One of many
trip reports under the
SilGro home page for Alan Silverstein and Cathie
Grow.
Email me at
ajs@frii.com.
Last update: May 29, 2024
(Previous trip report: 1989_0701-02_MountPrinceton.htm)
(A
Fourteener
trip report.)
Sunday evening after descending Mount Princeton and hitting the hot springs, next heading for Mount Huron I met HPite Jim Sheppard at the hamlet of Winfield, 12 miles west up a dusty, bumpy dirt road from US 24 between Buena Vista and Leadville. The town site (10226') was very pretty. A scattered collection of log cabins, many occupied, resided on the broad floor of an open valley surrounded by high peaks. There was a very nice, wide, grassy camping area past the town site on the south bank of Clear Creek -- but we didn't stay there that night -- just me alone the next night.
We started up the road southwest out of town at 1920, each in our own Jeep. The road turned violently 4WD within a few tenths of a mile. It remained rocky and bumpy all the way to and beyond the Banker Mine, 2.3 miles further. About 0.7 miles out of town we missed a right fork to the mine and instead followed an even rougher road as it switched southeast up the west flank of Middle Mountain. It gained altitude rapidly, but we met a snowfield about 1.9 miles from town.
After some debate as sundown approached, Jim decided to blow through the snowfield and made it. I decided to follow, but didn't. We spent an hour playing with his winch, pulling my Jeep out of the deep, soft snow. Someone has to be the first to open such roads each year... There and then, we were it.
Not much further, at 2.1 miles from town and an elevation of 11363' (according to the 1982 7.5 minute quadrangle), the road branched at a flat area below the northwest arm of the west ridge of Browns Peak. The continuing (right) fork was closed to vehicles. We camped there for the night, without a tent once more, under dark, starry skies.
Monday, July 3: The next morning we slept in. We were both exhausted. Jim had spent Friday night on Mount Elbert and climbed Massive on Sunday. We began to take the clear, hot weather almost for granted, and didn't start hiking until 0927. Nonetheless I was deep down tired all day. We decided along the way to blow off Tuesday, and instead take our time on and enjoy Mount Huron today.
We followed the closed fork of the road up and around the ridge. Where it nearly ended in a gully, we cut off and up the steep, rocky slope. Before long we attained the grassy top of the ridge -- covered with wildflowers. Browns Peak, 13523', lay straight ahead. The pointy pinnacle of Huron Peak swept up and to the right (south) around a huge bowl from the connecting ridge from Browns. Alpine and magnificent! A number of snowfields lay in the bowl.
When I first climbed Huron in 1984, directly from Winfield, I skirted the top of Browns Peak. I wanted to reach it this time. Jim was agreeable, so up the ridge we went. The flowers were awe-inspiring. Only the lavender sky pilots attained six inches in height. Most of the flowers barely rose an inch above the tundra. There were patches of yellow, blue, red, purple, and white; at least seven varieties, including some alpine buttercups and clover.
The last several hundred feet to the top of Browns at 1145 (2:18 for 2130') was a delicious scramble up boulders to a spacious dome. Despite a pronounced lack of energy, I felt exhilarated by the weather and scenery. After a 20 minute break we continued down a couple hundred feet and south across the ridgetop (most of the time), to the base of Huron's towering summit. We visited the top of a 13518' pinnacle on the ridge enroute. The last 600' up were quite steep, but there was a good trail, or you could boulder your way to the top.
We reached the peak of Mount Huron at 1319, taking 3:52 from camp for total gain of 2890'. I was reminded how small the summit was. There were several stretches large enough to lie down, but nowhere was it big and flat enough to comfortably spend the night. There were nice cliffs to the northeast. The panorama was tremendous, especially of the Three Apostles nearby, not revealed to view until you attain the summit. Huron is rather central in the Sawatch Range, so it is surrounded by peaks. As the previous two days, Uncompahgre and Wetterhorn in the San Juans, 82 miles away, were naked-eye visible.
Huron was the 23rd Colorado Fourteener I'd climbed a second time. Of course this time around I didn't care much if I gained 5000' to the summit, or just 600'. I had a lot more fun than the first time because I knew the areas and noticed different features than before.
Now through all this, on this day I was so spent that I was unusually apathetic about it. That's no way to enjoy such fine surroundings... Oh well.
After an hour and more we started down at 1433. We followed the ridge back toward Browns Peak, staying high and traversing, gaining as little elevation as possible. We arrived at the flatter part of the west ridge of Browns, 12900', at 1525. Lacking ice axes, we found some sharp rocks and went over the side into the northwest bowl.
The snow was steep and deep but with a long runout at the bottom. Exercising care, we enjoyed a fast, fun glissade down the bowl. The scenery low in the bowl was quite spectacular. We rock-hopped down glacial till along a creek that vanished into and re-emerged from the rocks. We found the other fork of the road from our campsite, and followed it back there, until 1640 (round trip time: 7:13). What a great way to spend a lovely day!
Jim decided to head straight back to Fort Collins that evening. (Maybe a foreshadowing of our trip to Hawai'i two years later?) We parted at the junction on the main Jeep road in the valley. I explored up (south) to the end of the road past Banker Mine. It was a pleasant feeling standing and washing in a cold, clear-running creek, in flip-flops, late on a hot summer day.
Tuesday July 4: I spent the night at the campground in Winfield, and all of the next day driving home slowly with many stops.
On the way up to Eisenhower Tunnel, my once-proud Wagoneer was reduced by vapor lock (much later determined to be a bad fuel pump) to 30... 25... 15 MPH.
In Boulder I discovered that my red, white, and blue swimsuit let me into the Spruce Pool free of charge. It was worth the price of admission just for the shower!
(Next trip report: 1989_0715-16_Mummy,Hagues.htm)