There is a classic Gore Range ski descent dubbed the “Deming Drop” on the 12,902′ Deming Mountain’s north face. I have alway had this on my tick list and recruited Derek and Mikey to join me to attempt this ski two Saturdays ago on June 4. And, come to think of it, I had actually never summitted Deming so that was task #1. Then, we would evaluate the couloir and see here the day took us. And, as usual, we had our K9 companions Kona and Derek’s dog Maude. Though, in retrospect, at the end of the day, we realized its not a line for dogs as its pretty darn steep and is just a bit too serious of a line to feel comfortable taking dogs down it.

Early morning light from the Meadow Creek trail

Derek & Maude slept at the Meadow Creek TH outside of Frisco, Mikey came from Denver that early morning, and Kona & I left my house at 3:15am arriving at the TH around 4am. We were hiking up the dry steep trail by 4:18am in trail shoes and skis and ski boots on our backs. We finally reached snow line around 10,500′ after maybe 2 miles and got the load off our backs by switching to ski boots and skinning. I had heard it took other friends about 4-5 hours to reach Deming’s summit and thus the shortly after 4am start. Fortunately, we were able to stay on top of the semi-frozen snow as it was still very early. We crested into the meadows and got our first glance of the east face of Deming.

Deming Mountain. We ascended up the moderate east slopes on its right flank

We continued skinning up the broad drainage and ascended the east slopes of Deming. Short steeper skinning pitches  broke up the longer mellower slopes.

The sun crests and it really heats up

Derek & Maude

Derek, Maude, & Mikey ascending the east face with Buffalo Mtn behind

The upper east face of Deming

Gorgeous view of Red Diamond Ridge. J and I traversed this ridge last summer

Deming Mountain’s USGS summit marker

Kona and I reached the summit just before 8am, dropped my skis, and went over to check out the Deming Drop. It took us 3 hrs and 45 minutes to reach the summit and actually we all expected the ascent to take us longer. The couloir was steep, especially the first 50-75′ or so. My buddies Ben Conners & Brian Miller estimated this top pitch at around 50 degrees in their book Climbing & Skiing Colorado’s Mountains: 50 Select Ski Descents. This top pitch was in the sun as it faced east and was warming up just nicely. However, most of the couloir was still in the shade at the point of where it mellowed to 40-45 degrees below the steepest pitch to the bottom.

Looking down the Deming Drop

I figured a good hour’s wait would get the entire couloir in the sun and make it nice and soft and much safer than it would be in the shade and hard and icy. Kona and I went back to the summit and welcomed Derek and Maude and then Mikey maybe 5 minutes later. We snacked and took pics and enjoyed a rare windless and warm Gore summit.

A beautiful summit

Derek & Maude on the summit of Deming Mtn (12,902′)

Me & Kona on the summit of Deming Mtn (12,902′)

And all of us on Deming’s summit

Looking over at West Deming. Joel, Kristine, Kona, & I skied this peak ‘s really fun and mellow southwest face last spring

9am rolled around and we hiked over the summit ridge tundra to the top of the couloir. Much to my surprise the deeply inset north-facing couloir was still in the shade pretty much the same as it had been. The steepest upper pitch was really baking in the sun. I was definitely a bit disappointed and knew better than to ski a 40+ degree couloir which has not been warmed by the sun. We continued to wait until 9:45am and the sun was slowly creeping down the steep rock walls of the couloir, but hadn’t hit the bottom 1,200′ of the couloir yet. Mikey had a deadline of 3pm back in Denver and the longer we waited the more Derek and I admitted it was a bit more of  serious couloir than we thought especially with dogs in tow. But, gosh, I wanted to ski it so bad, but likely would have needed to wait another hour or two. By the time we would have hiked back up to Deming’s northeast ridge and skied down the entire approach would be so very slushy making travel very slow and Kona and Maude would have an epic time through the deep wet snow. Derek and I were thinking about just waiting, but ultimately the dog factor sealed it for us and we all went back to the summit and skied the super fun east face of Deming. The Deming Drop would have to wait for next year!

Derek & Maude

Me skiing Deming. Photo by Mike

Derek opening up some wide GS turns on the upper east face

Derek with Eccles Pass beyond

Mikey with Peak 1 and Peak 2 in the distance

Kona finishing up the east face

We then put our skins back on and headed up to Eccles pass for some more views and a few more turns.

