"If you had a friend who was a tightrope walker, and you were walking down a sidewalk, and he fell, that would be completely unacceptible." --Mitch Hedberg

Huron Peak
07-08-2006
Elevation Gain: 3300
Trip Distance:  6 miles?
Total Round-Trip Climb Time (including 15 minutes on summit): 4 hours
4WD Required:  most definitely
Exhaustion Factor (on scale of 1-10): 3
Scenery Factor (on scale of 1-10): 1 (hey, it was foggy and raining!

On Saturday, July 8, 2006 Jacob and I decided to climb Huron Peak.  I took off from my place around 3:30 and drove to Golden to get Jacob, we hopped in his xTerra and took off around 4am.  Sick of driving through South Park for the past 2 14ers, we decided to take the other route.  I70 West to the Copper Mountain/Leadville exit ... south on HWY 24 to Leadville, keep going south on 24 for 20 miles past Leadville where you take a West on county road 390 (the same road as the trailhead for Oxford and Belford).  Drive about 12 miles to Winfield where you take a left, the road forces you to turn left.  You can go about 1/2 mile with any car, but after that high clearance and 4WD is absolutely necessary.  You have another 1 1/2 miles to go on this terrain ... at the first Y intersection, stay right.  Then you come to another intersection that is almost a 4-way intersection ... go straight.  (there is a left turn, then about 20 feet after the left turn is a right turn ... avoid both!).  After choosing wisely, we found the trailhead very easily, it is to the left and up of the gate and main trailhead sign (as opposed to behind the gate).  Total drive time from Golden to trailhead - 2:45

We started hiking at 6:35a.m.  It was cloudy and rainy the entire climb up.  We passed 2 girls on the way up, other than that we saw nobody on the ascent.  The climb is very steady, pretty steep for a short climb, but no surprises.   The trail is wonderfully maintained all the way to the summit, you'd have to be G.W. Bush to lose this trail.  We had no views the entire way to the top due to the fog and rain, and had no idea how good of time we were making.  After countless switchbacks, some "steps", and a short path through the rocks, we made it to the summit in just over 2 hours (8:45a.m.).  We took in the breathtaking views (*note: extreme sarcasm ... check summit photos for explanation*) for about 15 minutes and headed down.  We made some quick friends with the 4 others who were on the summit making phone calls and started on down.  It rained pretty good on us on the way down, and we crossed paths with 15-20 others working their way up the now very muddy trail.  Total descent time of 1:30 and back to the car by 10:30a.m.  Hopped in the xTerra, got poured on the entire drive back to Denver, and made it back home around 1:30.

Not the most ideal conditions, but I've bagged my 15th 14er and look forward to climbing 5 more this season!

Check out my pictures of this climb here.

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