Despite being literally less than 10 miles away as the crow flies south of our home in Lake Creek, the 13er Gold Dust Peak (13,365′) is still fairly remote and reclusive and takes some effort to get back there especially when snow is on the ground. I first summitted Gold Dust back in late November 2009 with several good pals and Rainie and Kona. It was a fun day of snowshoeing and cold temps and another good reminder of the time I so cherished with Rainie & Kona in the mountains.

Gold Dust Peak summit with my furry gals back in late November 2009

The 2nd time I summitted Gold Dust was a warm August day in 2018 with Natalie Moran and we went on to traverse to “Pika” Peak (13,126′) for a fun half day of scrambling and trail running back to the trailhead to get back home to get Kona and head to work (Kristine & Sawyer had gone back to Maine for the week).

Me on Gold Dust’s summit in August 2018 looking north to New York Mountain with New York Lake below

Natalie on top of “Pika” Peak with Gold Dust Peak and the traverse behind

I knew if I wanted to grace its summit for a 3rd time it had to be to ski its awesome-looking north couloir down to New York Lake. This couloir is not easily seen. In fact, you really can’t see it well from many vantage points down in the lower elevations of the Vail Valley and Lake Creek. Actually, the Eagle County Landfill yields a great look at it 🙂 I knew I wanted to climb Gold Dust from the standard Yeoman Park Trailhead and up its southwest face, but the real question came on how to exit from the New York Lake area once down the couloir. We could always reclimb the couloir, but that didn’t sound appealing. I thought of skiing all the way out to the Baryeta Cabins (West Lake Creek) Road and then out the 4 miles to West Lake Creek Trailhead, but that was a LONG out and probably would involve a lot of bushwhacking and route-finding between New York Lake and the Baryeta Cabins Road. In corresponding with my good local pal, Ben Conners, we devised a scheme to regain a saddle to the west and ski out the Nolan Creek Drainage to Forest Service Road 418 at the town of Fulford. Below is the map denoting the route I thought would work and we really stayed pretty true to this route the entire day.

My proposed loop to ski Gold Dust’s north couloir

This adventure is yet another spring 2020 COVID trip I am just now writing up. Trying to catch up on writing up some of my favorite adventures. We gathered a good crew including me, Ben, J, Dylan, & Brett and met at the Yeoman Park Trailhead maybe around 4-5 am in early May 2020. We kept skis and boots on our backs for quite a while and many miles up the Brush Creek drainage to Lake Charles. We were mostly able to stay on top of the spring snow in our trail runners which was nice and made for decent time. We lost the trail when the snow started getting deep so just kept navigating east towards Lake Charles. It was getting warmer after a few hours and we eventually switched to ski boots and skinning instead of postholing in the slushy, deep snow. We eventually veered northeast into the Negro Basin drainage and kept going until tree line and popped out in front of Gold Dust’s south face.

Brett and Gold Dust dead ahead

Booting up the steeper south face to gain the gentle southwest face. Fools Peak’s north ridge behind

Once we hit the mellow southwest face, it was just a slog to the summit.

Chatting and enjoying the mellow climb to the summit. The snow was still pretty firm even on the south facing slopes, so we were indeed in no hurry. Photo by Ben

Gold Dust Peak summit (13,365′)

What a beautiful day – though still chilly at 13,000′. Looking north to New York Lake, New York Mountain (left), & Finnegans Peak (right)

We waited for awhile on the summit and scoped out the traverse east over to the sub-summit from which the north couloir drops away. It didn’t look trivial. And the snow was warming up fast on the traverse so we all decided to at least get over to the sub-summit. I chose to put my skis on my back and traverse by foot. Brett followed my lead. The other boys did a hairy (at least to me and Brett) ski/side-step across. Unlike many of my friends, I am more comfortable on my feet than on skis 🙂

Dylan on the traverse and the heavily corniced ridge hanging over the north face

Brett making a few moves on the traverse

Me coming up to the sub-summit. Photo by Ben

Brett & Dylan on the sub-summit

We scrambled down a bit to the north where the couloir started and found a great looking little cave where we strapped on our skis. The snow still looked pretty darn firm, which did not instill much confidence for me and the tele turn, but J launched forward first and skied it well as always.

