Displaying items by tag: Mount Princeton

Mount Princeton has been on my radar for a long time. As the most visually prominent (but only 8th most prominent, literally speaking) mountain in the Sawatch Range and Collegiate Peaks, it always has greeted me with warmth and nostalgia to the Arkansas River Valley and the quaint town of Buena Vista (yes, it is pronounced "Bewna," we know) during my travels into Colorado's mountains. Mount Princeton is the 18th highest mountain in Colorado, towering over the valley below at 14,197 feet in elevation. According to The Princeton Alumni Weekly, the first recorded ascent of Mount Princeton was on July 17, 1877, by William Libbey of Princeton University, hence the namesake. Sitting next to Mount Princeton is "Tigger Peak," an unranked mountain with 13,300 feet in elevation, which is often climbed in conjunction with Mount Princeton (which is what we did as well). The Princeton University history would also help explain the name of "Tigger Peak," since the mascot for Princeton University is the Tiger.
The plan to climb Mount Princeton was hatched earlier this month when I was chatting with a climbing friend of mine, Mike Vetter, about him coming to Colorado for his next climb. Mike actually found me through this website last year from his home in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and joined me for my climb of Huron and Browns, and later, Capitol Peak. Mike found some seriously cheap plane tickets to Denver for the date we both had open, and he decided to pull the trigger. We both knew it would be a challenge, logistically, since he was flying into Denver and I lived in Colorado Springs, not to mention that his return flight departed the same day as our climb. Mike flew into Denver International Airport at 6 PM on Saturday evening and I picked him up from the terminal. We drove west on I-70 to C-470 and then caught US 285 towards Fairplay. After a quick meal in Conifer, we were ready for our adventure to begin.
We arrived in Johnson's Corner at around 10 PM and made our way to the Mount Princeton Road. We were happy to find the road completely clear to the Radio Towers on Mount Princeton Road, where we planned to camp for the night. We eagerly set-up camp in some hellacious wind and cold temperatures. Little did we realize (out of sheer stupidity mostly) that we were smack-dab on top of a giant hill, and consequently, the wind was outrageous. Not only did this make setting up tents quite difficult, it made sleep simply impossible. Due to the tight time constraints we were under due to Mike's departure flight, we knew we needed to start early if we were to make his flight on time. So, as a matter of necessity, we set our alarms for 2 AM and hoped for at least 3 hours of sleep. Unfortunately, neither of us were able to sleep one bit due to the insane wind.
The experience of trying to sleep through huge wind gusts in a tent was surreal to say the least. Even though I did not sleep at all, the experience was very peaceful and restful, yet violent at the same time. Never before have I simultaneously experienced fear and happiness, it truly is difficult to explain what the experience was like. On top of getting zero hours of sleep, I managed to contract my son's cold, so I was feeling quite under the weather for this hike; nevertheless, we woke up at 2 AM, tore down our tents, secured our gear and began our hike at 2:45 AM. Here is a map of our route (click for larger version), which took us up the road and under "Tigger Peak," over "Tigger Peak," and up the ridge to Mount Princeton.

To get some perspective of our route, I decided to dig into my archives and illustrate the route, as seen from the Collegiate Peaks lookout, just east of Johnson's Corner. As you can see, the radio towers provides a good starting point and a clearly defined route all the way up the mountain.

The route seen above was made even more interesting by the record snowpack that Colorado has received this Spring, which many believe will cause flooding and massive avalanches. Indeed, as I returned home from this trip, I learned that someone died on a nearby 14er the day before due to an avalanche. Relative to our climb, the snow was a concern for both of us; however, we made sure to take our time and heed the utmost caution at all times. The snow appeared to be settled on Princeton for the most part, and we benefited from a very early start, which guaranteed snow that was not melting, and therefore, more stable. On the approach, just before heading up Tigger, we encountered several steep snowfields that were somewhat difficult to navigate because of how hard the snow was; crampons would have been a really nice thing to bring along, but instead we both had snowshoes with us (which were never deployed - story of my life).

