Chris and I headed up to Brainard Lake on a Saturday morning with a bit of new snow and clouds swirling over the divide. We hiked up the Mt. Audubon trail, where it became more and more wintry as we went. By the summit, we lost the tgrail and just headed up over the rocks and powder snow. The wind was pretty strong during the descent to the Audubon-Paiute saddle, and we considered turning back; but we persevered and reached the summit of Paiute in thick fog and snow, but much less wind. The visibility was so poor that we didn't know we had reached the summit until we found the register! It took some careful orienteering to find our way down, but we managed to find the route, and descended a broad gully with about six inches of old snow covering the rocks and scree. As we descended, the clouds began to lift, revealing the impressive north side of Mt. Toll. I got a bad dehydration headache that did not lift until after we got back to Boulder, but all in all it was a quite satisfactory day.
Created by Joseph Proulx