Mount Aetna Access

[lazyhiker]

Folks, I have Mt. Aetna on the list of peaks to climb in the long weekend thats coming up.

I found some info on access to this mountain in summitpost:
http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock ... aetna.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Most of the info in 14ers.com seem to be related to winter climbs.

Has anyone been on been on FSR230 road recently? Can a two wheel drive passenger car make up the road? Is there a marked trail to the base/treeline on this mountain? I am guessing its a relentless climb up once you reach treeline. Any rough estimate on the time required to traverse the ridge from Mt. Aetna to reach Taylor Mountain?

Thanks.

[MtnHermit]

FR230 is definitely 4WD, you'd be lucky to get 100 yds from US50. You might consider going from the north, through St Elmo. Then to Hancock via FR295, that's all 2WD. Follow the CD trail to Chalk Creek Pass. Quite a bit longer.

FR240 is another option, used to be very rough, haven't been up it in 10 years, so check.

Looking forward to your TR. :D

[Mark A Steiner]

Any thoughts about approaching Mount Aetna from the Monarch Mountain ski area? Never tried it - just curious.

[lazyhiker]

MtnHermit, Steve, Thanks for your helpful suggestions. I will most probably park the car at Garfield, hike up the jeep trail and hit the Aetna-Taylor saddle.

Thanks!

[Jim Davies]

Just don't do what I did:
First attempt, started up the wrong jeep road (one road too far to the east). Wound up on the wrong side of Taylor, summited anyway, but no Aetna. (The road you want will have a Boss Lake sign, and is past the Monarch Lodge.)
Second attempt, found the right road but other factors caused yet another Taylor-but-no-Aetna day.
Third attempt, missed the turn to the right and wound up following the road all the way to the bottom of the giant chute on Aetna's west side. That turned out to be a poor climbing route. The turnoff is on the right (possibly labelled 230C) a short distance past the turnoff to Boss Lake on the left.
On the fourth attempt, got into the right drainage , there was a reasonable route up to the ridge just left of the Aetna-Taylor saddle, and descending directly off Taylor back to the road was OK, if a bit loose. The round-trip hike took me 7:45.

[lazyhiker]

Jim, I missed your update! Thanks for the tips.