TR/SR: The Colorado Front Range in May

[skiracer88_00]

So, I had about a month with nothing to do after finishing classes before I go home to my summer job. My buddy josh just works a few nights a week at the movie theater in boulder. So we decided to do quite a bit of skiing this may/early june.

Sorry about the sub-par photo quality at times...Pictures were never really our priority

what: Quandary Peak- cristo couloir
Crew: me and josh
when: 5/11/10

We did not really get many pictures this day as it was cold and windy, but josh managed to snap a couple of me skiing down






What: Arapahoe Basin (east wall)
Crew: Me and Josh
When: 5/17/10

So, the east wall had been open for a couple weeks already, and we had failed to ski it until now. I think the east wall has some of the best in bounds terrain in the front range. It did not disappoint on this day, and was smooth and buttery.











Again, there were no pictures taken of josh (but that will change as we progress), my camera is broken

During the day, we were eyeing up Shit for Brains.. It looked pretty good to go


Shit for Brains Couloir
Crew: Me and Josh
When: 5/18/10

We decided to go for the direct approach up shit for brains on this day. It was a good thing we did, because it was really hard, and we had to wait a while to ski it. We may have not known that if we went up the ridge. We got to the top at 10AM, but had to wait until around 1PM to ski down.

Me waiting at the top


Looking Down


Josh, killing some time


Me again:


time to ski?




View up the couloir from the bottom:



Marjorie Bowl
Crew: Me and Josh
When: 5/21/10

We did not get any shots of skiing today, but I thought I would throw some pictures that were taken in here








Loveland Camping Trip
Crew: Me, Josh, Nick>Jesus, Mike_Records, Ethan (Tough Gosey's Roommate (TGR)), Rachel,
When: 5/21/10 - 5/23/10

Camping at the ski area is a lot of fun, especially when you have a nice warm deck to pitch your tent on:


On saturday morning, me, josh, and nick made an attempt at skiing porcupine ridge, however gale force winds forced us to turn around and ski porcupine saddle. No shots were taken this day.

On saturday night, the rest of the crew arrived and on sunday, we took another shot at porcupine ridge, this time the weather was a lot nicer

me:


Rachel:


Josh:


Mike_Records:


That night, mike decided it would be a good idea to build a jump-to snowman-tap down by Eto:



Ethan:


Mike_Records:


Josh:




Before going home, me and josh decided to take a few runs on the south chutes

me:


Josh:

[skiracer88_00]

Citadel (Snoopy's Collar)
Crew: Me and Josh
When: 5/25/10

I ski at loveland all year, and stare at this thing every day. It was time to ski it. We opted to go up dry gulch

Up:






Hagar:


putting on some crampons to boot up the collar:


at the top:


We got to the top too early (around 10), and had to wait about two hours for it to soften up, but eventually, it was time to ski:



me:


Josh coming down the apron:


Josh really likes figure 8's for some reason:



Mount Hagar
Crew: Me and Josh
When: 5/26/10

This is another one that I stare at every day from loveland, it was nice to tick this off the list as well. We contemplated accessing this one from the west side of the tunnel, but since we didn't have two cars, and didn't want to hitch-hike on I70, we decided to access this from dry gulch as well.



Going up:


Time to ski, Me:




Josh:




Me: I thought this shot was cool with the citadel in the background:



Mount Evans
Crew: Me, Josh, and Eric (Skibum193?)
When: 5/28/10

So the road to the summit of mount evans opened today, so me, josh, and eric decided to go up and do a couple of car laps. There was not too much snow up there this year, and the down-climbs to get to the north facing stuff wasn't very appealing to us, so we decided to ski the east facing stuff. I'm not really sure what any of these lines are called. Me and eric got 1 lap each, and josh got 2 (eric had to make it back to boulder for work)

Me (1st lap):


Eric (2nd lap):


the two lines taken from the parking area at summit lake:


no pics of josh today, but he got to ski 2 laps, so I'd say its even...


Torrey's Peak (The Emperor)
Crew: Me, Josh, and Scott (Spthompson)
When: 5/30/10

Scott posted a thread about doing some skiing and I responded. I have never skied with or even met scott before, but I am glad I did. I origonally had the idea of skiing the dead dog couloir, but scott suggested the emperor on the north face. This is the line on torrey's most easily seen from I70. It is a lot of fun and has a ton of verticle.

We met scott at 6AM in bakerville. Scott left his car at the base of grizzly gulch road (there are large snowdrifts still at the bottom of the road), and we drove up to the stevens gulch trailhead.

the crew at the summit:

me:


Josh:


Scott (Spthompson)


Skiing:

Me:


Josh:


Scott:


The line from the bottom:

[skiracer88_00]

Coon Hill (Southeast Face)
Crew: Me, Josh, and Ethan (Tough Gosey's Roommate (TGR))
When: 5/31/10

This is another line that is clearly visible from loveland that I have always wanted to ski. Access doesn't get much easier than this. We simply parked at the west portal of the tunnel and the summit was a short 2 mile, 1200 vert climb from there. There was still snow almost all the way to I70, so we were able to skin most of the way.

ethan skinning:


Josh hiking:


ethan took some really nice shots on this one..