Early on in the hike, the effects of sleep deprivation and a strong and nasty head-cold were considerable and noticeable. I felt awful. Mike was gracious enough to capture the essence of that feeling in a photo, taken just a half mile into our hike.

I think I actually felt worse than I looked, which says a lot based on how awful I look in this photo! On the flip side, Mike was looking chipper, as seen in this photo taken right as we left our campsite.

Despite feeling as if a large semi-truck had ran me over, I kept my head down and my spirits up. Once we reached the upper section of the trail beneath Tigger, I knew we needed to start heading up sooner rather than later. Despite the map in Roach's guide showing the hike following the trail to the top of the hill, we opted to leave the trail early and bushwhack straight up the ridgeline of Tigger. This proved to be a fairly good decision despite the absence of anything resembling a trail and the interesting route-finding required on the ice and snow strewn rocks that adorned the eastern face of Tigger. Most of the way up Tigger, we decided to stop and enjoy the sunrise, which was, by far, one of the most beautiful ones I have ever witnessed. Now, if you don't know me by now, you should know - I'm pretty obsessed with sunrises and sunsets, so that probably says something about the quality of this particular sunrise. The colors were fantastic. The presence of snow made it even more special, with the snow giving off a pinkish glow. We spent quite a bit of time watching this sunrise, and it was well worth it. I compiled several panoramic photos of the moment, including a couple single shots that I thought were pretty fabulous as well. Feel free to click on them for higher resolution versions (and full resolution prints are of course available for sale if anyone were interested).

The pre-sun sunrise color was intense, casting a deep red and pink hue on the clouds, with a cream-sickle orange glow around the silhouette of Pikes Peak.

The sunrise itself was great - of particular note, the clouds around the Buffalo Peaks were glowing, which was pretty marvelous!

Not sure what else to say about it - the sunrise was exceptional, and a dream for an amateur photographer!

Having indulged enough in the amazing sunrise, Mike and I were ready to keep on going since the wind was blowing pretty strongly, making it a very cold morning. We made our way to the top of the ridge of Tigger and were greeted with some of the strongest wind I've ever felt. The wind was easily gusting to 60 miles per hour or more, making it very difficult to hold your ground or take steps. Mike and I both later commented that this moment was very demoralizing for us both because we could not fathom continuing all the way up Princeton in these conditions. Nevertheless, we continued up and over Tigger, taking frequent breaks to catch our breath and regain our strength. The combination of the snow, wind, cold, lack of sleep and head-cold was forcing me to take much more frequent stops than I am generally accustomed.

It was a very pretty environment though, with views of the Southern Sawatch acting as further motivation to continue. Additionally, the ground was covered with thin ice and deep snow, littered with ice-cycles drooping from large boulders. It almost felt like another planet.

Mike and I soldiered on, with wind gusts and broken terrain slowing our climb. Mike was still in high spirits, and I had caught a second wind. Thank God.

We had a long ways to go yet, and it felt like an eternity just taking one step. Sleep deprivation does not mix well with mountaineering.

After about two hours, our traverse up to Princeton from Tigger was complete. It was a very exhausting haul up the deep snow. We were both wishing we left the snowshoes at home and packed crampons instead. Lesson learned. It was a great feeling, having completed my 43rd 14er and 61st mountain in the highest 100. Naturally, the views from the summit were breathtaking. It was a fairly clear day, and fortunately, the wind had magically subsided while we were on the summit, making our photography efforts that much easier. One of my favorite captures from the top was the view of Antero, Shavano, Tabeguache, Boulder Mountain, Cronin, Mount Mamma, Carbonate and Grizzly. Having spent numerous days hiking on those mountains last year, it was neat to see them from this vantage point. Here's the black and white version, feel free to click to see a higher resolution version.

And of course the obligatory 360 panoramic shot... click for a larger version.

And if you're interested in an interactive version of the 360 view, take a look at these files, one is smaller in size (1.2 megs) and one is larger in size (16.7 megs).

