I’m always looking for fun little half-day ski tours that are fairly easy to access. Even better if these ski tours are in the Gores. I’ve looked at the very moderate southwest face of this 12,736′ peak dubbed “West Deming” for well over a decade of living in the Vail Valley yet have never ventured up into the steep woods to access this face. It always looked like it would be a great ski despite its very mellow angle (25 degrees maximum). I noticed there was a runaway truck ramp on I70 West halfway between the top of Vail Pass and East Vail. This looked like the perfect parking spot (just below the runaway truck ramp in a very large shoulder off I70 West at about 9,600′) and it turned out it was pretty perfect. Not many hikes or ski tours you access by walking up a truck ramp – at least not many that I have found. Kristine, Kona, & myself did some recon over a week ago one Friday afternoon and made it to 11,600′ right at treeline before we had to start the ski down in order to pick up Sawyer from daycare at 4pm. However, it was good recon of the lower meadows and trees in finding a fairly efficient route up to treeline and the base of the southwest face.

Our route up West Deming’s southwest face from I70 West

After dropping the youngest & oldest Chalk (Sawyer & Rainier) off at our good friends’ Sarah & Keith’s house in Edwards and picking up their dog Molly, we boogied up to Vail Pass this past Saturday morning to meet good friend Joel Gratz and give West Deming the good ole college try despite a not so ideal forecast. Joel was calling for decent weather at least for a few hours Saturday morning, which was good enough for us. It was extra special to get out again with Kristine as having a 6 month old doesn’t necessarily allow us to get out together as often as we would like. After hiking up the runaway truck ramp, we donned the skis/skins at the first open meadow down at the end of the bike path and began the route up we remembered from the week prior. The skinning was much easier this time around as Kristine and I were breaking trail through 6″ of heavy spring snow the week before. We skinned the 2,000′ up to exactly the same spot at treeline in about an hour and 45 minutes. There are actually some areas of steep skinning through the woods and one point where Joel & I carried our skis up a steep, bare (of snow) glade while Kristine again showed us up and kept her skis on.

Kristine early on in the trees

Kristine & Kona hanging tough over the steep, dry ground

Kristine showing Joel & I up by keeping her skins/skis on

Good to be out with this guy again

The upper southwest face of West Deming above treeline was a very enjoyable skin with great views. The ominous dark clouds almost made for better light and pictures. It took us just shy of an hour to skin the remaining 1,200′ and 1 mile (as the crow flies) to the summit.

Kona & Molly and the route above treeline to West Deming’s summit

Kristine heading out to the top with the dogs

Kristine & Kona

Joel skinning the upper southwest face with the East Vail Chutes/Benchmark Bowl over his left shoulder

Joel charging ahead to the summit

West Deming’s summit was indeed a fantastic perch to view the southern Gore. In fact, in every direction we could point out past camping spots, such as at the Zodiac Ponds below Zodiac Ridge, and all the familiar peaks and ridges of the Gore Range. We remained on the summit for a good 20-25 minutes and admired our views and the good company.

Kristine, Joel, & the dogs up top West Deming

The Chalks on top of West Deming (12,736′)

Mr. Gratz & myself

Summit view west to the Vail Valley

Close-up of our “Top of the World” campsite (right summit of gladed bowl) we frequent in the summer and fall

East Vail Chutes, aka Benchmark Bowl, off Vail Ski Mountain

Looking east to Deming Mountain & Buffalo Mountain (left)

Looking northeast to Red Peak (right), Zodiac Ridge, & the Silverthorne Massif

The very mellow, low-consequence ski down the upper southwest face was phenomenal. Spring-powder on top of a firm base made for awesome arcing turns. It was a lot of fun. Some ski shots:

Kristine

Joel

The skies were just awesome

Joel taking us home

And, one of me

Joel & Kristine relishing in the fun ski of West Deming’s upper southwest face

We made it back to my car at about 12:45pm, exactly about 4 hrs after we began. We dropped Joel off in Vail and boogied to Sarah & Keith’s house to pick up Sawyer & Rainier. Both ladies did very well all morning. This great moderate ski tour is a great addition to our running mental list of fun half-day ski tour outings. Even mid-winter, this would be a great ski tour as it is relatively safe due to the moderate slope angle. It would also be a nice summer half-day hike to get high and some great views. I believe the RT is roughly 3,000′ vertical and maybe 5 miles. Don’t quote me on that mileage, though. We are glad the weather cooperated, but really were we ever in doubt? I mean, c’mon, we had Mr. OpenSnow himself with us! In all seriousness, it was great for Kristine & I to get out with Joel again and especially for Kristine & myself to be together again on a fun little adventure like in our pre-baby days.

