Mount Princeton

We started the ascent at 4:15 am from 11,030' just past the radio towers. Climbing very quickly(perhaps too quickly), we knocked off the first half of the climb in 1 hour. In the pitch black under clear skis, we cruised right past the turnoff that takes you up Princeton. There is now a huge carin there, so it was a pretty goofy mistake. After about .2 miles, we realized it and headed back. From there the pace slowed quite a bit. There was extensive postholing, and several avy chutes that had to be crossed one at a time(we had beacons running). After circumnavigating one suspisious looking chute, we made the decision to push straight up to the ridge. This was a good idea as it gave us a bailout straight down the ridge should the weather continue to detiorate. Once on the ridge, we stashed snowshoes and other gear and pushed quickly toward the top. The wind had picked up, and conditions were near whiteout on several occasions. The summit was freezing cold. Visibility was zero and there was no view to photograph. We followed our ascent route down, moving quickly to keep warm. As we got lower, the weather broke all around, and we could again see the peak. We ran into a party that seemed ill equiped to make the summit. They had no snowshoes or poles. A great late season climb!