4/22/2023 Route: North slope Posted On: 4/22/2023, By: shepherdkyle Info: Anima and I summited Audubon from the winter closure via north slope. Someone kept shaking the snow globe and forgot to tell the perpetrators its spring. Trench filled in when we came down, but wasnt difficult to re-establish. 6+ inches of new snow over the last 24 hours. No concerns for avy at this time. |
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4/12/2023 Route: North slope Posted On: 4/13/2023, By: tefensmom Info: Many snowshoe transitions all day. Started from winter lot. Adds ~6.5 miles round trip. One area along the route that could slide at ~10,800. Things are very melted/dry above treeline, able to mainly stay on summer trail and plunge step snowfields. I stashed snowshoes at 11,800. Saw a dead mouse/pika. Gonna add some pics of how things are looking in IPW. |
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2/25/2023 Route: Southeast Ridge Posted On: 2/26/2023, By: runningbuff Info: Wonderful day to summit! Decided to take the less conventional route up the Southeast Ridge — I may add this as a route on here with a map, as I was up the previous weekend and took some wrong turns that prevented a successful summit as the terrain was less intuitive than I thought. Skinned from the Gateway Trailhead to Marshall Lake Trailhead, then continued a mile on the Marshall Lake Trail before turning off and tracing the west side of the lake to the base of the gully leading up to the ridge. The snow was great in the morning, though on the way back around 7-8pm we noticed a lot had melted on the road during the day leaving some thinner sections. The gully leading to the SE ridge posed the chance of avy danger with the recent conditions, so we bootpacked along a rock band to the ridge, skinned to gain the ridge, then back to rock hopping once on the ridge. The notch had quite a bit of snow and ice, even taking the “class 2” ledge to avoid the class 3-4 downclimb was a bit treacherous in parts. The climb out of the notch was about the same, definitely class 3 maybe 4 with the ice, but taking it slowly and carefully made it alright. Switched into trail runners and rock hopped to the summit, then down the regular North Ridge route to the steeper slope at 11,500. At this point one can ski the rest of the way back following a clear snowshoe/ski track, but if you're like me and don't have downhill skiing experience, it's a short post hole down to less steep trail. Overall a great day! One of my favorite if not my favorite route I've done in Colorado thus far. Plan for a long day in the winter, both my partner and I are quite fit and it still took us 12 hours (though some of that can be attributed to my limited skinning experience — only my second time ever and first time bootpacking and carrying skis). Highly recommend if anybody is looking for something a little more technical and fun in the Front Range! |
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2/25/2023 Route: North slope Posted On: 2/25/2023, By: Wimyers Info: Skinned to 11,500' and hiked from there. It was pretty snowy from treeline to summit but it was mostly icy wind crust that was nice to boot up and I didn't post-hole that much. Almost no wind today despite the marginal forecast. Some snowshoers followed my skin track so there is a nice trench now. |
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10/29/2022 Route: North slope Posted On: 10/29/2022, By: madmattd Info: Half rode/half walked my hybrid bike to the Mitchell Lake TH from the closed gate. Road had 2-6" of snow depending on sun exposure, drifting, etc. It appears the forest service must have driven the road and loop around the road sometime since the snowfall, there was a solid packed double track and even the odd bare section where the driving had occurred. Where the sun hit the road yesterday was predictably icy early in the morning. More snow than I had anticipated on the road to say the least. Hats off to the skier(s) that XC skied the road from the gate to at least Brainard Lake (yesterday I'm assuming) - coverage is a bit thin for that but it appears to have been (barely) doable - not after today's sun though. The trail was broken out all the way minus a few areas where those ahead (and me) didn't find the exact corridor above treeline; there looked to be 2 sets of fresh tracks in it (I never encountered the hikers, but I think I saw them heading down the East ridge direct from the summit as I was finishing the final push). Snow was only a couple inches below treeline with some short bare stretches, above treeline ranged from slightly windblown to 6-8" deep to occasional short stretches of knee-deep snow. The final steep pitch to the summit was a game of Russian Roulette with either deep or shallow snow between the occasional exposed rock - tedious. Conditions to Paiute Peak looked to be similar, but unbroken. I brought but did not use microspikes, generally the snow was too deep for them to be effective, but not deep enough to warrant snowshoes (except perhaps on the summit cone, it was pretty deep most of the way). Saw a couple more hikers heading up on my way down. The ride out on the road was much better than in the morning (managed to ride 99% of it), a fair bit of snow melted out during the day, but still tricky through packed ruts with my bike - though a couple others managed the same trick in e-bikes. Gorgeous day overall - sunny until mid-afternoon when thin cloud cover filtered in, little to no breeze except right near the summit (10-15mph there), and comfortable temps. |