A climbing trip can sure take a 180 pretty fast due to the ever-changing weather forecast. With Kristine & Sawyer back in Minneapolis visiting her sister & family, the dogs & I were planning on heading to the desert for some crack climbing. However, a planned  trip to Indian Creek quickly turned to a local skin/ski of a nearby 12er called Outpost Peak in the Gores due to a wet forecast for the Moab area. It was all good & dandy though and good buddies Shawn Wright & Sylvan Ellefson joined me for a nice ski tour of Outpost Peak, which turns out to be a relatively accessible Gore peak from the Pitkin Lake trailhead even in winter conditions. I had circumvented and passed by Outpost Peak more than a half dozen times on several Gore outings, but had yet to crest its summit. Plus, I wanted to peer down its northeast face/bowl and scope it out for a potential spring time ski descent. A larger snow storm was to move in starting Saturday afternoon, but the morning was forecasted to be nice and sunny. After swapping Rainier for The Gus Dog with our good friends who just welcomed their baby boy into this world a week ago and running into buddy Elliot Halverson at the Pitkin Lake trailhead who I had not seen since last spring, we all set out booting up the Pitkin Lake trail at around 8:30am. Shawn & Sylvan’s good friend Zac joined us as well plus Shawn’s pup, Fitzy. About 400 vertical feet up the trail where it starts to flatten out, you leave the trail heading initially west and then northwest and bushwhack your way up Outpost’s broad south ridge through Aspen forests and shrubs. The morning was superb, and while the lower forested terrain was thin on snowpack in spots, which made for interesting skinning, above 10,000′ the snow was much more plentiful allowing for more efficient travel.

Skinning up through the lower Aspens on Outpost’s broad south slopes

Grand Traverse Peak

Its always a treat for me to head into the Gores. I love this range. You can be all alone with your little crew on a peak in the Gores yet look over at Vail Mountain where 20,000 folks are gracing its slopes. It was a fun and mellow skin up through the forested south slopes of Outpost Peak, which eventually narrows into a well-defined ridge. At around 11,000′ the heavily forested terrain gave way to open fields and glades, which afforded us our first real views of the day.

The boys skinning in one of the large open fields along Outpost’s south ridge

We crested over Point 11,637′ along the south ridge and then made our through more beautiful glades along the ridge towards Outpost.

Sylvan & the Solitude massif to the east

The dogs follow suit

Shawn offers Fitzy to Lord Gore

Nice skinning along the south ridge

Shawn & Fitzy approaching Outpost’s summit pyramid

I was having some serious skin adhesiveness issues (or lack thereof) the entire day. My skins are at the end of their life expectancy and honestly I didn’t think I would be skinning peaks this early in the season. Nevertheless, after my duct tape failed and they just fell off for the last time 200′ below Outpost’s summit, I just left my skis & skins in the snow and booted the rest of the way.

The final few hundred feet to Outpost’s summit

Sylvan reaching the summit of Outpost Peak

I believe we reached Outpost’s summit about 12:45pm and you could definitely feel the wind picking up, high clouds building, and a storm brewing in the distance to the west. Our bright sun and bluebird skies had given way to those pre-storm skies. Nevertheless, it was a nice summit and wonderful views. I think all of us enjoyed the perch.

Outpost Peak summit (12,362′)

All of us enjoying this Gore summit – maybe except for Kona giving me the “I’m cold and let’s get out of here” look 🙂

Shawn & Fitzy with the Partner Traverse behind

Sylvan doing the “Lyndon”

Peering down the northeast face of Outpost. Looks like a very steep entrance, but an awesome bowl down to the Pitkin Creek drainage below. Hopefully, this spring

We then descended after maybe 20 minutes on top, strapped into our ski setups, and made our way down the south ridge sticking close to our skin track for the dogs’ sake so they could use it. I loved the views of Bald Mountain and its northeast facing bowl as well as Vail Mountain.

Bald Mountain & the Vail Valley

Sylvan skiing Outpost’s south face

Shawn & Sylvan

Shawn in the fun open glades along Outpost’s south ridge

Mt. of the Holy Cross made for a scenic backdrop here for Sylvan

Shawn & Fitzy

And, Zac

We eventually made it back down to the cars around 3pm for a RT time of about 6-1/2 hours. I believe the RT mileage is maybe 6-7 miles with close to 4,000′ of vertical gain. Outpost’s south ridge made a for a very nice ski tour in very safe terrain. Thanks to all the boys and dogs for making it a memorable day. Of course I missed Rainier on this outing, but post-holing in deep snow and uneven terrain for close to 4,000′ is just not for a 12 year old golden retriever. I think she understands, but probably not. I am already looking forward to going back in the spring to ski Outpost’s northeast face/bowl.

