Cronin Peak

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 8/24/2021, By: Trotter
Info: Climbed North ridge, then ridge walk over to Mt White. Bills route description is spot on, and its a fairly pleasant hike. Was able to cross creek without wet feet, and willows are minimal. Couldn't sign summit register as someone didn't put the pencil back in after signing it this week. So it needs a pencil. 

Route: Southwest ridge, from Cyclone Creek TH
Posted On: 7/10/2021, By: mijoflynn
Info: Chaffee County 240 is rough above the Angel of Shavano campground -- it took about 30 minutes to drive the 5 miles to the Cyclone Creek TH, which is just an unmarked pulloff. But I made it without scraping the skid plates on my Cherokee Trailhawk (same clearance as a Subaru, 8.7", but better angles). I did Carbonate --> Cyclone --> "Lo Carb" --> Cronin, taking pretty much the same route as the one in rajz06's TR, except that I turned and started up Carbonate almost immediately. Summer conditions the whole way. On the return trip, you have to resummit "Lo Carb" (no big deal) and Cyclone (a drag -- its north side is steep and loose). Then you have a choice: resummit Carbonate and go down the way you came up, or descend west down a gully and follow the creek back to the TH. For anyone who's thinking about this route, I'd suggest biting the bullet and going back over Carbonate. The gully is so long and so loose, and the "trail" (if you can find it) is so overgrown and so covered with deadfall, that taking that way down is going to be just as much effort as reclimbing the extra 400'. The forest in that valley is in really bad shape -- more beetlekill than I've seen anywhere else in CO. 10 miles, ~4500'. Hazy today -- couldn't see very far. No one else on any of the four peaks. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 7/3/2021, By: bethyhewes
Info: Summer conditions 

Route: North face
Posted On: 6/6/2021, By: dcruz654
Info: The face it self is still holding some snow, but there isn't much time left to ski it from the tippy top. I bet it won't last through the week. I was able to drop off the summit to the north on a steep very narrow strip of snow (not much wider than my split board) that connected to a much much bigger piece of snow that starts on the ridge maybe 75' below north of the summit. I dropped at 915am and honestly was probably 30/45 mins late today. It gets sun early. Don't bother bringing skins, I booted the whole way from the road. Very little snow along the standard route, most of it is way up high on the ridge and avoidable. No need for crampons, spikes or an axe. I tried to highlight the strip that connects to the summit. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 5/25/2021, By: One Sierra Charlie
Info: Cronin as seen during an ascent of Antero. 

Route: NE Ridge direct
Posted On: 4/2/2021, By: daway8
Info: Split off from the Antero trail at ~11k and took the ridge the entire way up. This variation is basically avy safe (besides the known slide zones on the 4WD road) but the ridge goes on forever and has a ridiculous number of false summits. Only a couple sets of tracks on the 4WD road up towards Antero and none past Baldwin Creek so I set in a new trench. Snow now covering the huge ice flows on the 4WD road but one was starting to get exposed again at the end of the day. A couple very minor loose wet slides along the road plus a beach ball sized roller ball. Snow was firm in the morning but even with snowshoes on following my tracks from the morning still sporadically sank past my knees on the way down in the evening. Crossing Baldwin Creek was slightly sketchy but didn't punch through. It's probably best to not be hiking that 4WD road during the heat of the day given the small slides seen (those ones weren't a threat to anyone but if they get bigger...) 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 1/16/2021, By: blazintoes
Info: A summit only counts if there's at least one false summit. There are a few on this ridge and it's a bit icy. Minor scramble on loose rocks at the beginning of the ridge and west crosswinds added to difficulty. Rode fat bike up then trenched to the ridge. Never used ax or spikes. Surrounding peaks look dry. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 11/16/2020, By: Unknown
Info: Ascended standard (hell of a trench) and looped over to the 4wd road due to tough conditions. Put on snowshoes at 10,870' and took them off at the ridge. Never used traction but I'd advise it for some, never used my axe 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 10/7/2020, By: coopereitel
Info: I parked my Jeep around 12,080' on the Antero 4x4 road. I meant to stop earlier but I didn't know where I was going. This ended up working well though. I traversed around the south side of the lake to climb up the 12,082" bump. I know the route Roach describes goes to the north of the bump but since I was where I was (to the south) I went up a ridge type thing up to the main ridge. It was steep but not unbearable. The actual north ridge had a bit of snow on it. I did fine in my trail runners. The picture below has more description of my route. I went down to the saddle with Antero and climbed that too, they make a nice combo. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 9/6/2020, By: NatDog
Info: Summited via the East Ridge from the standard route on Antero. There is a trail up the East Ridge but at times is difficult to follow. I found sticking to the ridge crest to be best. There is some loose rock but wasn't much of an issue. The descent on the North Ridge was a different story. Just about every rock, big and small, was loose. Be careful to stay on the trail directly on the ridge crest - there are some very steep scree slopes on both sides for much of the ridgeline. There was one small tower that I tried to bypass but then I found myself pretty far below the ridge crest and had to contour on some nasty scree to return back to the ridge. I left the North Ridge and descended East toward Baldwin Gulch at the low point of the saddle before the ridge ascends back up to Pt. 12591. I dropped directly toward the patch of bright green vegetation shown in photos 4, 5, and 6. This was a steep scree slope but was manageable the whole way. There were no other hikers on the entire loop from when I left the Antero trail until I re-joined it below treeline. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 6/15/2020, By: mtn_nut
Info: North Ridge is 99% snow free now. I think i had to step on snow once around 300' below the saddle. 

Route: Little Browns
Posted On: 6/13/2020, By: dwoodward13
Info: Loop up Little Browns, down Browns. Hit White->Cronin->Lo Carb->Cyclone->Carbonate. Full summer conditions. Descended Cyclone/Carb saddle. Glissade opportunity if you want, otherwise you can stick to rocks. There is a old mining road that will pretty painlessly lead you to the active 4x4 road to Browns Lake. It's visible on satellite views. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 5/30/2020, By: SurfNTurf
Info: Ascended the North Ridge and descended the East Ridge. Carried ice axes and microspikes, but didn't need either. Any snowfields were largely avoidable. Dry, summer conditions, doable in trail runners with no special gear. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 5/3/2020, By: wintersage
Info: 2WD TH is dry and accessible. Mount Antero jeep road has snow and ice accumulations starting 0.5mi from the entrance, only saw one Jeep make it past that point but not much further. Road is generally dry until the fork. From there you have continuous slushy, posthole-prone snow up to treeline. The cutoff that peels you away from the Mount Antero standard trail is extremely deep and slushy; you sink with every step. The actual slope leading up to the ridge has snow in some sections but is dry in other sections. We took the dryer patch to avoid avy danger. Ridge itself is fairly dry with snow in some parts; no flotation or spikes needed on the ridge proper. Rest of the route requires snowshoes however 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 11/11/2019, By: angry
Info: Snow is continuous from start of 2wd trailhead until treeline. Trench in place. Didn't use traction or flotation. Ridge has some wind scoured sections while other areas are holding a lot of snow. Rock is loose. Recommend sticking to ridge proper.