Cronin Peak (13,870), formerly known as North Carbonate by Brian Schultz Tuesday June 28, 2005
It was good to meet Tim in Buena Vista last night. We had dinner at Quincy's and talked about the difficult centennial peaks we'd be climbing next month as well as other climbing matters. Tim brought his dogs with to join us on this easy hike, a peak that he's already done but kindly offered to do again. We'd be doing the North Ridge route on Cronin Peak from the Baldwin Creek trailhead and I particularly appreciated our being able to four-wheel to the 10,840 feet parking area to save six miles of walking (roundtrip).
At the bottom of the road, a fellow with a dog asked for a ride to the 4x4 parking area and we obliged. He was prospecting for aquamarine and informed us that a carat would net him $100. After parting company we found a way to cross the fast flowing creek, which Tim's dogs bounded across in seconds, and started up the road at 6:25 AM. The weather forecast was favorable and we knew our day would be a short one unless there was lots of snow on the ridge. The dogs were having a great time running back and forth along the road and I laughed when Tim predicted the large branch Allie was carrying would accompany her to the summit. He was right.
We left the road at 11,720 feet elevation and began a bushwhack through the trees to a clearing, where a fine view of the remaining route awaited. Both of us liked the idea of keeping to the grassy areas of the slope in order to gain the ridge and this worked out well. At 8:25, precisely two hours after starting, we were at the 13,000 ft mark on the ridge and stopped for a break. Snow cover was nonexistent and the best route after an initial contour stayed right on top of the ridge. It provided easy class 2 hiking all the way to the summit and we arrived on top at 9:30 to clear skies and plenty of sunshine.
The dogs romped while we sat for the better part of an hour enjoying the views and perusing the ten year old register, which Gerry Roach signed back in September of 1997 along with Jennifer (not Roach then). Many other familiar names were noted as well, including Tim's from his prior climb.
We left the summit at 10:20 and were surprised to see how quickly the skies darkened upon reaching the road. A fellow eating lunch at a pullout asked if he had time to summit Mt Antero. A late start didn't bode well with the changing weather but we didn't want to tell him what he should do, we simply gave him the elevation reading, the time he would likely need to reach the summit, and left it up to him. The hike back to the truck went quickly. When we got there at 12:20, thoughts immediately focused on getting to Johnson Village so we could check out the Coyote Cantina restaurant that Ryan Schilling has always raved about. We were not disappointed- the ambience and food were outstanding!
Trailhead to Cronin- 3 hours 5 minutes
Cronin back to trailhead- 2 hours
Total time including all breaks- 5 hours 55 minutes