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Mount PrincetonMay 23, 2000 - Mount Princeton from Merriam Creek
After climbing Huron and getting some dinner in Buena Vista, I headed up the road to the antenna array on the flank of Mount Princeton. The road up was not bad and was suitable for an AWD vehicle. The route leaves the scout camp and winds its way steadily up the flank of the mountain and after a couple of hard switchbacks and sections of rutted road, one gets to the array at 10,820 feet. True to guidebook philosophy, there was no point in going beyond this point as a large snowdrift blocked the road about ½ mile beyond the obvious parking areas. Rather than drive the road again in the morning, I picked a flat suitable for car camping and set up the tent for the night. I was the only one camped there that night but it was early in the season and there were certainly signs of later high season popularity. I hit the trail before dawn in the interest of crossing the little remaining snow while it was still frozen. My drive up from Buena Vista the night before had indicated that the only snow would be in three snowfields remaining on the north-facing flank of the peak after leaving the road but before reaching the final saddle before the summit climb. I headed up the road, crossing snow drifts blocking the switch backed turns, and cut off the road where the trail was indicated both on the map and by an obvious cairn on the side of the route. Up and over a small saddle and then I traversed along the north flank, hiking well traveled trail to and between the snowfield crossings. The snow was hard for the morning crossings and I was certainly not the first to cross as older frozen tracks were left from previous day’s climbers. The summit cone rises from the point where the trail intersects the saddle connecting the summit and the adjacent 13,286 point. I was feeling the second day climbing “tireds” but with a steady slog, I made the summit on a sunny Sawatch day. A bite to eat and I headed down, crossing snowfields that were now semi postholing country but not quite “squeezing water” unsafe. With three fields behind me, I just took the tourist trail home and arrived back at the car about 7 hours after leaving, not having seen another climber all day.
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