Grizzly Peak A, Colorado’s highest ranked 13er at 13,988′, and its aesthetic north couloir have always remained on my list for the spring ski season. The standard route up Grizzly meanders up its east ridge at class 2+, but climbing and skiing its north couloir seemed like the way to go for the Grizz. The 4WD Lincoln Creek Road finally opened up around June 21 thus allowing access to the Grizzly Reservoir and Grizzly Creek trailhead. Access to Grizzly’s northern basin and Grizzly Lake can be had from Highway 82 and Independence Pass via a few adventurous routes for earlier season jaunts, but we just decided to wait until the Lincoln Creek Road opened. I gazed upon Grizzly’s north couloir from up high on the Geissler Mountains north of Independence Pass back on June 1 and thought it was such a cool line yet it looked pretty darn steep.

Shawn, Mike, and Jenn about to drop in on West Geissler Mountain on June 1 with the stunning north couloir of Grizzly Peak A at far left

J, Derek, and I made our way over to the Grizzly Reservoir campground late last Friday evening and set up camp on a cot and in the back of my truck. It actually rained a bit during the night forcing J from outside on his mini-cot into the back of my truck with Derek and myself, but that was OK – just like being in a tight 3-man tent. We set the alarm to 5am and actually woke up to low clouds and no morning sunlight. A bit disappointing and contrary to the sunny weather forecast since good and safe spring skiing is pretty much totally dependent on the sun softening the snow. Nevertheless, we figured it would clear at some point and got walking up the Grizzly Creek trail at around 6am.

Socked in mountains to start the day

Now, I knew I had forgotten something at home and upon rolling up the 4WD Lincoln Creek Road, I realized what it was – my trail runners. After a second of shock, I realized I could just wear my sandals (better yet Derek’s sandals since they were not Chacos circa 1990 and his had more cushion). All was well and they worked fine. The trail was mostly dry up to a few hundred feet below Grizzly Lake (12,500′) where I switched to my ski boots since my socks in the sandals were starting to get damp. It was still only about 8am and the basin was still very socked in with a stiff breeze and fairly cold. Two other ski-mountaineers  were camped high in the basin below the lake whom we would later meet on the summit. J and Derek switched to ski boots at the lake and we geared up for the climb up the north couloir though the upper half of the couloir was still very socked in with clouds.

J and Derek switching gears at Grizzly Lake with a socked in Grizzly Peak looming above

Upon beginning the climb up the couloir, the weather fortunately started breaking up and the sun would shine through for longer and longer periods of time. The snow was softening somewhat, thank goodness.

Starting the boot up the north couloir with Grizzly Lake behind

The north couloir climb was really a lot of fun and nothing too steep – just good snow for kicking steps and climbing nature’s stair master for 1,300′ to the summit ridge.

J and Derek climbing Grizzly’s north couloir

Good snow climbing

The weather really started to break up and allow the sun to shine through for brief periods

The upper portion of Grizzly’s awesome north couloir

Derek

The steepness probably reached 40 degrees or slightly over with room for steeper slopes on the couloir’s right (west) side where the potential for rockfall is a bit higher. We topped out about an hour and 15 minutes after cramponing up at the couloir’s base. The top 100′ of the couloir was the steepest, though it was very short-lived.

Nearing the top of the couloir

The couloir exit

We left our ski gear and just took our packs to hike the last bit along Grizzly’s summit ridge and up to the summit itself.

Hiking the summit ridge to Grizzly’s true summit

We topped out at around 10am and the clouds were still blocking the sun somewhat, though the weather was still improving with every passing minute. So, we just found a nice perch on Grizzly’s summit and had a snack and something to drink and just hung out for awhile. It was very relaxing. I think J even fell asleep.

Our nice little, exposed perch on Grizzly’s summit for over an hour hoping the sun comes out to soften the snow up

J lounging

Left to right: Huron, Princeton, Three Apostles, Antero

The folks from Durango making their way across the summit ridge

11:15am rolled around and we figured we may want to get on a move since Kristine was planning my birthday camp up on our local Red & White Mountain that evening with good friends (us included). At that time, the two climbers we had seen earlier topped out and we all introduced ourselves. Two very nice folks from Durango were up in the Aspen area for a few days just skiing peaks. They were nice to take our summit pics.

Grizzly Peak A summit (13,988′)

Me on top of ole Grizz. Photo by Derek

We soon headed back to our skis only to find three climbers climbing up the couloir. So, we waited another 30 minutes for them to top out in order to not cause a raucous in the couloir and make things more dangerous for everyone than they needed to be.