CLICK HERE for small version (1.2 megs) of the interactive 360 panoramic.

CLICK HERE for large version (16.7 megs) of the interactive 360 panoramic.

Additionally, Mike was able to catch me in the act of shooting some photos and generous enough to share the photo with me.

And here's one of Mike enjoying the views from the summit.

Knowing that the sun was melting the snow, we decided not to spend too much time on top and head on down. On the way down, we were lucky enough to run into a few skiers, several of which were from 14ers.com, including LostSheep5 and EatinHardTack. They were able to confirm that the standard route trail was clear, so we opted to detour to the trail to avoid the ridge. I was excited about descending the snow to some degree, because I wanted to test out my new ice axe, which I purchased at REI recently. With ice axes in hand, we crossed the giant snowfield between Tigger and Princeton, which felt quite solid despite the warming temperatures and avalanche concerns in the back of our minds. I did slip a few times on the way down, and needed to use the axe for self-arrest. I was thankful that I had already experienced this before, because self-arresting came quite naturally.

We were able to wrap around Tigger, following the snow-filled trail and look back to see the skiers making their descent.

It was about at this point that the trail ended and we had to make a decision, not knowing where the most logical place to descend from since we did not come up this way. I did some scouting at the end of the ridge and much to my surprise, spotted the radio towers and my Jeep in a straight line down from us. We opted to bushwhack in that direction and quickly met back up with the trail, which we happily followed all the way back to the Jeep. Those radio towers never looked so good!

That concludes this trip report. If you would like to stay up-to-date on all of my articles, trip reports and other mountaineering related news, please feel free to follow 100summits on Twitter or Facebook! Also, if you're planning on doing any online shopping and if you enjoyed the content, please help keep the site going by using the links on this page to help fund the site.

Interesting statistics:

Start time: 5:30 AM

Summit time (Huron): 9 AM

Summit time (Browns): 11 AM

Finish time: 1:20 PM

Mileage up: 3.6

Mileage down: 4.2

Total mileage: 7.8

Huron Peak Elevation: 14,003 ft.

Browns Peak Elevation: 13,523 ft.

Total elevation gain: 3,900 ft.

Total photos taken: 219

GPS map of our route (ascent in red, descent in blue):

This trip report begins with an interesting back story. I had a new member join my site in May from South Dakota. This member eventually messaged me on Facebook and asked if he could join me on some of my climbs this year. After learning about my plans to attempt Huron that very weekend, he decided to join me. Mike Vetter drove all the way down from Sioux Falls, South Dakota on Saturday, June 5th to climb with me. Mike is the CEO of DataSync - a successful start-up software company. Our route to reach the trail-head was very simple: we drove west on Highway 24 to Buena Vista and turned left on Chaffee County Road 390 heading west. After driving about 14 miles on a dirt road, we turned left at the old mining town of Winfield and continued west another 2 miles to our campsite near the trail-head. We left my house at about 6:30 PM and reached our campsite near the Huron trail-head at approximately 10 PM.

On the way to Buena Vista, we were able to get some great views of the sun setting over the Northern Sangre de Cristo Mountain range:

We set-up our tents in the dark and set our alarms for 4 AM and hit the sack. A few cars drove past during the night, presumably looking for camp spots. Fortunately, the vehicles did not disturb my sleep too badly and I was able to get some quality rest. The alarm sounded at 4 AM and I hurried to get dressed and tear down my tent. As we were getting camp taken down, a skiier passed us, informing us that he was going to ski down Ice Mountain. I'm pretty sure this person was "benners" from 14ers.com. We were able to quickly break down our campsite and cook some oatmeal for breakfast before debarking for Huron's trail-head at 5:30 AM.

