherpa
Info: Road to both THs now in summer form. Highly recommend high clearance for upper TH, 2/3 spots where a low car would scrape like whoa.

Trail up slopes before basin has patches of snow, but I wore trail runners and was fine. Once up to upper basin, there is a large football field sized snow patch left that you will posthole in. Longer you wait to hit it and descend down, the more postholing fun you get. After this section, there is another 50yard slope of snow that can be climbed with ease and no traction if you pick your lines.

After that, dry to summit. Great day on the mountain, beating the afternoon T Storms.

Gear Needed:
Boots/Shoes
Pack 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 5/24/2020, By: zachgonzales91
Info: Excellent conditions with an early start if there are overnight subzero temps. Very dry conditions - 3 or 4 short snowbanks - until 12,300 feet. At 12,3 there is a flat ~1,500 foot snowfield at the floor of the basin. Given the overnight freeze, snow was firm and very easy to traverse without traction, flotation, or post-holing. We reached snowfield by ~8am and it was still very firm at ~930am on our descent. Almost no snow after snowfield thru summit. Successful climb without snowshoes or traction devices given conditions. Microspikes would have helped for summit ridge descent given ~0.5 inch of snow accumulation while we were climbing. Without precip, climb can be done with trail runners.

Recommend this route if you make an early start and go after a cold night so that the snowfield stays hard - this will be a nightmare if warm/slushy later in the day. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 5/25/2020, By: justinbedford22
Info: Almost summer like conditions from TH to summit. First 14er hike of the season without a single posthole. Past 11,500' there are some snowbanks which obscure the trail, but they are firmly packed from all the foot traffic and the trail is easily found by following the footsteps. Right after treeline there is a large snowfield but the snow was still completely solid around 11 am on our way back. Got cell service around the final pitch, ~13,500'. Couldn't drive all the way so the upper 4wd trailhead (maybe could have made it but for me the extra mileage was worth the potential car-scraping risk). Parked about 1.5 miles from the upper trailhead. 10 mi. rt, started from car at 6:30 am and got back around 1 pm. Photos: La Plata Peak (slight left of center) and the Three Apostles seen from the summit. 

Route: Tour de Huron
Posted On: 5/25/2020, By: elknurnodnarb
Info: On friday, weather made it a perfect day. No clouds. No wind. No earth humans...until the final pitch. But they were cool. At the top, they took a polaroid of me and a beer. Then we did shots of whiskey. Where were they when the north ridge was kicking my butt all morning?

Went up the Lulu Gulch North Ridge route. No spikes, snowshoes, or axe "required." Although spikes and axe might make you feel safe. From $11,400 to $12,000 random $50-$100 patches of snow exist. You can go around them with a little bit of work. Or if you aren't fat and the sun hasn't hit them yet you can try the walk on top method.

Hit the switchbacks to Middle Mountain then ridged all the way to Huron. There is a $100 patch of snow summiting Browns where i did the hands and knees thing. But it's nothing too dangerous. At the worst you slide back to the bottom and have to do it again.

Summited Huron. Went back down the standard route. For the most part this is dry. There is a long snow-patch in the basin below Huron...maybe $1500-$2000. Don't forget to wear you're sunscreen here. I think this section singlehandedly burned my lips to shit.