Three other climbers ascending the north couloir

We then dropped in around noon to an audience of climbers gazing upon our turns. I was a bit nervous. I’ve never had an audience skiing a steep line on a high peak before. I am glad we waited another 30 minutes because the sun really heated things up in that time and made the snow soft and just about perfect. J dropped in first on the 50+ degree slopes on the skier’s left side of the couloir. Derek went second and I went third. Its hard to follow those two as they can consistently ski anything and everything very well. After the top 100′, I got into my tele rythym and started cruising tele turns down to J and Derek. It was so much fun.

J off the top with a scenic backdrop

J making steep skiing look pretty easy

J skiing with Grizzly Reservoir (our trailhead) in the distance center of picture

Derek about to ski

Derek

Derek skiing a great late spring/early summer ski line

Derek lower down

Me off the top with an audience. Photo by Derek

Me telemarking mid-couloir. Photo by Derek

The lower half of the couloir was not so much fun with the runnels and debris here and there, but skier’s right side of the couloir was fairly smooth and we all made nice turns back down to Grizzly lake.

Derek & J about halfway down the north couloir

J

Derek

Me skiing the lower portion of the north couloir. Photo by Derek

We were able to ski another 500′ down from the lake linking some interesting slots and snowfields and were able to still ski about 2,000′ vertical on June 28! Not too bad. Its been a great snow year for sure.

J and I back on the trail. Photo by Derek

The top 3/4 of Grizzly Peak A’s north couloir shown in red as seen on the hike out the Grizzly Creek trail

We switched modes of transportation once we hit the Grizzly Creek trail (that is, ski boots and skis for trail runners and sandals) and made our way back to the trailhead arriving at around 2:15pm. We loaded up my truck and boogied out of there to get back to Edwards but still got one last view of Grizzly on the drive out the Lincoln Creek Road.

Grizzly Peak and the top of its north couloir as seen from Lincoln Creek Road

Grizzly’s north couloir sure was a phenomenal way to end a great spring ski season up high in our beloved mountains. I think it goes down as one of my most memorable ski-mountaineering trips with my good buds.

Later that evening we all celebrated me getting yet another year older (jeesh) up at our favorite car camping spot on Red & White Mountain. Kristine was so sweet to organize everything and all out good friends for a night of campfires, good food, cornhole, some booze, a small handgun, and awesome camaraderie. Some of us woke up early (thanks to Mr. Gratz’s motivation to hike before driving back to Boulder) and hiked the 3 miles and 1,800′ up to Red & White’s true summit for a gorgeous early morning view of our neighborhood. I think I am now ready to pack the skis away and fully embrace summer!

Red & White Mountain summit (11,192′) on a beautiful Sunday morning with great friends after camping Saturday night for my birthday

Buffalo Mountain is that big behemoth of a hill most of us have viewed a hundred times when driving west bound on Interstate 70 down from the Eisenhower Tunnel. Located in the southern end of the Gore Range and though only 12,777′ in elevation, Buffalo has one of the most spectacular ski lines called the Silver Couloir on its steep northeast face. This 3,000′ couloir tops out at around 40 degrees in steepness with most sections in the mid-30 degree range. It is even featured in the big coffee-table book Fifty Classic Ski Descents of North America by Chris Davenport, Art Burrows, and Penn Newhard and in the new guidebook Climbing and Skiing Colorado’s Mountains: Fifty Select Ski Descents by our friends Brian Miller and Ben Conners. Its easy access, mellow approach to its summit, and great skiing make this a classic and I don’t know of too many other ski lines where you can get as much “bang for your buck” in terms of effort involved for great skiing.

I’ve been fortunate to climb and ski Buffalo now three times and each has been a great outing. My first experience was by myself with Rainier & Kona on a very late season July 3, 2008. I had just heard about this line and decided to go check it out with the pups and being July 3 I think it was relatively safe in terms of avalanche hazard 🙂 We had a great day and most of the Silver Couloir was amazingly skiable!

The Silver Couloir on July 3, 2008 as viewed from Highway 9 north of Silverthorne

A younger me, Rainier, & Kona on Buffalo Mountain’s summit (12,777′)

The dogs halfway down the Silver Couloir that hot July day back in 2008

My second outing up and down Buffalo was on March 21, 2009 was with a large crew of great friends, my girlfriend at the time (yes, Kristine), and Rainier & Kona, once again. This trip had more of a winter feel to it considering the colder temperatures and larger snowpack up Buffalo’s standard route and down the couloir.

