Climbing Huron Peak

Posted on November 13, 2021November 16, 2021 by jim

Huron Peak rounds out the Collegiate Peaks for me, a subset of the gorgeous Sawatch Range in the Rockies. One more 14er crossed off the list!

A couple folks on one of the 14er groups mentioned climbing Huron on Saturday, so I perked up when I saw that and started packing on Friday morning. A quick shout out to Shelby and Tom and yes – they were interested in some snow camping although they are far too smart to climb 14ers in the snow…

Even though we crawled into our sleeping bags at a decent time on Friday night, oh-dark-thirty on Saturday morning comes far too early when it’s 18 degrees and pitch black.

One of the people from the 14ers group realized they had prior commitments, and I didn’t hear anything from the rest of the group before we lost cell signal heading into the mountains, so solo climb it is. Probably better anyway, it’s hard to gauge people’s skill levels and you certainly don’t want any liabilities at altitude.

Last night’s precipitation left 6" or so of fresh snow on the trail in treeline, and I was lucky enough to be the first to enjoy it. Once you break treeline, the views are simply amazing. And once you crest the ridge that has the last push to the summit, the views just start getting better with a 360 panorama from the summit.

Very pleased to add #26 to the list this calendar year, and very appreciative that Colette let me cancel our weekend hiking plans last-minute to go play in the snow with the kids!