Huron Pk – Northwest Slopes

Date: June 14, 2003
Elevation: 14,003′
Rank: 53rd
Route: Northwest Slopes, Grade II, Class 2, 4.0 miles, 3400ft vert.
GPS: N 38° 56.733′ W 106° 26.286′
Team: Matt Esser (Toid), Colleen Rickard

Pre-climb: Colleen and I wanted to climb a fourteener sometime soon. It had been 2 and a half months since we attempted Mt. Princeton *right* after the Blizzard of 2003. So this time we decided on something simple, although there’s no such thing as an easy 14er, however, in comparison to others, this one is definitely easier than harder. We didn’t decide to climb this peak until the night before. A mere 12 hours before we would depart from my house in Boulder.

Climb: As always, I have trouble sleeping before climbing a 14er. I don’t know if it’s anxiety or what, but whatever the reason, I can’t sleep. However, this does allow me to leave on time in the mornings. So I guess there actually *is* a bright side to everything! Colleen and I left my house in Boulder by 6:15am, and headed out to Huron Peak. This is not as early as I wanted to leave, but we wanted to make sure we had everything since we were camping.

We arrived at the 4×4 start of the South Winfield Trailhead in about 3 hours. The road is definitely clear the whole way. And not so bad. I was expecting rougher, but hey, I’m glad it’s no South Colony Lakes. Due to the later than preferred start, we hustled through our packing and got onto the trail by 9:30am.

The trail register was full, but we found a place to cram our names. The temperature was warm, as we were hiking in shorts and a long sleeve t-shirt. We made good time, and the trail was fabulous. The Colorado Fourteener Initiative (CFI), did an outstanding job with this trail. It’s very easy to follow and well maintained. Next thing we knew, we were up to the basin and the snowfields.

Crossing the snowfields was anything but pleasant. I guess when you have snow in June, it is going to be soft, and thus primed for post-holeing. Our feet were soaked but I had to laugh, as my gaiters were sitting in my Blazer back at the start. Doh. Oh well. After crossing the snowfield we started ascending again and noticed a strange phenomenon. Hordes of people were at various points along the ridge and scree field, lost, trying to cut across to the CFI trail that we were on. It turns out that just about everybody made the wrong turn as they followed the 4×4 road. They turned left at the junction that Roach specifically says not to turn left on. If they looked at a contour map, they might have noticed to just follow the road that followed the river (which is what I did), or maybe the sign of a peak and an arrow that pointed to the right fork, however, they didn’t and ended up creating their own route as they had no clue about the route they were actually on, because they were planning on doing the CFI one. So, for those of you reading this, I will state it one more time…

Stay to the right when the trail forks, as of now there’s a small sign with a peak on it that points you to the correct way. If you do this, you will make it to the South Winfield 4×4 Trailhead with no problem.

Needless to say, it was interesting hearing everybody’s experiences climbing straight up the other side of the ridge and then either descending down into the valley, and meeting up with the CFI trail or staying on the Ridge. I would have to say that the people who just stayed on the ridge had an easier time than those who descended all that elevation.

Colleen and I were doing great, even though our feet were soaked. Co was smart because she had an extra pair of socks in her pack that she could switch into. She said she had a small headache, but was otherwise ok. I was a little dizzy because of our fast ascent rate. We continued on, and after we reached 13,000ft we began to stop every 100 vertical feet to rest. This was when I ran out of water. No bother, Colleen had some. I had let her drink out of mine earlier in the day, so now I was dry, but at least she had some. Next time I’ll remember to take more water for this one. Even though Huron is short, it was a warm day and we were thirsty.

Upon reaching the summit we were greeted by about four others, and the setting was perfect: Warm, about 50 degrees, clear skies and no wind. Yep, no wind. One must cherish these types of summit visits and we did. I took a lot of pictures as this was Cobes’ first 14er! Yay! I was so proud of her, and we sat down and ate lunch on the summit enjoying one of the best views I’ve seen. There are peaks all around. I bet an astute climber could name off 20 of them from this vantage point. Then came a surprise.

As we were sitting there, one of Colleen’s swim team buddies from Hillsdale (a college in Michigan where she went) showed up on the summit with her husband! Amy walked up to the summit, saw me drying out my socks on the rock and said, “Hi”, as she asked if there was a summit register. About this time Co yelled out, “Amy!?!” It was her! What a coincedence! Of all things, without any planning, to meet somebody you know from Michigan on the summit of the same 14er at the same time of day is crazy! This would be like me finding Gugals on one someday! (a college buddy that lives in Arkansas) So, we sat down, caught up on things, and enjoyed the view.

Eventually though, I guess you have to come down off the summit and come back home, so we began that process. Amy and her husband Jamie left earlier than we did from the summit, and we made our way back across the snowfield and down the CFI trail. We ran out of water just before reaching the trailhead, but we were ok. After eating on the summit, I was good to go.

Then began the process looking for a campsite. We found one about a mile from the 4×4 trailhead and made camp. The views from here were gorgeous and we spread out our tent and started making dinner. Since I forgot my forks, we were again left with eating some rice with utensil’s probably not designed to eat with. However they worked and after dinner, we could finally stretch out and relax.

Exploring the area was fun. Although it was sad to see some campers tearing down live trees to use for firewood. We didn’t make a fire as I used my blowtorch, err, rather my MSR Dragonfly stove to make dinner. Co filtered water from the stream and then at around 7pm, we went to bed. It was so nice going to bed this early as remember, I didn’t sleep the night before. The weather was so nice that we didn’t put the fly on, and viewed the very bright moon from the skyview of my tent.

Since we went to bed so early, we broke camp early in the morning, and started the drive back to Boulder. On the way we stopped at “The Log Cabin” in Frisco to eat breakfast. They were a busy place on a Sunday morning! Regardless, they were yummy and would go there again.

After arriving home, I quickly opened a can of Coke, and downed it. We unpacked, and then on the second day, I napped. And it was good.

Drive: 3h
Ascent: 3h
Summit: 45 min
Descent: 2.25h
Drive: 3h
Total: 6h