Buffalo Mountain and its much more filled-in Silver Couloir on March 21, 2009

The conditions in the couloir, however, were not so much fun powder as they were harder recycled powder with a breakable crust in certain sections. I learned a valuable lesson this day and that was to not charge down a couloir, especially not knowing the conditions. During this particular time of day half of the couloir was in the sun and half was in the shade. I charged in the steepest section and laid out a tele turn skidding into the shaded part and hit some icy hardpack and took a tumble. I slid head first for maybe 200 ft before grabbing a rock in the middle of the couloir thereby flipping myself around and stopping myself. I broke a tele leash in the process and my sunglasses slid another 1,500′ down the couloir to the apron below. Quite a rush and nerve-wracking for sure, but I learned so many valuable lessons – another of which was to always ski steeper slopes/couloirs with an ice axe or whippet (ski pole/axe combination). I was definitely much younger, naive, and inexperienced back then and have since learned a lot and gained valuable knowledge with regards to this whole ski-mountaineering activity. And, yes, I ski with a whippet these days.

Ryan “Baba” Aldrich, me, Andy Dionne climbing Buffalo that late March day back in 2009

Caleb & Jennie Wray on Buffalo’s summit

Chris Carlsen dropping a knee in the upper portion of the Silver Couloir

Kristine telemarking down the Silver

Kona and Derek Drechsel in the lower portion of the Silver

Jennie Wray

My third time on Buffalo was just yesterday with great friend J Weingast. As he had yet to climb and ski this mountain, the Silver was towards the top of his hit list for the spring and so we went and got it in what may be one of the last weekends of the season it could really be in or for that matter skiable at all. After a cold night and a 7:30am start at the Ryan Gulch trailhead, we took a leisurely pace up the standard Buffalo Cabin trail until we hit snowline at about 10,700′. After my last fumble in the Silver, I definitely wanted to make sure the couloir was properly warmed up enough to allow for soft spring snow conditions and not hardpack ice. We put the skis on our back and booted the rest of the way to Buffalo’s summit up the broad east face.

J on the way up Buffalo’s standard route

After topping out around 10am, the clouds really started to move in over the Gores yet the Tenmile and Sawatch ranges remained sunny to our south. Go figure. Still wanting to wait a bit for the Silver to soften up even more now that the sun was behind whispy clouds, J and I decided to take a fun jaunt over to Buffalo’s southern subsummit dubbed “Sacred Buffalo”. Twenty minutes and a fun little class 3 scramble later we were on Sacred Buffalo. There were definitely snow showers pelting Red Peak to our north and the wind had picked up. This was not the weather I had anticipated nor had been forecasted.

J on his way to Sacred Buffalo

Hmmm….why is there sun over the Sawatch and clouds and snow flurries over us in the Gores 🙂

Clouds to the west with Red Buffalo Pass (center) and Red Peak (right) visible

The connecting ridge between Buffalo’s true northern summit and the southern Sacred Buffalo subsummit as seen from Sacred Buffalo

Looking down into the Salt Lick Cirque with Silverthorne and Lake Dillon below

Buffalo Mountain summit (12,777′)

Nevertheless, we scrambled back to Buffalo’s true northern summit and decided to go ahead and ski the couloir. Not really wanting to wait around all day for sunny weather, we just decided to go for it and hoped those few hours of early morning direct sunshine warmed the snow up enough for our liking and to make things safe. The top hundred feet of the couloir were pretty firm and I was thinking if the rest of the couloir was like this I would be in trouble. J would be fine because like many of my friends, this guy can ski anything, anytime, anywhere. As if our wish was granted, the snow softened up soon after and good turns ensued for approximately 1,500′ down the couloir.

J beginning the descent of the Silver Couloir

And, he is off to the races…

J in soft snow

Always having a good time

Me in the upper portion of the Silver Couloir

Me having fun in the Silver Couloir amid a scenic backdrop

The bottom 1,000′ weren’t the best snow conditions – bumpy, dirty, sun-affected, and a few rocks thrown in the mix to dodge around. And, then the couloir’s apron itself was just plain horrible. However, the apron didn’t last long and soon enough we swapped skis and boots for our trail shoes and made our way back to the South Willow Creek trail and then eventually back to my truck at the trailhead around 12:30pm. A fun 5 hours up on Buffalo with J. Its been a fun ride up and down this mountain over the years learning important lessons along the way. If I’m lucky and my timing is right, I do hope to ski the Silver Couloir in powder conditions at some point.

Well, both Kristine and myself as well as most of our ski-mountaineering buddies have learned by now to never say “never” when it comes to hanging up the planks for good signaling the end of our spring ski season. Just when you think you are done with ski season, you end up going out again just as Kristine did today on Quandary Peak’s Cristo Couloir with J and the Active Energies group after saying she was done after our ski of Mt. Oklahoma this past Saturday.

