Mt Princeton

Mt. Princeton, outside of Buena Vista, is the most prominent peak in the area, rising directly from the valley floor. Since the first third of the trail is rated for 4-wheel-drive (4WD) only, I had to park down in the valley and hike over three miles just to get to the upper trailhead. Because of its prominance, while climbing or from the top, I could look back and see exactly where I had parked. Soooo discouraging.

I started hiking at 4:00 a.m. to try and get past the lower road before the sun baked it and to get a jump on the long day of hiking. I made it to the upper trailhead at sunrise and enjoyed my pop-tart breakfast. Other hikers started appearing, all passing me as they were just starting, while I had already been hiking for a couple hours. After I left the road and crossed a ridge, the view opens up and now I can see the summit —two miles away and 2,200' higher!

I was doing fine hiking along the lower trail and crossing the large snow fields confidently, as they were still solid in the cool morning. Looking around I saw I was the only hiker that was carrying an ice axe and it looked like it wouldn't be needed. I reached the ridgeline almost six miles from the trailhead after just over four hours.

Once the trail re-gained the ridge it steepened and became looser—every step seemed to slide back to where I started. I was thankful for the encouragement from the other hikers. I even got passed by a group of guys carrying their skis with plans to ski down the gullies on the north side. One couple that passed me, after learning that I had started down at the 2WD trailhead offered me a ride down from the upper trailhead if they hadn't left before I got back down to where they parked.

The last mile to the summit took me almost two hours. I was ready to just collapse and take a nap, but knew that I couldn't spend too long on top if I had any hopes of catching the offered ride from the upper trailhead back to my car.

Normally it is best to try and get across any snow fields early in the day before they soften up in the sun. I wasn't so lucky, and while coming back down several times had the snow give way and I either post-holed (where your foot breaks through the snow straight down) or had my foot slide out and found myself sitting on the snow. One time it was my upper foot that slipped, which took out my lower foot, and I started sliding down one of the snow gullies on my backside. I was able to roll over and self arrest with my ice axe. I was the only hiker carrying one, and the only one that needed one. To add more insult to my pride, I then had to climb back up to the trail.

I didn't expect the couple who offered me a ride to still be around, as I figured I was at least an hour behind them. But they were just finishing their lunch and starting to pack up, and they graciously gave me a ride from the upper parking lot back to my car so that I didn't have to hike back down the lower road. The ride saved me almost four miles and probably three hours, since I had been hiking for ten hours up to that point anyway.

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