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10/8/2022 Route: North slope Posted On: 10/8/2022, By: ryansunshine20 Info: Only a little bit of snow on the last bit up the north slope. The snow was soft enough that I did not need spikes but if it was a bit harder they would be nice to have. |
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8/4/2022 Route: Clockwise loop - Paiute to Audubon Posted On: 8/5/2022, By: Makbrad Info: Dry, summer conditions. Some water running down the trail around the willows. |
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7/2/2022 Route: North slope Posted On: 7/3/2022, By: geomorphdan Info: water running on trail, but practically no snow up to Audubon. Traversed to Paiute, all class 2+. Some snow getting down from Paiute to Blue lake, but no spikes/axe needed - just a fun, moderate glissade in the soft snow. Some snow and lots of mud on the Blue/Mitchell trail. |
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6/20/2022 Route: North slope Posted On: 6/21/2022, By: DeTour Info: Brainard Lake website has a muddy trail warning but our threesome hiked Audubon Monday and returned with clean and dry shoes. Snow was a non-issue - we brought microspikes but had no need to put them on. A few drifts in the forest and about 200' of snow-covered trail on the eastern slope at about 11200' elevation, all soft enough to traverse in trail runners with no postholing. A lot of the trail from 11400' to saddle at 12500 does double duty as a stream. Step on the rocks through there, don't contribute to the trail braiding. Beautiful day and stunning views - better than most 14ers IMO! |
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5/14/2022 Route: Crooked Couloir Posted On: 5/14/2022, By: thebeave7 Info: Skied back into Blue Lake to hit some spring lines. The road has several drifts still, so while mostly bikeable there are several walking sections. The road becomes mostly snow covered behind Brainard Lake. We skinned all the way from there to Blue lake, only took off our skiis twice briefly. First skied Mt Toll SE face, great conditions at 10a this morning. Crooked Couloir is still fully in but melting fast, skied great just after noon. The South face of Audubon is discontinuous, SE chutes looked good, but a few didn't top out all the way. Paiute Peak East face is still Phat! Still a good amount of snow up high, but warm temps are changing things fast. |
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3/27/2022 Route: South ridge Posted On: 3/28/2022, By: ellenmseb Info: Snowshoes VERY NECESSARY between summer trailhead and treeline. Treeline to audubon is basically dry The traverse from audubon to paiute is surprisingly heads-up currently. I used my ice axe to basically self-belay across each of 3 snow-ridges, but then decided i didn't want to leave that snow to soften further, so turned around 200' below paiute. I wouldn't even consider it without ice axe |
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3/20/2022 Route: North slope Posted On: 3/20/2022, By: dleflar Info: Summit is pretty much clear and windblown. East side of peak holds some snow but it's bullet proof. The north ridge has minimal snow which can be avoided if that's your thing. Went up north ridge and spotted another hiker going down the East ridge with minimal effort so that can be used also for exit off summit currently. Below treeline holds lots of snow but some brave soul made a perfect boot pack from summer trail-head to up above treeline with minimal wandering. The boot pack exits higher than summer trail but this avoided all of the snow on the summer trail above tree line. Wish I knew who made that boot pack cause they made my day pretty easy even with a winter trail head start. |
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2/20/2022 Route: North slope Posted On: 2/21/2022, By: acasali Info: From Mitchell Lake trailhead to treeline, all untracked soft snow. Hardpacked windblown snow at treeline, with only light coverage above treeline. Snowshoes or skis needed below treeline, especially after this week's storm - I suspect the small trench my partner and I created will be quickly filled. |
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12/22/2021 Route: North slope Posted On: 12/23/2021, By: dsr80304 Info: Reminder that start is from the winter TH, so ~4.5 mi RT to the trail TH, and then ~8 mile RT from there. Road basically all clear from parking to the true trailhead. Trail below treeline was pretty postholey - hadn't seen any recent traffic. Snowshoes or skins would've been much more enjoyable. Then dry to the top. But snow coming in tonight/tomorrow |
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10/1/2021 Route: North slope Posted On: 10/1/2021, By: MaryinColorado Info: Trail was dry up until just before the turn off from the trail to the final scramble. Patches of snow from there onward. Rocks/boulders toward the northern aspect were covered in quite a bit of verglas (thin ice) making for slow going. Staying more toward the southern aspect was better; drier and less ice. Conditions are bound to change again due to snow in the forecast tonight, but that's not likely to change the presence of ice, so be careful out there. |