The last few days have treated us well with regards to wonderful ski-mountaineering adventures in our hills. A line I try to do every year is 14er Quandary Peak’s South Gully, aka the Cristo Couloir. Its a fantastic 2,500′ line in only a mile topping out at around 40 degrees in steepness. My good friend Mikey was leaving our engineering firm here in the mountains and moving to Denver and wanted to do the Cristo again before he moved to the big city. J joined us as well and in a short and sweet 2 hours we were on top of Quandary basking in the sun and waiting for the sun to soften the Cristo to perfect corn. We waited over an hour on the summit and then dropped in about 10:30am and had an exhilarating ride back down to the Blue Lakes dam hiking back out about 1/4 mile to our cars. Pics of the morning are as follows:

Mikey climbing the Cristo in his new crampon compatible snowboard boots

Mikey high in the Cristo

Mikey, J, and I on the summit of Quandary enjoying the nice morning

Mikey ripping the upper couloir

J high in the Cristo

No matter how many times we go up and down Quandary, its always a pleasure

J halfway down the gully not really looking at where he is going

Me enjoying my tele turns. Photo by J

J lower down with Wheeler Mountain in the distance

Mikey

Next up Kristine & I left Edwards around 5:30am this past Saturday for the North Halfmoon Creek trailhead behind 14er Mt. Massive arriving at 7am and hiking up the trail to the high centennial 13er Mt. Oklahoma by 7:30am. Despite being a relatively short 7.5 mile roundtrip jaunt up the 3,400′ to Oklahoma’s summit, routefinding and navigational skills were put to the test a bit. Kristine did so well now being 22 weeks pregnant and I am so proud of her. The carrying of ski gear on our backs, river crossings, and bushwhacking definitely got her a bit tired but she persevered on to about 13,100′ until she thought she should go no further not pushing the envelope too much with fatigue and her pregnancy. Despite a 40% chance of thunderstorms in the weather forecast, we had a beautiful morning. I skied down from the summit at about 11am and the snow was just perfect. Kristine was at a rock outcrop at about 13,100′ above the snow-covered headwall and we skied down together from there. It was a great day out together and we were back at the car at about 2pm for a 6 1/2 hour day. Pics of the day are below:

Ski line down the centennial 13er Mt. Oklahoma from the North Halfmoon Creek trail on the way in

Summit view to the west

Close-up of Grizzly’s North Couloir from Oklahoma’s summit, which we hope to climb/ski in 2 weeks or so

Our beloved Gores in the distance

Mt. Oklahoma summit (13,845′)

Time to ski

My tracks down the awesome low-angle upper 800′ of Oklahoma from the summit

Kristine in great form on the steeper headwall

Kristine enjoying the turns

Skiing into the high basin

Our turns down from 13,100′ to the high basin

About 7 hours after Kristine and I returned home to Edwards, J and I left for the Leadville area again not really certain on which peak we wanted to hit. We were thinking about Grizzly Peak’s North Couloir, but the Lincoln Creek road was not open yet making for a 12 mile RT day with 5,200′ of elevation gain all above treeline from Independence Pass. With the imposing 50% chance of thunderstorms and snow showers all day, this was probably not a smart idea nor would be all that much fun. Also, my friend Natalie was now going for Oklahoma as they had had a big day up on Castle Peak and wanted something a bit shorter. We were trying to think of a car-camping place on the east side of Independence Pass along Highway 82 when I suggested the Willis Gulch trailhead which leads to the high centennial 13er Mt. Hope. Voila! We will go for the classic Hopeful Couloir on Mt. Hope. This sounded like a better plan as it allowed us to much more easily escape to the cover of treeline should weather roll in. Nevertheless, it was still almost the same stats as Grizzly from Independence Pass at about 11.5 miles RT with 4,700′ of elevation gain. After one of the best night’s sleep I have had in the back of my truck with the tailgate down and the roaring waters of Lake Creek 15 yards away, J and I were off trucking up the Willis Gulch trail around 5:45am in our trail shoes with all our ski gear on our packs. Not knowing where snowline may occur in this north facing gulch, we were prepared to be carrying our gear for a long ways.

On the approach up Willis Gulch to Mt. Hope. J loves old mining cabins

The miles and vertical went fast though and we were at the base of the Hopeful Couloir at about 11,800′ in about 2.5 hours.The Willis Gulch and then Little Willis Gulch trails are good trails and easy to follow until we got into upper Little Willis Gulch where a few snow drifts prompted some route-finding.

The Hopeful Couloir on Mt. Hope in the morning fog

The Hopeful Couloir from 11,800′ at its base

Never donning our skins on our skis, at the base of the couloir we switched trail shoes for ski boots and crampons and away we went booting straight up the Hopeful Couloir. It was a fun climb, a little mushy here and there, but overall good kick-stepping in decent snow. The 2,000′ couloir angle averages around 36 degrees but tops out closer to 50 degrees near the top.