J getting ready to drop

J dropping. He confirmed the snow was indeed “firm” and had yet to soften up. Photo by Ben

We all went one at a time and yes it was firm. Ugh. Dylan exclaimed that his “ears hurt” from the noise of the skis chattering on the hardpacked snow of the couloir.

Dylan making the skiing look better than it was. Photo by Ben

Nonetheless, we all made it down lower in the couloir. I think Ben got the best upper couloir turns as he traversed under the north face more which appeared to have better snow:

Ben taking a sit mid-couloir

We then skied the lower couloir and the apron. The snow got softer and softer the lower we got and by the time we were out of the couloir you could open it up a bit and enjoy the nice corn snow.

J and the big north face above

J getting to the corn

Dylan smiling with the goods

And me enjoying my tele turn with the north couloir behind. Photo by Ben

Skiing down to the bench above New York Lake

We regrouped just above New York Lake, drank some water, and donned our skins again and began the skin up to the small saddle we saw just south of Point 12,525′.

Skinning out with the north couloir in full profile behind. Photo by Ben

Heading out with Point 12,525′ behind

We were thinking about booting up Point 12,525′ and skiing its west face down into the Nolan Creek drainage. However, once we got a view of the west face, there was very little snow so we dispatched of that idea. We booted up the final steep gully to the small pass where we were treated with wonderful views.

Gold Dust and its north couloir from the small pass. Photo by Ben

J looking down into the Nolan Creek drainage where we skied out towards FS 418 and the town of Fulford

The lengthy ski out the Nolan Creek drainage was really fun and smooth. That is, until we got to the tight forests much lower down. We passed by the frozen Nolan Lake and Craig Peak and eventually found the Newcomer Spring trail just before running into FS 418. It was hot and a bit slow with the slush but we eventually made it out to Yeoman Park Trailhead and the cars around 4pm. After enjoying a beer sitting around the cars reminiscing on the day, we all took off back home. All in all, it was a phenomenal day and I’m super happy our loop worked out pretty well. Obviously, I wish the couloir had softened up more, but in all honestly it probably didn’t warm up until 4pm the way the sun hits it at that time of year. Beggers can’t be choosers!

Wow, its been forever since I posted something. Its been a COVID world, but I sure hope we are close to righting the ship. I wanted to share another fun spring ski-mountaineering day I enjoyed with good pals Ben Conners & Brian Miller last May 2019. The southeast face of 13er Snow Peak in the Gores was on the docket. Though I had been up Snow numerous times, I had never skied it – none of us had. It looked like a great face full of snow with many lines to be had all the way down to Gore Lake. Meeting maybe around 7am, we made the usual pilgrimage up Gore Creek and then turning due north up the “skier’s route”
towards Deluge Lake. We were thinking to just skin all the way to just east of Deluge Lake and then booting up to Snow Pass to take the normal route to Snow’s summit up the north ridge. However, we were skinning along and just decided to take one of the steeper west-facing couloir which topped out directly on Snow Peak’s spicier south ridge.

Skinning up into beautiful Deluge Lake basin with Grand Traverse Peak at far right

The couloir we ascended

We donned our crampons and began the boot up the couloir. Pretty fun climbing ensued until Ben and I topped out on the south ridge and looked ahead to what we needed to climb. Brian topped out soon after.

Me in the couloir with Grand Traverse Peak behind. Pic by Ben

I remembered climbing Snow’s south ridge in fall with Kristine, J, Brett, Rainie, & Kona and I do remember some class 3/4 scrambling. So, now it was snow covered which I think made it even cooler.

Ben & Brian climbing the south ridge

Ben

Such a beautiful day to be on a ridge. Pic by Ben

One final steep section to the summit of Snow

Not sure when we topped out, but maybe it was around 11am. It was a beautiful summit. No real wind to speak of.

