Huron is as remote as a Sawatch 14er gets...which is to say, it's farther from a paved road than any of the 15 Sawatch 14ers. However, access is still pretty easy. To get to the Winfield trailhead, head north from Buena Vista about 14 miles on US 24 (or south from Leadville about 16 miles) and turn left at the Clear Creek Reservoir (Chaffee County 390). The well-maintained dirt road heads mostly west and terminates at Winfield, about 11 miles in. Up to this point the road is well-maintained and passable to pretty much any vehicle. At Winfield, turn left and cross Clear Creek. Cars and weenie-trucks (those non-4x4s!) can park a few hundred yards up the road. 4x4s can continue about 2 miles to the Forest Service closure gate. This stretch of road is narrow and pretty bumpy. If you're doing this one as an overnighter there are some great camping spots between Winfield and the parking area.

Once you make it to the closure gate and parking, the trail heads off to the east (left) of the closure gate. Used to be that the trailhead was up the road beyond the gate a couple hundred yards, but recent trail improvements courtesy of the Colorado 14ers Initiative group have changed the trail a bit....so don't go beyond the closure gate, even though some of the current guidebooks tell you to. The sign for the Huron trail is pretty hard to miss. We headed off right about 7am under clear skies and about 25 degrees.

The trail starts switchbacking it's way up Huron's western flanks almost immediately...there's nearly 3,500 ft. of climbing in 2 miles, and the consistently steep trail reflects it! Even though it was early May, the conditions were more like mid or late June. Except for a few patches of snow here and there, the trail was mostly dry all the way to treeline. As you approach treeline, the incredibly panoramic vista of Ice Mountain & the Three Apostles comes into view, along with your first views of Huron itself....a mellow, symmetric peak rising 2000 feet above you. It's quite the sight in the early morning sun.

Once you get past treeline, there's a couple hundred yards of flat terrain to cross...at this time of year, a large snowfield was still present, which faint tracks from previous climbers evident. The snow was fairly solid, with just a few punch-throughs to keep us alert. Nothing like walking along and suddenly finding yourself plunging through the snow to your waist

After this break from climbing, the trail begins once again to test your legs as it climbs and switchbacks its' way up the north slopes of Huron, finally reaching the 14,003' summit. On this early May day, the conditions were clear and cool, but made fairly cold by a strong and persistent wind coming out of the west. From the summit, the rest of the Sawatch was visible, with Missouri Mountain straight east, and Mt. Harvard just to the south. Princeton was visible beyond that, and LaPlata and Elbert were visible to the north. The view of the Elk Range to the west is as good as you'll find in the Sawatch, with the Maroon Bells and Capitol Peak easy to pick out. We found ourselves at the summit right about 10:00, making for a 3-hour climb.

Due to the wind, we didn't stay on top for very long. The descent was a bit on the tricky side, since the recent couple inches of snow did little more than make the rocky trail slippery. I took a couple minor pratfalls on my butt, but nothing serious. Once we were back to treeline, the trail had become a muddy, slippery mess as the temperatures rose into the mid-50s. Still, it wasn't too long before we had picked our way back to the trailhead. It was just about noon when we got back to the truck, and headed down to Buena Vista for a little lunch (if you're into Mexican fare, Casa Del Sol is highly recommended!). Another great day in the mountains, and the first summit of 2002...hopefully the harbinger of more successful summits to come!