5/30/2025 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 |
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1/14/2025 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. |
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1/12/2025 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. |
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10/14/2024 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! |
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6/14/2024 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. |
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5/11/2024 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! |
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3/28/2024 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! |
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1/3/2024 Route: North slope Posted On: 1/6/2024, By: 123tqb Info: The trail only had spotty snow above treeline, and was packed in enough below that we never even put on our snowshoes starting from the winter trailhead. |
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10/22/2023 Route: North slope Posted On: 10/22/2023, By: courtc43 Info: The road is now closed and gated at the winter trailhead. I did the Paiute/Audubon loop and brought microspikes, but didnt use them. There are a few icy sections on the Blue Lakes trail below treeline. There were also a couple of short, snowy patches above treeline on both Paiute and Audubon, but almost all of it can be avoided. |
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10/8/2023 Route: North slope Posted On: 10/9/2023, By: jfritz42 Info: Barely any snow/ice. There were a handful of spots at the very top but were easy to avoid by stepping on the rocks around them. Cold, about 40F (at 5am) with steady 10-20 mph easterly wind. Warmed up to high 50's by noon. Not many ppl. We were the 2nd car at the Mitchell Lake Trailhead Parking Lot at 4:45 am. Parking lot half full at noon. |
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9/26/2023 Route: North slope Posted On: 9/26/2023, By: L1zzz1ee Info: Climbed from the Mitchell Lake TH. Easy to Audubon. Traverse was pretty stable. Descended too early off the ridge to Toll, very loose but not impossible. Basically no snow. |
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9/25/2023 Route: North slope Posted On: 9/25/2023, By: HikesInGeologicTime Info: Barest hints of ice/snow are easily avoidable. Traverse to Paiute looked equally dry, if not even more so, and weather was nice enough for it to be doable today, but I am now in the hedonistic hiking phase of my life, so further talus-hopping with 600 feet of elevation regain did not suit me. |
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6/19/2023 Route: North slope Posted On: 6/19/2023, By: shapovalovm Info: TH to ~11300 - endless snow patches (very annoying, 5 feet up 5 feet down), some are pretty big. From there, there are still a few snow fields until the summit. No need for any gear, the snow is either hard enough or avoidable, just be prepared to move slower than usual and be ready for a lot of water on/around the trail. |
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6/4/2023 Route: Crooked Couloir Posted On: 6/4/2023, By: skiandbike Info: Last weekend for the winter trailhead gate for Brainard. Biked up a clear road with a few snow banks just short of the Mitchell TH. It rained all morning and transitioned to snow around Blue Lake. About 3" of fresh snow in the couloir and a bit mushy under that from the overnight cloud cover. Summited in blustery winter conditions and then quickly backtracked to switch to skis at the top of the line. New snow didn't bond well in the middle third of the line. Nice to get out and do a gear waterproof test. |
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5/27/2023 Route: East slopes Posted On: 5/27/2023, By: NittanyLion14er Info: Early start spikes should be good. otherwise snowshoes to above tree line. Rock and grass scramble to solid snow capped summit. No Glissading, snow too soft by late morning. |