J showing some leg 🙂

In the middle of the Hopeful

J climbing the Hopeful

Steepening a bit

Fun climbing and the weather was holding for the time being

Me climbing up and up

J in the upper section of the couloir

From about 13,800′ at the top of the couloir, we stayed in our crampons and hiked the remaining vertical and distance to Hope’s true summit arriving around 10am.

J on Mt. Hope’s summit ridge with some nasty looking weather behind over Twin Lakes to the north

Mt. Elbert to the north from Hope’s summit

Summit of Mt. Hope (13,933′)

Storms over the Belford Group to the south

Weather was really building all around us, but Hope’s summit remained clear, sunny, and nice. We only stayed up on the summit for 15 minutes or so and man I am sure glad we did. If we had stayed up there 10 or even 5 minutes longer, we would have gotten thundered and graupeled on while skiing the couloir. We skied down the summit ridge to the steeper Hopeful Couloir descent option (skier’s left) and dropped in on 50 degree terrain only for 100 ft or so (thank goodness!).

Skiing down the summit ridge to the top of the Hopeful Couloir

J dropping in

J ripping turns…

…with a gorgeous backdrop

The ski down really was fun on mostly creamy corn snow

I like this one of J

The couloir’s slope angle mellowed out to the 40s and then eventually higher 30s further down. J ripped every turn as usual while I did my best of my teles – I think I did alright. I felt pretty good about it. The snow got a little chunkier towards the bottom from the avalanche debris but overall we timed this ski descent pretty spot on as the snow was nice and soft the entire way down.

J skiing Hopeful with Twin Lakes beyond

So scenic

Looking down on J skiing

A nice perch, buddy

J lower down in the couloir

And out…

Thanks to J’s GoPro footage on his descent of the Hopeful, I put together a fun little video to the tune of my favorite song called Promentory from the soundtrack to Last of the Mohicans (be sure to turn the 1080p HD on):

Just as we skied down below Hope Lake and beyond to treeline, the god of thunder let us know just how insignificant we all are and graupel fell from the heavens at an alarming rate. It actually felt pretty good as long as it didn’t hail and we felt safer now that we were not so high on the mountain and at treeline. Again, the skis and boots went on our packs and we cruised on out of there down Little Willis Gulch in our trail runners.

Mt. Hope and the Hopeful Couloir on the way out

We got a little wet on the hike out, but arrived safe and sound back at my truck around 1:45pm for a wonderful 7 hour day up on Hope.

The Hopeful Couloir shown here in red from Twin Lakes. Mt. Hope’s summit is clouded over

This spring ski-mountaineering thing sure does allow for some awesome days in the hills. I will be sad when the snow recedes to the point of it not being worthwhile at all to bring ski gear anymore. But, that just means the transition to full-on summer with scrambling in our Gores, rock climbing, and trail running. Not bad at all. However, I just have a hunch that the 2014 spring ski-mountaineering season isn’t quite over. But, that’s just me.

I just love spring skiing. Even with the amount of snow we have had this season up to about two weeks ago, the warm temps all last week have put a serious hurting on our snowpack. However, I still think we have a few weekends left yet for some decent lines and spring ski tours.The temps this past weekend were very warm as well not even allowing the snowpack to freeze at night. This typical nightly freeze allows for a safer spring freeze-thaw corn cycle during the morning hours when one would want to ski steeper lines and couloirs.

Having been under the weather all week, I still felt like getting out for a shorter ski tour. So, on Saturday my good bud Mikey and I went and checked out the snowpack on the familiar terrain up on Uneva Peak north of Vail Pass. Any time we can skin from the car is worth it in my eyes. We ended up skiing a steeper gully off Uneva’s south side into the western of the two Uneva bowls, one we rarely venture to during the winter because of the steeper slopes and greater chance for avalanche activity.

Looking down our little gully line into Uneva’s western bowl

Mikey starting down the gully

Skiing the gully

It was a fun albeit short gully down to the dirt-ridden bowl from which we skinned back up to the ridge and skied down the mellower eastern Uneva bowl, which we typically ski several times a year.

Our tracks down the gully

Our line shown in red down the gully to the western Uneva bowl

Mikey skinning back to the ridge

Storm over the Tenmile Range

View west to Mt. of the Holy Cross and its Cross Couloir, which good friends J, Derek, & Brett were skiing the next day. Wish I could have joined them, but being sick all week definitely didn’t put me in prime form for a 30 mile roundtrip expedition. Hopefully, I can get it in a few weeks when Tigiwon Road opens

And, the very mellow eastern Uneva bowl we skied out

We were initially thinking of skiing down the north side of the peak, but there was so much avalanche debris and fairly significant cornices, it didn’t look all that safe nor all that fun. A nice 3 hour roundtrip tour up on Uneva was just what the doctor ordered and I felt a lot better afterwards.