Snow Peak summit with Mt. Valhalla in the background

Looking northwest to Valhalla (right) & Grand Traverse (left)

While we could have hung out there for a long time, we did wait an hour or so for the corn to ripen up some. Ben & Brian decided to take the steepest line that dropped right from the summit while I skied down the east ridge some and dropped into this shallower gully that I had previously looked at.

Ben snapped this pic of me in my gully with Hail Peak and the Silverthorne massif behind

Brian off the top into the steep gully! Pic by Ben

Brian slashing lower down on the face. Pic by Ben

We regrouped at the bottom of the face after our respective lines and skied the awesomely corny apron all the way down to Gore Lake.

Corn o’clock down lower! Pic by Ben

Snow’s southeast face. Lots of great lines in here!

We then regrouped and skied the treed terrain below Gore Lake into the small drainage and then south down to the Recen brothers gravesite at Gore Creek. This was followed by the 5 mile ski out Gore Creek, which at times is frustrating, but it was such a beautiful and warm day that it was pleasant. Another fine Gore outing with two of my favorite Gore aficionados. I didn’t want to forget to write up this day even if it is 7 months later! Gets me very excited for spring 2021 ski mountaineering adventures.

Having spent a decent amount of time climbing in this little basin I call Asgard Basin on the east side of Mt. Vahalla in the Gores, there was one other goal in this small, secluded basin I had and that was skiing Vahalla’s arcing Heavenly Couloir. The name “Heavenly Couloir” was coined by Stan Wagon and has the shape of a crescent moon extending from Vahalla’s summit east, then north, and finally a bit west/northwest down into Asgard Basin below Asgard Ridge, Loki, & Thor Towers. It doesn’t present a ton of vertical skiing (maybe 1,600′ to Asgard Basin below Asgard Lake), but its proximity to Asgard Basin and remoteness have always been intriguing to me. Its definitely more of an adventure ski as its some effort to make it happen.

During this whole COVID-19 pandemic, it has been a tough to find time for just Kristine and I together. After many ski mountaineering days this year without the other, we were able to top off the spring ski mountaineering season together all thanks to our friend Sarah Sullivan for coming over at 5:30am to do an all day babysit. It really does mean the world to us to do big days together like we did so often for so many years pre-kids. The day before we had driven over to Summit County with the kids and Kona and had left a car at the North Rock Creek TH so we would be able to do an up and over traverse of the Gores from west to east skiing the Heavenly Couloir along the way. We biked on the bike path and attempted to give Sawyer a go at climbing the 1st pitch of the Royal Flush with me belaying her from above. It did not work out so well. It was too daunting for her having me 90′ above her and not below her. Anyway, it was a learning experience. Multi-pitch routes will just have to be something we try way down the road.

Sawyer rolling along the Frisco bike path with a fresh coating of snow on the trees above

Thatcher & Kristine

Up at 4:30am, kids still asleep, we put all the gear in the car, and left Sarah around 5:45am. I think we actually started hiking around 6:30am from the Gore Creek/Deluge Lake TH in our trail runners with skis and boots on our packs. My plan was to take the Gore Creek Trail east to Deluge Creek and take the “winter route” up to Deluge Lake, which I know well by now. It was a lot of miles and effort bushwhacking with heavy packs, but we eventually made it to snow line. We continued to walk up the frozen snow in our trail runners and switched to skinning around maybe 10,600′.

Can you spot Kristine bushwhacking thru the thicket?

We made good progress up past the frozen Deluge Lake to the base of the southwest face of Mt. Vahalla where we traded the skins/skis for crampons.

Skinning towards Vahalla dead ahead!

Kristine and the Deluge Lake basin

Cramponing up! This face is always fun to climb

A little video of Kristine climbing:

Me making my way to the high saddle between Mt. Vahalla & Palomino Point

We took a bit of a snack and water break at the saddle and recharged for the final 400′ to the top up Vahalla’s northwest ridge. This ridge ended up being a pretty fun scramble and I believe we topped out around 11am or shortly after for maybe 4.5-5 hours up.

Kristine and Palomino Point next door to the northwest

Kristine making her way

Final feet to the summit with the southeast face of Grand Traverse Peak in the background – a great ski tour in its own right!