Josh:








me:




Ethan:



Grizzly Couloir
Crew: Me, Josh
When: 6/3/10

So, I saw this line the day we skied Torrey's with Scott, and I really wanted to ski it, just because it looks so cool. I knew that there was a cornice on top of the line, but was unsure how big it was, and if there was an easy way in around it, so we thought it would be better to just boot up the thing.

Since we really didn't want to walk 3 miles in on the grizzly gulch road, we decided to try and get my stock jeep grand cherokee up the road as far as we could go. It was an interesting drive to say the least. The very beginning of the road was a sheet of ice angled downhill towards the creek, but after that, it was mostly clear, so we decided to drive down a very steep incline to get onto to the road past the ice, it was quite the project getting back up at the end of the day, but we made it. The creek crossings were no problem. There was another bad ice section that we got past by shoveling dirt onto the ice to give us traction, but other than that, the road was in pretty good shape. We made it up to the tuning forks, and after that, we were stopped by trees going across the road. We walked from there.

the line:


Up!






The snow was not very good, and the line was runneled to hell, but it was still a really fun, and steep ski

me:




Josh:






me:





and FINALLY:
Gray's Peak (Lost Rat Couloir)
Crew: Me, Josh
When: 6/4/10

Lost rat is a line that me, josh, and another friend set out to ski last year, but we got lost in the fog. We decided it was time to go back and tackle this one once and for all. We were also thinking about doing dead dog, but dead dog was crowded, and we were pretty tired, and this gave us an excuse to not summit either gray's or torrey's

We started at the stevens gulch trailhead, and hiked the standard route for gray's most of the way.

The top was melted out, so we had to downclimb about 100 feet to get into the couloir:


Looking Down:


Me:


Josh:




Me, skiing out the apron:


The Line:


We were able to ski almost all the way back to the car by following a lone strip of snow running along the creek



It has certainly been a fun month, and a fun ski season in general. I leave for the for Pennsylvania on tuesday to go be a sailing instructor for the summer. I may get another day in this weekend, but I am pretty much done for the year. Maybe I'll catch some of you all next ski season.

Sorry this was so long, but I didn't think each TR was worthy of its own thread, but all together, maybe it is. You tell me.

Jordan

[montanaskier]

way to get after it.

[Mike_Records]

Great Jordan! There are some good stories and even better memories in here! There is really nothing that gets me as stoked as seeing that someone else is out doing what they want to do!

[mnskier]

Not sub par pics at all very nice.. some of these are east wall right?
Once again very nice and great stoke especially for it being June

[Woolbury]

Nice work Jordan. Covering the LL pass area pretty thoroughly. Nice to look out at those lines while skiing the area in the winter and know you've been up on all of them. Gonna keep it going in June?

[Deep Days]

JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY MUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYY!!!!! !!!!!!!

Awesome, dood! Some great coilers in there! Looks like you made the most of that month! Got tons of "verticle"!

Makes me tear up a little. Miss you guys!

P.S. You didn't get lost on the way back to the car on Lost Rat like that damn gaper you skied Gray's with last year, did you?

[RockBoy]

Awesome!!

Although your shots may not have the same "pucker factor" of an AK TR, I find this TR just as rewarding and just as awesome. Thanks for sharing, and kudos to you for getting out there and taking full advantadge of the late snow during peak bagging season!

[adrenalated]

You boys have been busy! Good work.

[Dside11-11]

Yeah buddy!

[adam]

Nice Jordan, you should probably just stay in CO for the rest of the summer.

[skiberly]

Nice lines. Way to get some of this shortie second season

[skiracer88_00]

some of these are east wall right?

Yes

Gonna keep it going in June?

naa, I'm going back to PA for the summer to be a sailing instructor. But, we lost the freezes this week anyway, so any more steep skiing will most likely have to wait for a full on summer snowpack.

P.S. You didn't get lost on the way back to the car on Lost Rat like that damn gaper you skied Gray's with last year, did you?

HMM, i'm skiing along the creek, and we parked along the creek. I have an idea, I should go climb up kelso! The car is probably up there.

Nice Jordan, you should probably just stay in CO for the rest of the summer.

sorry adam ...but you won't ski with me anyway, and I can't even begin to keep up with you on a bike...However, I am excited to ski some more CBMRAFSTPAS next year with you.

[dmintz]

nice. i was on torrey's this past friday and saturday. we were wondering whose tire tracks those were all the way up grizzly rd. way to get after that line.

[FiveLarge]

Great meeting and skiing with you Jordan and Josh. I've had many "first time" meetings off this board over the years and have met many great skiers, mountaineers, and people. I look forward to skiing with you guys again in the future.

A few pics from the day. For some reason, all skiing shots of Jordan came out super blurry.

A look at the upper part of the chutes from I-70. I've been looking at this face for years from the highway and finally got around to skiing it.


Zoom in of the chutes from Grizzly Gulch:


Looking back up near the top of the chutes:


Probably about half way down where all the various chutes come together into one line. Still lots of skiing below...lots of vert on this one. Skier is Josh.


One more of Josh:

[^^^]

Nice ambition.

[SnowayJose]

mike was definitely right, the snowman tap was a great idea!

[Kya]

Getin' er' done