Mike and I were able to make quick work up to the trail-head and soon there-after, the sun broke through to light up the tips of the surrounding peaks in Silver Basin, including Virginia Peak and Granite Mountain:

Silver Basin illuminates a small lake

A closer look at the sunrise

Virginia Peak (right of center)

Virginia Peak

Sunrise hitting Granite Mountain

Sunrise hits Granite Mountain and Virginia Peak

Mike and I were energized by the great views of the valley across from us and made excellent time up the steep trail. Mike kept up with me as we blazed the trail. He did amazing considering he lives at 1,442 ft. and was not acclimated to the high elevation of Colorado yet.

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Mike Vetter proves he's got what it takes to climb mountains in Colorado

Matt Payne (author) hiking up Huron

An hour and 15 minutes after we started hiking from our camp, the first view of the Three Apostles came into view. The Three Apostles are a group of 13ers located up the valley from Huron, and contain two of the highest 100 in Colorado, Ice Mountain (13,951 ft.) and North Apostle (13,860 ft.). West Apostle is also respectable at 13,568 ft.

The Three Apostles come into view for the first time

Soon thereafter, one of our objectives for the day came into view as well: Huron. Huron appeared above us like a giant pyramid, as if it were guarding some ancient treasure within its rocky shell.

Huron Peak comes into view for the first time

The moon sits over Huron Peak

Huron Peak in the early light

Huron, the Three Apostles, and Granite Mountain greet the rising sun

Now that we could see the beginnings of the amazing views, Mike became more and more awestruck by the Colorado Rockies. It was a real pleasure hiking with someone that shared the same level of appreciation for Colorado's awesome peaks. Mike and I exchanged photos of each other.

Mike Vetter looking excited in front of the Three Apostles

Matt Payne with the Three Apostles in the background

As we gained more elevation, views across the valley were getting even better. I noticed a long waterfall snaking down the side of Granite Mountain and decided that I wanted to try to capture a zoomed-in view of that waterfall. I took about 10 photos of the side of the mountain at 200mm and combined them into this photo:

Snow forms a waterfall down the side of Granite Mountain

I also wanted to get a zoomed in shot of the Three Apostles using the same method. Here are the results (click on the photo to see the super-hi-res version):

The Three Apostles in high detail

We continued to climb past treeline and up to Huron's base. I took some opportunities to take multiple photos of the views and stitched some photos together for a panoramic view.

Looking South and West, Huron casts a shadow over Granite Mountain

We quickly made our way up into the basin below Huron and were greeted by a giant snowfield. Normally, I welcome the sight of snow; however, the snow we encountered was very soft, with marshy streams and pools of water beneath. It was very much like crossing a field filled with 7-11 Slushies.

We made it through the slush and continued up the basin beneath Huron. The terrain was solid and only mildly wet from snowmelt. At this point, the sun had crested Browns Peak and began to heat the surrounding area.

Mike Vetter squinting into the sun on our approach of Huron

We continued to climb up towards Huron, following the trail through and around large snow fields. At this point, it was clear that snowshoes or other assistive devices would be fairly useless and I was glad I brought neither. As we gained elevation, the views of Browns Peak as well as the Elk Mountains began to get better and better.

Browns Peak sits to the North of Huron Peak

We made really great time up Huron, despite its relative steepness and other aforementioned challenges (did I mention Mike lives 13,000 ft. lower than Huron). Huron's summit block loomed over us, making us feel pretty small compared to this giant choss pile. The trail up this section of Huron was clearly maintained and the efforts of Colorado Fourteeners Initative to improve the trail were apparent.

Huron Peak's summit block

Matt Payne (author) hiking up Huron's Peak

We finally reached the ridge between Browns Peak and Huron Peak and were warmly welcomed by a giant cornice sitting at the top of the ridge.

A giant cornice on Huron's ridge

The final push to the top of Huron took exactly 10 more minutes. The views from Huron Peak were absolutely outstanding. Being somewhat more isolated than most of the other 14'ers in the Sawatch Range, Huron Peak offers excellent views of the rest of the Sawatch Range and the Elk Mountains as well. Mike and I were the first to summit that day, and spent an hour on top celebrating, eating, and taking large amounts of photographs.