It was great to get back to the summit of Vahalla. It had been several years for me. Probably since J and I climbed Asgard Ridge to Palomino Point and then up to Vahalla from the east in August of 2014. It was fairly chilly so we only stayed on top maybe 20 minutes.

Together on Mt. Vahalla’s summit(13,180′)

We clicked into our skis and set off skiing a few turns down the east face to a point where we crossed over the east ridge onto the northeast face and into the Heavenly Couloir.

Looking down the Heavenly

Ready to drop!

Looking down into Asgard Basin to the east and Asgard Ridge on the left

Looking down on Loki Tower from the Heavenly

Kristine up high on Vahalla

We had gotten a decent amount of rain the day before which equated to at least a few inches of fresh snow up on the high peaks including Vahalla. I knew it wasn’t enough to make it dangerous, but we still needed to manage the fresh snow slough, which would inevitably cave off on top of the firm base underneath. Kristine took a video of me skiing the upper couloir – it was pretty good snow:

I skied down into the couloir proper and stopped above a rock outcrop and caught Kristine skiing down behind me. I think I probably caved off half of the mountain’s top layer of snow over the steep cliff on its east face, but at least the slough didn’t get in my way. Kristine skied it very well and kept on going down from where I was.

Kristine up high

Beautiful scenery

Asgard Ridge in the foreground with Keller Mountain in the background

Kristine in the lower part of the Heavenly with the slough we caused to her left

And, then another video of me skiing the lower Heavenly:

Kristine skiing the apron

Happy to be together skiing a new peak for us

It was a super fun and enjoyable ski, but short-lived, yes. Now, we had to start preparing our exit strategy. One option had always been to reclimb the couloir and downclimb some of our climbing route and ski out Deluge Creek to Gore Creek. But, to me, it always means more to do a traverse, an up and over, to the other side of the range. I knew the approach into Asgard Basin from the east and North Rock Creek TH pretty well from several climbing trips in there. So, that was my plan – to exit via the lower flanks of Asgard Ridge and into the woods to the Gore Range Trail. I knew it would be a lot of bushwhacking, but I didn’t realize how tough it would be with skis on our backs. It made bushwhacking in there with climbing packs a walk in the park. C’est la vie.

A few of the towers along Asgard Ridge I remember well

Thor Tower’s north face

We had to regain a few hundred feet to reach the nice mellow southern flank of lower Asgard Ridge where we continued to just walk with skis on our backs.

Kristine with Vahalla’s steep east face cliff and the Heavenly arcing on the left

A really cool, steep line we spied off of Hail Peak’s northeast face

We were able to ski where Asgard Ridge dove down into the trees for awhile which was nice. However, eventually the snow got so patchy in the thick trees and brush, we decided to switch to trail runners, put the skis and boots on our packs, and just stay on the dry portion of the ridge on its southern side.

One final look of Vahalla’s east face and our tracks down the Heavenly

Fun turns down the lower, southern flank of Asgard Ridge before the real suffering started in the trees

It was some grunting, some routefinding, and some cursing, but we eventually made it to the Gore Creek Trail, turned north, and headed to the North Rock Creel TH and our subaru finally arriving around 4:30pm for a 9 hour day. We raced home to relieve Sarah by 5:30pm and see Sawyer, Thatcher, & Kona. What a terrific day with my wife semi-celebrating our 10th Everest summit anniversary, which was the day before, May 25. We feel so lucky and are so grateful we can still do these kinds of days together. Hopefully, this will be the case for many more years and decades to come including adventures and climbs with Sawyer & Thatcher, of course!

Our up route in red and down route in blue from west to east up and over Mt. Vahalla

More of a picture journey of our ski tour deep in the Gore Range to ski the elusive Straight Arrow Couloir on Peak H than anything, but in many ways pictures are worth a thousand words 🙂 For those interested, good bud Brian Miller did his typical humorous trip report over at Exploring The Rockies in a writing style that is uniquely his and his alone. All told, it was almost a 12 hour day and approximately 13.9 miles roundtrip with 7,150′ of vertical gain. Not too shabby of a day.