Reaching Eccles Pass (11,900′) with Deming’s east face behind

The snow got really sloppy down in the Meadow Creek basin and the dogs were struggling to stay afloat. Not to mention it was pretty hot as well. Nevertheless, we reached snow line, traded skis and boots for trail shoes, and made it back to the TH at around 1pm. We were bummed not to ski the Deming Drop, but glad we made the right call. Spring skiing is ll about timing. Next time we will get a later start knowing the couloir gets sun late. And, oh yeah, leave the dogs at home 🙂

Despite being one of the easiest 14ers in the state and one we have been up and down countless times, its hard to beat Quandary’s south facing Cristo Couloir in terms of bang (ski descent) for your buck (effort & time involved). Mikey & Kaitlin came up Friday night and stayed with us as Kaitlin would care for Sawyer and Rainie while Kona, Kristine, Mikey, & myself would go climb & ski the Cristo. Its a great route – very direct and a fun ski. One I try and do about every spring. After Sawyer ate a good breakfast and got accustomed to Kaitlin, we departed the house by 8am for the 1 hour and 15 min drive over to Quandary. We had to park at the gate to the Blue Lakes Dam as is typical and got going around 9:30am from my truck for the mile walk up the road to the dam and the base of the couloir. From here its 1 mile and 2,575′ straight up to the summit. Navigationally, it cannot get any easier than this. A great bootpack was established and up we went.

Up and up we go

Kristine high in the couloir with Northstar Mtn behind

We topped out right about noon to several folks coming up the standard east ridge and some pretty blustery west wind.

Me, Kristine, & Kona on Quandary’s summit (14,265′)

Mikey joins in for a summit pic

After maybe 20 minutes on the summit, it was time to roll. We quickly transitioned to ski mode and started down the Cristo. The sun was in and out of the clouds all day, which tended to crust over some of the snow on the upper slopes, but overall it was a pretty decent ski down albeit a bit heavy since we were skiing it after noon this day.

Kristine

Kristine skiing the upper portion of Cristo

There she goes

Mikey launching on his snowboard

Snowboarders…have it easy

Mikey in the sun with the frozen Blue Lakes far below

About halfway down the couloir, the sun was really out and it was pretty sloppy, heavy snow especially on my teles. Mikey seemed to carve it up like butter on his snowboard. Kristine skied it very well on her alpines.

Kristine & Kona

Mikey

Kristine

And, a few of me that Kristine took.

Me trying to last through the heavy snow

A full-view of the couloir above

And….that’s a wrap

Back at the car around 1pm, we were home by 2:30pm after giving a few fellow skiers a ride back to the standard east ridge trailhead (which they had ascended to ski down the Cristo). Kaitlin & Sawyer had had a great day together and she had just awoken from her afternoon slumber. Many thanks to Kaitlin for shouldering our responsibilities for a few hours so we could go climb/ski something together.

Lastly, happy 9th birthday to Kona! Her birthday is today (May 17). She is the best companion we could have ever asked for. We all love you so much, Kona!

Kona on the summit of Mt. of the Holy Cross last summer (14,005′)

Kristine has spring break this week and I took a little 5 hour hiatus from work so we could go spend a nice morning together up on a peak. The weather forecast this week didn’t look great all over the state, but Monday morning looked to be promising with clouds and showers coming in after 2pm. Kristine had yet to climb the prominent 13er Jacque Peak behind Copper Mountain. Copper Mountain had closed for skiing the day before and so the ski runs were empty. After leaving Rainier at home (she cannot do these climbs anymore) and dropping Sawyer off at daycare in Vail, we drove separate cars over to Copper and parked. On the snow at 9:30am, we skinned up the ski run called Roundabout under beautiful blue skies with Kona and our K9 friend for a few days, Molly. We ended up eventually skinning the steeper black diamond bump run called Colman’s Restreat up towards Union Mountain.

Kristine

After about 2,200′ and a few miles, we topped out on the broad northeast ridge of Jacque after slightly bypassing the summit of Union Mountain. The wind picked up in a hurry, but the air temps were still reasonably warm. The wind abated here and there, but overall was pretty consistent all the way to the summit.

Molly on the ridge with the Tenmile Range behind. Left to right: Pacific Peak, Atlantic Peak, Fletcher Mountain, & Drift Peak

Happy to be up high again

Me and the dogs on the ridge

Jacque’s northeast ridge

Kona & Molly following the ridge

Kristine skinning up a steeper section

Kristine higher up with the Gore and Tenmile Ranges behind

Kristine summitting!

