- Date: May 8, 2023
- Distance: approx. 13 miles round trip
- Elevation Gain: 4230′
- Trailhead: Clohesy Lake Trailhead
Back in Leadville for one more weekend before making my transition down to Salida, Mark and I decided to make the most of it by attempting a few nearby ski objectives. Huron had caught our attention when we were skiing the Colorado Trail last Spring, and just a little ways south, it seemed like a great option.
We made an early start knowing that it was a bit of an approach to get to the peak, but an emergency poop and a rougher than expected dirt road had us getting to the trailhead already behind schedule. In the springtime, the Clohesy Lake drainage is guarded by a swollen creek crossing that, navigable to some high clearance vehicles, we took on foot. We brought shoes specifically to cross the creek so we didn’t have to hike any ways further in wet feet, but found that the real challenge was the icy temps of the knee deep stream. By the time we were across, Mark was screaming and I was in tears from the cold. We removed our cold wet shoes and recovered our wits before heading on up the 4×4 trail that lead into the basin above.
We hiked on dry ground for only a half mile before intermittent snow drifts started becoming more persistent. Soon we transitioned to skins and I struggled to keep up as we pushed our pace, trying to make up time that we had lost in the day’s slow start. As we neared Clohesy lake where we would cross the valley toward Huron, I had to stop and remove my boots for blisters developing on both my feet. I taped the spots on my heels that were beginning to blister, then put my already sweat-drenched socks back on before moving onward.
Despite the challenging morning, we were both in awe of the terrain we were making out way through; jagged peaks covered in a strong spring snowpack surrounded us in every direction. We had talked about this area as one of our favorites from our ski traverse (we detoured from the official route here), and upon returning found it just as impressive.
We continued to push our pace to the base of Huron, excited when we found the bushwhacking to get above tree line to be a much more navigable than we had anticipated. Soon, we had our sights on our ski line, but we were still an hour behind our anticipated schedule. We decided to boot up a more shaded slope that looked like it would also make for a quicker summit. I was glad to be dawning crampons, as my three year old climbing skins had been plagued with clump all morning, costing me any hope of gliding through the flats and quite a bit of energy as I hauled the extra weight of sticky snow uphill. (Mark was dealing with some clump too, but he must be tougher than I am because he was far less perturbed by it.)
After a few hundred feet of booting up the snowfield just East of the summit, we were on the ridgeline just a short distance from the top. We booted and scrambled up the rocky ridge, giving plenty of distance between us and the massive cornices hanging off the Northeast face. At the summit we scouted our line and agreed that we were both comfortable skiing it, but did not want to waste any more time while the snow continued to warm.
I made the first few turns one at a time, digging my skis into the grippy layer buried below about two inches of newer snow. On one of these turns, the fresher snow beneath my skis released sliding all the way down our intended line. I radioed back to Mark for confirmation and we agreed to ski the base layer to the runout. I continued down making cautious turns above the steep, rocky crux. Mark skied to me at the crux and then I continued down to the apron, unable to find a safe stopping spot prior. I radioed up to Mark and watched excitedly as he skied one of the more challenging lines we had encountered this season.
We had a quick discussion about our mistakes in arriving later than we wanted at the summit and then skied out the valley to avoid any more encounters with warming sluff. We found some more fun turns and once we made it to less consequential terrain, took some more time to discuss our decision making and their outcomes.
The sun was out in full force for our exit, and I insisted we take a break in the shade before making our way out through the sloppy snow that awaited us on the summer road out. Having pushed a faster than usual pace to get to the summit, I was tired and happy to move at whatever speed came naturally on the long miles back to our car. We arrived at the creek crossing, gaslighting ourselves into thinking it would not be as bad the second time around, but still found the cold fairly miserable. I chose to run through the creek in a somewhat successful attempt to limit my exposure to the icy water, inspiring quite the burst of laughter from both Mark and I.
Back at the car, we changed out of our wet clothes, and left our steaming ski boots in the sun for a few minutes to air out. It had been a long day, and while not all had gone to plan, we were excited to have made it out there and back safely. We headed back to Leadville to make dinner and rest our legs before identifying a ski objective for the next day.