The day started around 4:15am with a 3,500′ vertical gain approach from the Booth Creek Trailhead in Vail to the 12,100′ East Booth Pass. Typically, that kind of gain will already get you to a summit, but we had a long way to go this day. However, we skied powder down from East Booth Pass to Upper Piney Lake at 11,000′.

Brian & J approaching East Booth Pass

Ben shot this awesome pic of Mt. of the Holy Cross with the top of Chair 3 at Vail visible lower right from East Booth Pass

J and Ben skiing down to Upper Piney Lake with our destination, Peak H, in the distance

I was able to drop a knee as it was awesome powder off the north side of East Booth Pass! Photo by Ben

Ben capturing Brian ripping turns down the north side of East Booth Pass with The Spider and The Fly as a backdrop

Then, we began the long 2,000’+ ascent up Peak H’s south slopes. The scenery was astounding. I hadn’t been back this deep in the Gore in the snowy months before and it was breathtaking.

J and I skinning up Peak H’s south slopes as far as our skins would allow. Photo by Ben

Me putting the skis on my back. At some point, it became much more efficient to just boot it. Photo by Ben

The Spider’s skiable northeast face. Wow

Ben booting up Peak H’s south slopes with Rockinghorse Ridge and West Partner Peak visible in the background

Finally, around 10:45am, we reached the summit of Peak H about 6.5 hours after starting out.

J and I on the summit of Peak H (13,080′). We had only been here once before when we traversed The Saw way back in 2012.

Looking down at Brian at the top of the Straight Arrow Couloir from Peak H’s summit

Ben about to drop into the Straight Arrow Couloir with Peak Q in the distance. Photo by Ben

Ben’s first turn

So, while traversing The Saw so many years ago, I honestly couldn’t remember if there was a viable exit from the bottom of Straight Arrow back to The Saw’s ridge proper to get back into the Upper Piney Lake basin. I usually have a good memory of things in the mountains, but this topography escaped me. Nevertheless, Ben decided to ski down about 1,000′ and look at a seemingly viable exit skier’s right. He gave an “all systems go” signal and we skied this great couloir in awesome corn snow.

Brian ripping turns as he always does

Brian much further down with quite the backdrop

Brian. Photo by Ben

Me loving this couloir while J waits patiently at the top. Photo by Ben

I think this pic makes the couloir appear steeper than it actually is. Photo by Ben

Me loving the tele turns. Photo by Ben

Here comes J

J getting into the business. Photo by Ben

The point where we packed up our skis and booted out to the exit Ben spotted

J and Ben booting

A good look at Peak L’s north face above the Black Creek drainage behind me

We reached the ridge and after a snack and some fluids we transitioned to ski mode to ski the remainder of Peak H’s south face. I did go over to the low point of The Saw after a few hundred feet of skiing down H’s south face and scoped out the climb up to the saddle from the apron of the Straight Arrow Couloir. Definitely climable. In hindsight, we could have skied a few more hundred vertical down the Straight Arrow and had a decent climb up and out to the saddle. Oh well. Definitely next time 🙂

Brian skiing down Peak H’s south face. Photo by Ben

Ben shot me skiing down H with such a gorgeous backdrop here including The Spider and Holy Cross.

And, another one of me skiing down H with the Spider behind. Photo by Ben

We skied as far as we could due south, but really dropped all the way down to Upper Piney Lake yet again. We had over a 1,000′ re-climb back up to East Booth Pass, which definitely caused us to put on the afterburners.

J and Brian topping out on East Booth Pass for the second time this day

Ben and J at East Booth Pass with the Spider and The Fly behind’

After some lounging, we packed up and skied down the Booth Creek drainage where we still got almost 3,000′ of skiing to well below Booth Falls. Yes, it took some gymnastics lower down but we kept the skis on our feet to where it got unruly and Brian and I called it quits.

Me skiing down the south side of East Booth Pass on perfect corn. Photo by Ben

A very fun out….

…until this

But, Ben, as always, managed to make the turn

Great day out in my favorite range with the biggest Gore snobs I know. Until next time fellas.