The northeast ridge of Jacque is entirely skinnable and makes for a nice ski tour. We all arrived on Jacque’s summit a few minutes after noon and a stiff and ferocious wind greeted us. We surely didn’t dilly-dally as the dogs were pretty cold. We de-skinned, took a few pics, and were set to ski in 10 minutes.

Kristine & I on the summit of Jacque Peak (13,205′)

Kona saying “Let’s get down from here. I’m freezing”

While it would have been fun to ski the east face of Jacque, the winds simply wouldn’t allow it. Yes, the sun was out, but the winds were too sustained and strong all morning to let the sun do its job of heating up the snow to make it soft, safe, and fun for skiing. Oh well. We simply skied the northeast ridge back down the same way we ascended.

Kona & Kristine on the ski down

Kristine skating across the broad ridge back to Union Mountain with Jacque behind

We took a good break right at treeline for some water and candy before we skied down the resort back to the cars.

Its always great being the only ones skiing in a ski resort

Back at the cars just a few minutes after 1pm, Kristine, Kona, & Molly went to Silverthorne to do some shopping while I went back home to take Rainier swimming in the river and head to work before picking Sawyer up from daycare. All in all, just a wonderful Monday morning with my wife and the dogs. I wish every Monday morning could be like this one 🙂

Oh yeah, and Sawyer likes coloring now:

The first time I climbed the Elk Range 14er Castle Peak was for my company’s 2004 Griffith Centers Peak Challenge. I organized it and selfishly chose Castle Peak as I had not hiked it. Griffith Centers for Children sponsors 14er climbs every year we try and participate every year we can. Griffith Centers is a great organization that helps troubled children and their families primarily in Denver. Come to think of it Castle Peak was Rainier and my 1st 14er in the Elks.

BGCE Peak Challenge summit pic on Castle Peak (14,265′). August 7, 2004

I then learned there was another 14er next to Castle Peak called Conundrum Peak (14,060′). However, back in those days Conundrum was not recognized as an official 14er of the list of 54 due to it not rising 300′ above the connecting saddle with its higher neighbor, Castle Peak. These days, I believe Conundrum is generally included in the 14er list. Rainier and I ventured up high into Montenzuma Basin in the spring of 2006 and climbed Conundrum just the two of us.

Brandon & Rainie on Conundrum Peak’s summit (14,060′)

In late June of 2008, Kristine was on her quest to complete the Colorado 14ers and so we all went back up into Montezuma Basin and climbed both 14ers. We took more of a sporty line up Conundrum Peak this time via the steeper Conundrum Couloir. After we summitted Conundrum, we did the fairly mellow traverse over to Castle Peak. Montezuma Basin offers wonderful skiing and we skied from about 13,500′ all the way back down to the truck. It was a great day.

Kristine nearing the top of the Conundrum Couloir

Conundrum Peak summit (14,060′)

Castle Peak summit (14,265′)

I’ve been skiing over in Montezuma Basin a few times since 2008 but never to go climb those two 14ers. My friend Natalie Moran is on her winter 14er quest and asked me if I would like to join her on these two. After our recent fun climb up Mt. Sneffels two weeks prior, I was itching to get back up on some peaks as well. And, the weather has been wonderful from a winter climbing perspective., i.e. not much recent snow at all leaving stable snow conditions. Another friend of Natalie’s, Greg from Crested Butte, joined us as well and turns out that these two 14ers were still left on his winter 14er list. Greg only has 6 or so more winter 14ers to have climbed all the 14ers in winter. Pretty amazing stuff. Plus, Greg is one of the fastest people I have climbed with no doubt. I drove over to Aspen and turned onto the dark Castle Creek Road, went south to Ashcroft and the winter road closure, and parked next to Natalie’s car around 10:30pm. In winter, the route starts much lower with much more distance and vertical gain to climb than in the summer. I believe the roundtrip stats are around 5,500′ and 16 miles in winter for both 14ers. You can cut that in half or more in the summer given how far you can drive up the 4WD mining road in Montezuma Basin. After a rough and very short night’s rest in the back of Kristine’s Subaru Impreza, in which I certainly did not fit, we woke up at 3:15am and got geared up. Greg showed up at our cars and we all began up the road at around 4:15am with Natalie and I on our skis and Greg on foot with his snowshoes on his pack. We made good time the first few miles and eventually reached the point on the road where I had always driven my truck just before the Pearl Pass turnoff. Soon after the morning colors began to light the sky we entered Montezuma Basin.