Side Story: I found @Floyd trying to literally drive his car up the mountain, off trail, and skipping switch backs. Needless to say, gravity and the trees said, "Not Today." Any way, with the auto stuck and facing the sky, he looked tired and cold in just his shorts, so i picked the big guy up, slung him over my shoulder, and fireman carried him to the top so he could get cell service and call AAA. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 5/21/2020, By: Gsham11
Info: Camped off the road and had a casual start due to season and short length. Started at 0920. Road up is clear. I parked at 2wd and rode up to 4wd TH on my mountain bike. Summer conditions until 11.4k After that I headed straight up to face of the mountain to about 12 due to knee deep snow fields. Continued up main face, off trail and the snowfields held me until last 15' then it was waist-chest deep. Ascended direct face, and eventually hit the trail again. No issues to summit. No cellphone service until about 13.5 (VZW). Descent following trail to about 12.2 and then followed ridgeline straight down due to snowfields and postholing. Then a flowy DH MTB run from 4wd-2wd trailhead. car to car time ~ 6:30 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 5/18/2020, By: embernie221
Info: Road is clear to Trail head and accessible with a 4wd vehicle. A good amount of route finding is involved after the first mile due to the snow covering the trail. We lost the trail going up and coming down but were still able to find our way to the summit. We postholed a good amount of this trip especially while still in the trees and navigating the snow field. We hike fairly quickly on a normal day, but give yourself a little extra time until the snow melts. We started at 8:30am and finished around 3pm. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 5/11/2020, By: sailingstar22
Info: Large snowdrifts below treeline and the trail was mostly obscured. In the morning, my partner was fine in hiking boots and I had the luxury of microspikes to easily navigate the snow. Basin was completely full of snow, but once out of the basin, only a few snowdrifts, which made for easy hiking and very discernable trail. East aspects still holding lots of snow from the summit to treeline (saw a handful of skiers, but could not see them drop - the east aspect would be the only thing worth skiing at this point); summit has a large east cornice, so be careful about how close you get to the edge while on top. The decent was straightforward, snow stayed firm in the basin, but once at treeline and below, it had softened up and made from 1,500 ft of postholing. Snowshoes were worthless and there would have been too many bare spots, stumps, and tree for skis. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 3/1/2020, By: Wildernessjane
Info: Got about a mile up the road past the turn-around in a 4WD van. Easy to turn around here and space for multiple vehicles. Skinning up the road went faster than expected. There was remnants of a old trench that helped getting up the 4WD road from Winfield go relatively fast. Paid our dues shortly after we reached the Lake Anna TH. Trail-breaking was pretty brutal - even in skis, I was wading in mid-thigh deep snow at times (for context, I'm 5'2-3/4). A couple snowshoers that set out with us turned around shortly after this because they were sinking in so deep. This continued until just below tree-line. After that, it was pretty straightforward to the summit. Approximately 21.5 miles round trip. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 11/29/2019, By: Sean G
Info: Drove to lower trailhead. Snow was 8-10" deep for much of the road and slippery. Subaru Forester with new snow tires and I still slid once or twice. Snow was probably ~18" deep on the trail. Put in a trench to just above treeline at 12,300. Snow shoes required and plan on slow going. Turned around due to high winds and cold temps. Route looked relatively clear and wind scored to summit. Be aware of wind slabs. Pronounced cracking had us concerned but could likely avoid snow fields by boulder hoping. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 11/13/2019, By: lomiller
Info: Road to the trailhead was super icy and almost completely snow covered. Tried and failed to get up it with an AWD Equinox, so I had to park ~2 miles from the TH. The trail was in good condition, a little hard to find once you got above the tree line because of the snow cover. I wore microspikes the entire time and had no trouble with traction. Summit was pretty windy (10 am), but the wind calmed down during the descent. 

Route: Northwest Slopes
Posted On: 10/27/2019, By: Bones007
Info: Made it to the 4WD trailhead in a 4Runner pretty easily. Snow was only a few inches pretty consistently up to the basin and then ankle to knee high on the trail above that. Pretty windy at the summit but beautiful sunny day. 

Route: Up North Ridge from Lulu Gulch - Down standard
Posted On: 9/15/2019, By: letitbeirie
Info: Great trail conditions except for two places:
- Do not recommend taking the switchbacks to the top of Middle - loose, steep scree now covers all but a few inches of the trail width for about 30 feet leading up to the second switchback.
- The trail from the saddle to the summit is steep, loose dirt on top of hardpan. Engaging the (very solid) talus directly was a far more pleasant experience. 

Route: North Ridge from Lulu Gulch
Posted On: 9/16/2019, By: MountainBuhn
Info: Can confirm the previous post that one of the switchbacks had some loose sand and rock, but we didn't find it too difficult to pass. Still a much better option than going straight up to Browns Peak. Would recommend this trail. We saw no one until the trail met back up before the final 500 feet. Just be careful because there is some talus scrambling on the ridge between Browns and Huron. Started at 9am and finished in 6.5 hours total with a friend from the midwest who hadn't done a 14er.

3rd photo is the ridge between Browns and Huron. 

Route: North Ridge from Lulu Gulch
Posted On: 9/20/2019, By: Marshall
Info: There are only two real obstacles on the 4wd trail, and both have good parking right before them. Any 4WD vehicle should be able to get to the main route trail head. As for the hike, there is no trail at all if you don't go up Middle Mountain (option 1). This is not an issue though and the hike is very beautiful. Excellent conditions and really nice to make a loop of it.