Hero shot of Matt Payne on top of Huron Peak

Matt Payne gazes South towards the Three Apostles

360 Degree View from the top of Huron Peak (click for full resolution version)

A 180 Degree View from North to South from Hurons Peak. The Three Apostles at center.

Mount Hope (the flat topped mountain) rests right of center. La Plata Peak rests far left.

The Elk Mountains loom in the distance, covered in snow.This photo is zoomed in at 200mm. Pyramid Peak, Maroon Peak, Snowmass Mountain, and Capitol Peak can all be seen from this vantage. Click on the image for the super hi-resoltution version.

Taylor Reservoir can be seen in the distance, reflecting the surrounding mountains (click for full resolution version)

A closer look at the Sawatch Mountains south of Huron. Mount Antero, Mount Shavano, and Tabeguache Peak are all recognizable.

A zoomed in view of the Southern Sawatch mountains

Shavano and Tabeguache (high pointed peak and flat snowed peak respectively)

North Apostle and Ice Mountain zoomed in. If you click on the image you can see the full resolution version (and the climber atop North Apostle. I've confirmed that this climber is "Mad Mike" from 14ers.com

Mount Yale and Mount Princeton seen in the distance

La Plata Peak seen to the North of Huron across the valley

A great view of the Three Apostles from Huron

A 90 degree view looking Northeast, North, and Northwest from Huron

A vertically-oriented panoramic view of the Three Apostles

Matt Payne leaning to allow for a better view of the Three Apostles

Matt Payne and Mike Vetter on top of Huron Peak

At this point we decided that after an hour of being on the summit we should head down to the ridge and make an attempt on Browns. Once down-climbing to the ridge, we were able to get a view of what we just climbed, decorated with a fair amount of snow still.

Still a lot of snow on Huron's eastern face

We took a look at our route - a straight ridge scramble to PT 13,518 and then to Browns.

PT 13,518 and Browns were a straight shot from Huron's ridge. Mount Hope seen in the background.

We quickly scrambled up PT 13,518 without any problems and looked back at Huron. The further away we got from Huron, the more we could appreciate just how steep it was.

Huron rises high above PT 13,518 to the Northwest

A zoomed in view of Huron from PT 13,518

A wider view of Huron and the surrounding terrain

After reaching PT 13,518, we took a look over to our next and final objective: Browns Peak.

Browns Peak looked fairly easy with La Plata Peak behind it

On the way over to Browns, we were able to get a really awesome view of a nasty cornice, which looked more like a frozen tidal wave.

A huge cornice sitting in the saddle between PT 13,518 and Browns

A closer view of the cornice

A super-zoomed in view of the cornice

After a bit of mild scrambling, Mike and I reached the summit of Browns in quick order. The clouds were looking to get worse and worse, so we decided that after Browns that we would go ahead and head back down to the trail below us, making our own route down off of Browns and connecting with the Huron trail.

Mike Vetter celebrating on the summit of Browns

Matt Payne points back to Huron from Browns

We dropped off the north face of Browns just a few hundred feet and went straight down a scree gully. The dirt was quite loose but manageable. Soon after reaching the basin for Huron again, we were greeted by another large snow-field, which presented some pretty awful post-holing up to our wastes. Fortunately, my boots and gaiters kept my feet completely dry!

Matt Payne descending from Browns

After reaching the trail again, we headed back down the way we came and crossed the insane snow-field at the base of Huron. After a days worth of sunlight, the snow-field was quite soft and presented us with some unique and 'wet' hiking challenges.

Matt Payne crossing the slushy on Huron

Once we reached the bottom of the snow-field, the way down was pretty quick to treeline and below to the trailhead and eventually my vehicle.

All-in-all, this was an amazing trip filled with great views. And I must say, I could not have hiked with a better guy. Thanks for driving down and climbing with me Mike!

To complete the trip report, here are three HDR photos I combined. I am new to HDR but I do like how it can enhance the light.

Until next time, enjoy Colorado's summits!