Mt. Audubon

Route: North slope
Posted On: 6/15/2026, By: Alessem
Info: In great shape. A few small snow crossings at timberline, but otherwise dry. 

Route: North slope
Posted On: 6/8/2026, By: paigemoney
Info: Gate for the road still closed adding 3 miles of dry pavement each way. I rode my bike in this morning; there is a bike rack at the trailhead. Don’t forget to display your America the Beautiful Pass on your windshield or pay the required winter parking fee.

Patchy snow remains on the trail, with some deeper sections. The longest snow crossing is between 11,100 and 11,200 feet. Everything was still firm when I descended mid-morning, but I suspect there will be some postholing later in the day after the sun has had time to soften the snow. I did not use spikes. None of the snowfields are in high-consequence terrain.

There is also a significant amount of running water and snowmelt on portions of the trail. I anticipate it will be a few weeks before this is dry/snow free. 

Route: Crooked Couloir
Posted On: 5/17/2026, By: kyrawhitworth
Info: Trail is mostly snow from Mitchell lake parking areas. We just booted up to Blue Lake as there was a hard enough freeze. Snow in the couloir was perfect for cramponing up at 8:30am but warmed up quickly. Snow line is not in from the summit but it’s a quick jaunt over there on dry rock. Dropped just before 11am on great snow to ski down. We were able to keep skis on until the bridge about 0.5 mile from the parking area with a lot of scooting. 

Route: North slope
Posted On: 1/4/2026, By: Outbounder
Info: The road from the winter lot is mostly dry with a few snowy/icy sections from the wind. You're not going to be skiing the road anytime soon. When you turn off in the trees there's an excellent trench. None of us used snow shoes. The path is easy to follow. As you're approaching treeline the snow deepens and becomes looser. Snow shoes could be helpful in the section though it's short enough we didn't use them. You will be post holing up to your knees a few times, though.

The snow dissipates around the fork in the trail. Above that the trail is snow dusted and icy. Spikes could be helpful. 

Route: North slope
Posted On: 11/2/2025, By: ajeski
Info: Still summer conditions. A few small areas below tree line with some snow on the trail. That is to be expected this time of year. Bailed on making my way over to Paiute Peak due to the wind. The wind was crazy today! I did Mount Audubon & Paiute Peak together last year. So, I don't feel bad about not tagging Paiute Peak today. The views from the summit of Mount Audubon are amazing though. Very easy trail to follow as well. I highly recommend this hike. Starting from the winter trailhead does add 6 miles to this hike. That just means more of a workout! 

Route: North slope
Posted On: 9/25/2025, By: GUTstring
Info: Snow covers much of the trail. Shin and knee-deep snow drifts with exposed talus sections on summit cone above relatively flat saddle between Audubon and "Notabon" to the NE 

Route: North slope
Posted On: 9/21/2025, By: ezm2
Info: Light dusting of snow. I did it with trail shoes, dependent on future over the next week precipitation I would recommend bringing spikes. 

Route: Standard/Paiute
Posted On: 7/2/2025, By: Piotr
Info: The whole trail all the way up Audubon and over to Paiute is nice and dry. Descending down couloir I was glad to have my ice ax - the snow field at the top is about 200 yards long and steep. Otherwise dry/loose from there to the upper lake.
The descend to the Blue Lake is the crux/horror at the moment - bunch of collapsing snow bridges/deep holes with water running underneath. 

Route: North slope to Crooked
Posted On: 5/30/2025, By: k_fergie
Info: Went up the north slopes/east ridge and down crooked couloir this morning. Pretty marginal freeze, but the skiing in crooked was excellent. Its super well filled in. All the steeper lines in the east bowl area of Audubon (Autobon, Autobot, Cirque Central, etc.) are out/full of debris, nothing worth skiing there anymore from what I could tell. Observed a large wet slab on Paiute's east face, presumably skier triggered 

Route: North slope
Posted On: 1/15/2025, By: k9kyle
Info: Parked a gateway TH and was able to XC ski to Mitchell, then wore snowshoes up to a bit above tree line. I found the trail very hard to follow and was on and off of it the entire time. Went across some slopes I didn't love but the snow was pretty stable. Snow was very deep until above tree line it was mostly windswept. For Audobon it was not super windy at the top. Enough snow up top that I was able to glissade a few times on the way down. 

Route: Standard variation from Mitchell Lake outflow
Posted On: 1/13/2025, By: Stratosfearsome
Info: Parked at Gateway. $10 cash fee. Walked road, probably 90% snow covered. Skiable. Refreshed trench to Mitchell Lake. Some fool who looks just like me forgot his slow shoes but worked out ok. Cold enough that I only sank a foot or two into pristine snow. Scrambled up loose class 2 rocks to shoulder to avoid avy slopes and minimize wallowing, then stayed on grass and exposed rocks to summit. 14F at 8:45am start and 3F on summit and 10-15 mph winds all day. 

Route: North slope
Posted On: 10/14/2024, By: climbingyogi
Info: The road to Brainard Lake was closed, even though the FS website said it was open. Luckily the road walking from the Gateway TH goes pretty quick.

Only saw 3 people on Audubon today - lovely fall day out! 

Route: East slopes up to Crooked Couloir Ski
Posted On: 6/14/2024, By: slawrence2011
Info: On the ascent trail, a few drifts through the trees, but mostly dry on the ridge all the way to summit, willow crossing right before ridge was nasty, there must have been an easier way. Dropped at around 11, normally would have been too late, but was very much a drained summer snowpack, then traversed over to SE face of Paiute, climbed that in surprisingly great booting conditions (no crampons or axe due to softness), but it did rain lightly on me for a couple hours, summited, then dropped around 2, managed to ski down to 10,5 thanks to 9PatrickMurphy's tracks, and with taking off skis a few times to figure out how to get to blue lakes. Crooked Couloir is barely in, but SE face of Paiute looks like it will last a bit longer, though there are a few rock bergschrunds to be careful of. 

Route: Crooked Couloir
Posted On: 5/15/2024, By: B_2
Info: The road was snow-covered to the gate on this morning, but is melting out fast so expect the fun annual dance between the bare pavement and snow drifts. Not bikeable yet.

Crooked couloir was in fine shape and theres a boot pack. Thanks to the guys who put that in about 30 min before we got there, that was nice! The couloir was about 3 of fresh snow on top of hard pack which the 6 skiers who went on this day pretty much scraped off. Skiing was ok late morning but Im not sure glissade would have been very successful or fun. Might be nice if it softens up a bit over the next week or two. Wet slides off rock features/steeps started all around the basin at around 11am, on Paiute, Toll, and even next to us near the apron of the couloir as we exited. Nothing major though - the couloir seems very solid except for about 150 vert of 3 crust over unconsolidated near the top on climbers left/skiers right which you will find yourself passing through if you follow the bootpack. This is avoidable to climbers R/skiers L.

Another pair of skiers we ran into in the parking lot were able to skin up the entire standard route. Theres a bit of a rock walk between the summit and the couloir entrance.

So the whole loop goes mostly on snow at this point if youre interested! 

Route: North slope
Posted On: 3/28/2024, By: dbolton
Info: Deep snow, but not too hard to find the route using marks in the snow from previous parties. I used snowshoes starting about 2 miles after the winter parking lot. One of them broke on the way down, which served to illustrate how much harder it is without them!