Dawn breaks

Natalie skinning up Montezuma Basin

Upper Montezuma Basin from the summer 12,800′ 4WD parking

After another hour of skinning, we reached the 12,800′ 4WD summer parking area and looked up at the final headwall to the small glacier below the peaks. We noticed a skin track up this 600′ headwall and went for it only to find out that is was horribly icy and slick from a skinner’s perspective. At this point, I certainly wished I just had crampons or snowshoes to go straight up instead of slipping and struggling up the switchbacks.

Me skinning up the icy headwall skin track. Photo by Natalie

We regrouped in the high 13,500′ basin below Castle’s north face and Conundrum’s east face. Our plan was to climb to the saddle between the two peaks, but it looked a bit loaded from a snow accumulation perspective and perhaps a bit dangerous climbing it. I was honestly expecting it to be a bit drier. We then chose to climb the steeper north couloir of Castle leaving the skis and snowshoes at the base. The couloir was safe enough but definitely a bit demoralizing as it was littered with scree. Snow only covered a small portion of the couloir and it was a bit unconsolidated at that. Natalie and I were fighting our own battles in that couloir due to climbing in ski boots on loose, steep scree. We soon topped out to find Greg lounging at the notch. After a quick snack and drink, we left for the summit only a few hundred vertical feet above along the northeast ridge.

Natalie climbing Castle’s North Couloir with Conundrum Peak behind

Looking up the couloir at Greg almost to the notch

Greg & I going for Castle’s summit. Photo by Natalie

Greg climbing Castle’s northeast ridge

Natalie climbing Castle’s northeast ridge

Natalie a bit higher

Greg

Almost there

Conundrum Peak & the Conundrum Couloir from Castle’s northeast ridge

We topped out on Castle around 11:15am making for an ascent time of around 6 hours. After maybe 15 minutes, we started making the traverse over to Conundrum.

Castle Peak summit (14,265′). March 5, 2016

Greg & I on Castle’s summit. Photo by Natalie

The other 5 rugged Elk Range 14ers to the west

Upon reaching the saddle with Conundrum, we scoped out a possible descent back to the high glacier bowl between the peaks. This same route looked more dangerous from below in the basin a few hours earlier in terms of climbing up it, but now looking down it, it looked like a viable route off these peaks instead of reclimbing Castle and downclimbing its north couloir. Plus, when you are descending a steeper snow route, obviously your time in the danger zone of going down it is much much less than climbing up it. We tested the snow and it definitely appeared stable with no deliberate slabs waiting to rip. We left our packs at the saddle and made the short climb up Conundrum’s south ridge.

Natalie climbing up Conundrum with Castle behind

Natalie on Conundrum’s summit

Conundrum Peak summit (14,060′). March 5, 2016

Greg & Castle

I was happy for Natalie as Conundrum had eluded her on her last winter foray up into Montezuma Basin. Though, at least she was able to summit Castle that day in late January of last year. We descended back to the saddle and one by one descended the steep powdery slopes to below the small cliff band. Then, in order to get down the slope quickly, we each had fun glissades for a few hundred feet. A quick traverse led back over to our skis and snowshoes at the base of Castle’s north couloir.

Greg descending the powdery slopes below the saddle to me below the small cliff

Greg

Natalie striking out across the slope below the small cliff band. This slope would have been a fun ski as this was good snow 🙂

Glissade tracks

Natalie back at our skis and snowshoes with our descent route from the saddle behind

After a snack and some Gatorade, we transitioned back to our skis and shoes and descended. Greg motored ahead while Natalie and I picked our way over to the slope we have both skied before. It was pretty tough snow to ski and I ended up alpining instead of telemarking (as much as I hate to resort to alpine turns) for fear of blowing out my knee. We actually got some nice corn turns down lower in the basin, which was much more enjoyable.

Me skiing the skiable headwall. Photo by Natalie

Me dropping my knee lower down in the basin on some nice corn snow. Photo by Natalie

Skate-skiing out the final 2 miles to Ashcroft passing horse-drawn sleighs along the way. Photo by Natalie

Natalie and I skied on out all the way back to the winter road closure at Ashcroft and our cars arriving by 1:45pm making for about a 9.5 hour day. Even though Greg was on snowshoes, he only arrived an hour after we did. He is fast. I had to take off soon after arriving at the cars in order to make a Costco run for the Chalk family on my way home and to catch the Duke-UNC game, of course. A wonderful day out with a fine crew. Happy that Greg and Natalie added more peaks to their winter list and that I could be a part of it. As for the winter 14er list for myself, I need to go back and count (if I am able to) which ones I have done in winter over the past 18 years. I always swore that I was done with lists. However, I guess never say never.