Mt. Princeton Trip Report 02/11/2013

Peak(s):	Mt. Princeton - 14,200 feet
Date Posted:	02/11/2013
Modified:	02/12/2013
Date Climbed:	02/10/2013
Author:	LizWeiss

Mt. Princeton Chalet & summit via East Ridge
We parked at the lower trailhead and hiked up via Mt. Princeton road. We used a combination of microspikes and snowshoes, but the snow was not very deep in most places. It got a bit dicey as we approached the final few switchbacks. The snow piles were dramatically sloping downward towards the eastern sides of the roads, which we thought could be due to the avalanche that occurred a few weeks ago on Mt. Princeton, so snowshoes were nice here, but doable with microspikes. We reached the chalet as the sun was setting and set up for a cold night with negative temperatures. We were extremely lucky that there was some wood left for a fire!There were only about 10 pieces left, but we made it work with a fire burning most of the night. Although snow was forecasted for Saturday-Sunday, it didn't snow at all but was very windy Saturday night. Sunday morning we awoke to stillness & sunshine, so we decided to summit. We had a bit of trouble finding the actual trailhead on the road due to snow cover, but we could see the trail, so we hiked up through the snow to the trail. We ditched our big backpacks and put on our microspikes and headed for the summit. It took us about 2 hours to reach the top due to some route finding, but overall it was an excellent traverse up and down. As we hiked back to the car we noticed that alot of the snow that had been on the road Saturday had melted. So unless the area gets a dumping of snow in the near future, the road and trail to Mt. Princeton are in great shape for February! Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Mt. Princeton Chalet & summit via East Ridge

We parked at the lower trailhead and hiked up via Mt. Princeton road. We used a combination of microspikes and snowshoes, but the snow was not very deep in most places. It got a bit dicey as we approached the final few switchbacks. The snow piles were dramatically sloping downward towards the eastern sides of the roads, which we thought could be due to the avalanche that occurred a few weeks ago on Mt. Princeton, so snowshoes were nice here, but doable with microspikes. We reached the chalet as the sun was setting and set up for a cold night with negative temperatures. We were extremely lucky that there was some wood left for a fire!There were only about 10 pieces left, but we made it work with a fire burning most of the night. Although snow was forecasted for Saturday-Sunday, it didn't snow at all but was very windy Saturday night. Sunday morning we awoke to stillness & sunshine, so we decided to summit. We had a bit of trouble finding the actual trailhead on the road due to snow cover, but we could see the trail, so we hiked up through the snow to the trail. We ditched our big backpacks and put on our microspikes and headed for the summit. It took us about 2 hours to reach the top due to some route finding, but overall it was an excellent traverse up and down. As we hiked back to the car we noticed that alot of the snow that had been on the road Saturday had melted. So unless the area gets a dumping of snow in the near future, the road and trail to Mt. Princeton are in great shape for February!

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

zdero1	Lol 2/13/2013 7:48am Kush.
kushrocks	This TR 2/14/2013 6:02pm blows. Thanks for posting something almost worthless that makes all the other useful trip reports people actually put time and effort into harder to find. This belongs in the condition update.
LizWeiss	New member 2/14/2013 6:51pm Sorry, I just joined 14ers.com and I did not realize how extensive trip reports were Kush. No need to be rude.
Matt	New members... 2/14/2013 8:58pm That wasn't much of a welcome, LizWeiss. Sure, many trip reports have far more details and photos, but yours is a far cry from the throwaways that deserve responses like that one. I hope you disregard the overstated, knee-jerk feeback given above, but realize that most TRs here have more detail when you write the next one. Good luck
James Scott	More pictures... 2/14/2013 10:02pm might have been nice, but I appreciate your write up. Don't be detered by the above reaction- most people on this site are pretty supportive and insightful, but it doesn't always play out that way.
LizWeiss	Thanks 2/14/2013 10:11pm Thanks Matt and James! I was just trying to be helpful, ya know, but I now know to be more indepth next time! Happy trails!

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