A few hour later Kristine, Mikey, and I headed down south of Leadville to camp along County Road 390 at a 14ers.com spring gathering in hopes of skiing the Hopeful Couloir on the high centennial 13er Mt. Hope on Sunday. We found our friends Shawn, Jenn, & canine Fitzy in the dark and met up with friend Natalie who wanted to ski Hope with us the next day. However, after learning of the recent  Hopeful Couloir beta (runnels and avalanche debris) and the non-freezing nature of the snowpack at night, we decided to turn our efforts to Independence Pass and the two 13ers, East & West Geissler Peaks, were at the top of the list. This ski tour of the Geisslers is a local Aspen favorite and is featured in my friends’ Ben & Brian’s new book Climbing and Skiing Colorado’s Mountains: 50 Select Ski Descents. Upon leaving camp around 6am the next morning, we drove up to the top of Indy Pass and down to the Highway 82 pull-off 1.8 miles west of the top of the pass. The weather was really not what was forecasted (sunny and bluebird). It was lightly snowing, the wind was blowing, and extremely overcast. There was even the occasional group that was coming back to the cars after having skinned up the valley for 20 minutes who said they were going for a bike ride instead. Nevertheless, we’ve hardly ever experienced a day in Colorado that is forecasted to be beautiful but never turns bluebird and sunny. As fortune would have it, the sun came out and the clouds parted about 45 minutes later much to all of our relief.

Skinning up the gulch towards Independence Lake. East Geissler’s south face looms above

Shawn, Jenn, & Mike with East Geissler

These peaks really are “skier” peaks. So very accessible (when Independence Pass is open) and plenty of skiing can be had from steeper lines to more manageable 35 degree terrain. We decided to go for West Geissler first as the line we would ski is more east facing and would likely soften up first with the morning rays of sun. Kristine, being about 5 months pregnant now, did absolutely amazing and is such a trooper. Everyone was in awe that she was able to climb and ski two 13ers this day. Kudos to her for still wanting to get out and do these kinds of trips all the while growing another human being inside her belly. Amazing, really.

Kristine skinning along with Grizzly Peak A’s north couloir in the distance

Kristine climbing West Geissler’s east ridge with East Geissler, our next objective, behind

Kristine

Kristine & I booting up West Geissler. Photo by Natalie

West Geissler summit ridge

It was a nice morning skin to the saddle between the two Geisslers and then a straightforward bootpack up West Geissler’s east ridge to its summit. It really turned out to be a gorgeous day.

Kristine & I on the summit of West Geissler Peak (13,301′)

Mt. Sopris

The Elk Range

Lookin’ good!

Natalie and new acquaintance Otina decided to ski the much steeper 50+ degree line directly off the summit while the rest of us (having not brought helmets or whippets and my wife being 5 months pregnant) elected to ski the mellower sub 40 degree east-facing slopes after a short ski traverse. It was a fun ski line and the snow was pretty good and soft after a few turns down.

Shawn, Jenn, Mike, & Fitzy at the top of our ski line

Shawn & Fitzy skiing West Geissler’s east face

Kristine enjoying the fun day

We quickly skied over to the base of East Geissler and began laying down a skin track up its mid 30 degree south face. By this time, the crowds certainly started showing up and I bet at one time there was 20-30 people climbing & skiing East Geissler.

Shawn & Jenn traversing over from West Geissler (behind) to begin the skin up East Geissler

The crew skinning up the south face of East Geissler

We topped out maybe around 11am and enjoyed the sunshine and views despite a semi-stiff breeze.

View to West Geissler from East Geissler’s summit

Summit of East Geissler Peak (13,380′)

Chalks on East Geissler

After a few photos we strapped in and skied far skier’s left down the south face of East Geissler where there were no previous ski tracks that day.

Looking down our line off East Geissler. Photo by Natalie

Me skiing down the face. Thanks to Kristine for the pics

So fun

Loving life!

Sorry, one more of me 🙂

Natalie

Jenn

Shawn & Fitzy

Otina

East Geissler’s south face

On the ski out the gulch our ascent line shown in red and ski descent in blue could be seen on West Geissler

This was really just plain fun skiing and we all skied about 1,200′ down to Independence Lake from where we skied out the gulch back to the cars. The dirt layer was pretty significant in the basin and on several aspects, but we were able to avoid it for the most part on the actual skis themselves.

Kristine on the ski out with the Geisslers behind

Back at the cars around 12:30pm, we packed up and headed back home to grab the dogs from our friend Kathryn. A great morning out for us on some new terrain with a good crew. I, for one, am so proud of Kristine and feel so fortunate to be able to do what we love together even while pregnant. Here’s a to a few more weeks of spring ski-mountaineering season!