MT. PRINCETON
14,197 ft.
June 25, 1996
By Tim Briese
(Note: For another trip report on a climb I have done of Mt. Princeton, see the More Climbs page.)
I left home at 5 a.m. with my eight year old daughter Emily and headed into the mountains to climb Mt. Princeton. I had set a goal for myself to climb six new 14ers this year, and this was to be the first one. For many years I had admired the grand view of Princeton while driving down Highway 285 into the Arkansas River Valley, which is one of the more impressive views of a 14er from a highway in the state. Now it was time to climb it.
We drove up the narrow and winding Mt. Princeton Road, hoping we would not meet another vehicle, for this narrow road is rarely wide enough for two vehicles to pass. After reaching the radio towers that are perched high on a ridge overlooking the valley we continued a little further on the increasingly rough road and parked at a switchback at 11,600 feet. At about 8:00 we struck off up the road on foot with our lab Sadie and soon reached timberline. When we neared 12,000 feet we left the old road and began to head steeply uphill to the right on a well-worn trail. At a curve in the road just beyond sat an older model jeep that had slid off to the side of the road. It leaned precariously downhill, and appeared to be just a nudge away from tipping over and rolling hundreds of feet down a steep slope to the trees far below. The driver of the vehicle, who was nowhere to be seen, must have been terrified when this incident occurred.
The trail soon took us to the crest of a broad grassy area where we had a fine view of the Arkansas River Valley far below to the east and the stately summit of Princeton towering above to the west. We followed the excellent trail as it contoured along a north facing slope high above a deep valley and gradually ascended toward our goal. At one point we crossed a gully that was filled with snow, and carefully secured our footing to avoid falling and sliding down the steep snow slope to rocks below. I suspect that there would usually be more snow at this time of year than we encountered on this north facing slope, but the previous winter had been quite dry and little snow remained in the high country.
The trail appeared to continue on up to an old mine at 13,100 feet on Princeton’s east slope, with unpleasantly steep grades above that, so we left the trail at about 12,800 feet and headed to the left up a talus slope toward the crest of Princeton’s southeast ridge above. The trail was undefined here, and it was quite strenuous boulder-hopping across the rocks while going up this long slope, but young Emily found it to be a lot of fun, and so did I. She did not enjoy, however, all the small spiders we saw crawling on the rocks as we ascended through this area. This must have been an unusual or limited seasonal phenomenon, for I have never seen so many spiders on any other mountain climb.
After an aerobic 500 foot climb we reached the crest of the ridge and turned to the right and ascended toward the summit. Along the ridge at about 13,600 feet we went around a rock outcropping and were treated to a breathtaking view down into the Chalk Creek Valley below to the south. I felt as if I were in an airplane looking down at Chalk Lake, nearly 5000 vertical feet below. We went past a bank of snow and worked our way on up the ridge and stepped atop the summit at about 11:30.
It was grand and beautiful on top, with almost unlimited visibility. We could look around at almost half of our state, and we counted 25 to 30 other 14ers. It was quite a feeling of accomplishment to look down at the trail we had come up some 2000 feet below to the east. The air was calm and the sky was partly cloudy, and held no threat of rain. While we sat and rested a couple of other climbers with a dog arrived and joined us on the summit. I was a bit surprised when one of the climbers pulled a dog bowl out of his pack and poured some of his precious water into it for his canine to lap up. For a moment I felt a little guilty that we merely let our dog eat snow along the way to stay hydrated, but I realized that Sadie was none the worse for it.
A little after noon we left the top and began the descent. We decided to go directly down the east slope rather than back down the southeast ridge, for a change of pace. This turned out to be a reasonable way to descend, but I was glad we hadn’t come up this way because the footing was rather loose. In short order we reached the relative comfort of the trail and rapidly hiked downhill. We met an older gentleman waiting along the trail who was gazing up at Princeton toward his younger companions who were climbing to the summit. He told us that he found himself unable to ascend any further, but I could tell by the glow in his eye that he was pleased to come as far as he had.
Emily and I hiked on down the trail and stopped to rest and sit on the soft tundra at the grassy area before continuing on down the old road. At about 2:30 we returned to our truck and headed for home, pleased with our first 14er climb of the year.
