A weekend for just Kristine & myself is a rare occasion these days, but when it comes about it is indeed special for us and “rejuvenating” in a way. Ken & Dianne Oelberger came to town two days after my family left and again shouldered our responsibilities (Sawyer, Rainier, & Kona) for the weekend so Kristine & I could get away to our favorite place – Telluride. Through my wonderful Aunt Evon we were able to get a significantly reduced rate on her hotel room at The Peaks in Mountain Village, so this was just icing on the cake for a great weather weekend in Telluride. Even the 4.5 hour drive there and back was enjoyable and relaxing. Kristine’s #1 priority was to not get up at 3am to go climb a peak. No problem at all. We slept in on Saturday, drank our coffee, and relaxed. Packing our skinning gear, we drove down to the end of the Box Canyon and skinned up the road starting around 11am. After an hour, we reached the hydroelectric power plant/residence at the top of Bridal Veil Falls. Our thought was to head up into Ingram Basin and climb up Ajax Peak’s south slopes, which would make for a nice ski. The one-way road up into Ingram Basin was non-existent buried below a lot of snow. We started out with some very steep sidehilling on our skins and skis for a few hundred yards until we felt it was pretty darn steep and hard snow to be traversing without ski crampons and/or whippets. We decided to turn around and find some other activities to do for the remainder of the day.

Kristine switching back the road up to the top of the hydroelectric power plant/residence atop Bridal Veil Falls

Kristine making her way above the power plant/residence

Kristine skiing down the steep headwall

Back on the road getting ready to ski down the short, steep sections between switchbacks back to the car

The power plant turned residence

A bit of a bummer to turn around, but we’ll be back. Plus, we’ve been up Ajax numerous times just not in the winter. I believe the first time I climbed Ajax was way back in the summer of 2003 with my dad and a 6 month old Rainier. The summit has a stellar view of town.

Mom, Dad, Kristine, me, & Rainier on the summit of Ajax Peak (12,785′) in July of 2007

Left to right: Me, Chris Danforth, Ken Oelberger, Kristine, Kate Danforth, Carrie Oelberger, Thomas Oelberger, Rainier, & Kona on the summit of Ajax Peak on October 1, 2009 – two days before our wedding at Gorrono Ranch on the Telluride Ski Mtn

We then decided to go skin up the ski mountain only to be shut down 1/3 of the way up by ski patrol. We were asked nicely to turn around because uphill skinning is not allowed on the mountain during ski operating hours except on the runs below Chair 10 on the other side of the ski mountain. I mean I guess we do understand why “uphilling” is not allowed as the ski runs into town are very steep with only one blue run and during ski hours that blue run is a bottleneck of skiers making for dangerous “uphilling”. And, most folks aren’t skinning up double black bump runs, especially in Telluride where everything is steeper than other resorts. So, we skied back down to the car and drove back up to Mountain Village for some hot tubbing and swimming at the Peaks pool. Not a bad alternative. The weather was just absolutely stellar with temps in the 50s.

As far as we know (as we have gotten caught before) sledding is illegal as well on the ski runs even after ski operating hours. However, Kristine & I aren’t your ordinary sledders. We had thee idea of taking the gondola up to mid-mountain at Allred’s Bar and then swissbobbing down Telluride Trail (blue run) and Lookout (double blue run) to town for our 8pm reservation at the New Sheridan Chop House. Kristine wore her high heels and I had my nice jeans on and boots (to make it look like we were just going out) and our bobs were inconspicuously hidden beneath our jackets attached to the outsides of our backpacks. We got off the gondola at Allred’s and slipped out the door very fast right past the “Do Not Enter” sign. We cruised over to the top (Kristine still in high heels) of Telluride Trail evading Snowcat #1 to a spot where Kristine donned her running shoes and snow pants over her jeans.

Kristine in high heels ready to bob down Telluride

We then took off down the groomed road until we saw Snowcat #2 coming up the trail. There was nowhere to go. We merely got down off the road on the steep upper slopes of the double back bump run called North Chute and then hopped back on the road and bobbed off before Snowcat #2 knew what we were doing. We came to the intersection of the double blue run and saw that it was groomed corduroy and we got real excited as we knew it would be a stellar swissbob. Lookout would be a black run anywhere else, but its a double blue in Telluride.

Kristine heading off down Lookout with the alpenglow behind on the San Juans

I held my heavy DSLR Canon camera decently still and caught some of the action on the flatter “catwalk” portions:

We changed into our dinner outfits (and Kristine back into her high heels) at the restroom at the bottom of the gondola and walked up to the Chop House. After checking our backpacks with our down coats and a few strange looks, we enjoyed an awesome dinner together. A successful outing.

The next morning, we slept in yet again and it was amazing. We gathered our skis and skins again and skinned up the “legal” Chair 10 run Double Cabin. It took us about an hour to the top and called into home base to see how the Oelbergers and Sawyer and dogs were doing. Things were going well back home and so we decided to go boot up Bald Mountain or Baldy (11,868′) and ski one of its double black runs we have done so many times in the past. Then, we finished with a long run back down See Forever from the top to make it back to the Peaks for one last hot tub and water slide time in the pool.

Top of Baldy on yet another gorgeous day

A few scenic shots. This one of Campbell Peak’s southwest face, which is on the ski-mountaineering radar

Lizard Head & the Wilson massif

The Wilsons, Gladstone Peak, & Sunshine Peak in the foreground

The drive back together was just as great as the drive down as we were excited to see Sawyer, the dogs, and the Oelbergers. Thanks again to Ken & Dianne for wanting to spend so much time with Sawyer and the dogs that we are able to have a weekend away just the two of us. I know they all had just a good a time in Edwards as Kristine & I did in Telluride.

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