TR: Square Top Mountain 13,794 - North Couloir 4-28-07

[FiveLarge]

Snow Sliders: IridePow, spthomson


Red line shows approximate ascent route. Couloir is the stream that runs down the north face starting just above the "q" in Square.

After a phenomenal day of amazing April powder skiing on Wednesday, I was hopeful to find some remnants on Saturday, despite temps that would be in the 80's in Denver. The front range/east of the divide received the most snowfall from the storm Tues-Wed (20+ inches), and picked up a few more Thursday night. So, find something in the front range, find something that's high, and find a north facing line.

I started brainstorming ideas, and came up with about 4 options. My first choice was ruled out due to access issues. Next in line was Square Top. I've hiked nearby Mt Bierstadt a few times in the past (due east from the lower right hand corner of the topo above), so I've seen Square Top from the east several times, but had never been in the drainage to the north of the peak. Here's a shot of the peak from the east, the "standard" approach, courtesy of 13ers.com:



I'd rather be showing a picture of what the north face looks like from a distance...but I couldn't find one anywhere online.

Edit: Thanks HikeforTurns who was better at searching summitpost.org than I was. Here's a shot of the north face in October. Our line is on the looker's right, dropping just as the ridge begins to head down. The line more in the center of the face might be do-able with more snow...but it looked pretty thin for us, and would have required a pretty good downclimb.


IridePow met up at 5:00am. Even though it was a high elevation route with a solid freeze Friday night and a north facing line, we wanted to have plenty of cushion given the sudden rise in temps forecast for Saturday, along with all the recent new snow. A wet slide cycle was impending.

The best info I could obtain indicated Guanella Pass road to be open to the Naylor Lake campground turnoff, but we came up about a mile short of that. We arrived about 6:00am, and were off shortly thereafter. The skin overall was a nice warmup - a mellow pitch on frozen snow. After a "shortcut" led us away from the actual trail to Naylor Lake for a short bit, we got back on the road, and continued up toward Naylor. The Lake was frozen solid, and we were able go right across.


spthomson skinning across Naylor Lake, north face of Square Top is on the left side of the pic.

We continued up toward the saddle between an unnamed peak just south of Argentine and Square Top. A small, but steeper side hill traverse provided some challenging skinning to get above Silver Dollar Lake. Here's a shot on the final push to the saddle ridge. Bierstadt is in the middle of the picture. The sawtooth ridge connects to Mt Evans (lookers left of Bierstadt), both 14'ers.



It was one of those special Colorado days. No wind. Not on the ridge. Not on the summit. With warm temps and clear, bluebird skies it was the perfect day. We monitored snow conditions all the way and with the snow staying firm, we were in no hurry to get to the top, as we enjoyed many (more than usual) breaks along the way to soak it in.

Soon, the ridge steepened and the snow cover on the ridge became sparse, so it was time to boot. Here's a shot with Grays and Torreys (behind) in the background (2 more 14'ers)...and I think Edwards connected to Gray's ridge, to the right. Some fun looking lines off the unnamed peak right behind me (which is also hiding Argentine).



We dropped our skis at the top of the couloir (snow was lacking for the summit descent), and hiked up the rest of the way to the summit. Token summit pics (you can understand why it's named Square Top):


IridePow


spthomson being a dork

View west (I'm not 100% sure...can anyone help me identify the prominent peak in the foreground on the right side of the pic (basically the 2nd peak from the right side of the pic in the foreground), particularly rocky face on the lookers left side, and a fairly rocky ridge that drops all the way left into the drainage):


You can also see it in this photo...now, it's on the left side of the picture...basically, the first peak on the left that is "nearest" the camera.



Looking back toward Bierstadt & Evans:


Alright, time to ski. Looking down the line:


Now's probably a good time to explain why so far there's only been one pic of IridePow...and why there will be only one more. It's been a rough week for me and cameras. On Wednesday, my "good" camera stopped working...lens jammed between fully zoomed and closed. Took it by Wolf Camera today...they want $170 to have it repaired. I'm going to try and deal with Canon directly and hope for better news. So, for this trip, I was using my old 1.3MP, no zoom camera. IridePow was going to drop in first, and I was going to take some shots. I had also been taking shots along the whole approach. I get the camera out and decide I should be facing the other direction...so, I put the camera in the chest pocket in my avalung vest, and do a little hop turn to spin around. Out pops the camera. It starts sliding slowly at first, and I think it's actually going to stop on this chunk of snow...but instead, it pushes the chunk of snow, and quickly starts to pick up speed as the angle steepens. I watch it go sliding down the snow right toward a bunch of rocks, where it launches into the air and tumbles several more times before stopping somewhere in there. So, yeah...no pics from me.

So, would there be pow? First turns weren't exactly powdery...but still very enjoyable:



Ok, so at no point did we experience the kind of snow my wishful thinking had hoped for (some leftover deepness from earlier in the week)...but depending on where in the couloir you were at, there was some very soft snow to be found.



Looking back at our handiwork:


We continued down, pretty much following our ascent route the rest of the way back to the car. IridePow took a risk and let me use his camera for some turns down lower:


On our way out, we saw quite a few point releases around rock outcroppings, and on one steeper face, a couple of small wet slab releases with discernable fracture lines. The snow was sliding on the recent dirt layer. The dirst layer is prevalent throughout the front range...having seen it in 3 different locations in the past week.

[Rontele]

strong work! that is a line I have wanted to bag for a while.

[mtnbikerskierchick]

Nice work boys! Sorry to hear about your camera problems spthomson- that's a real bummer! Thank Iridepow for the pics!

[HikeforTurns]

nice report dude. Looks like a fun tour.

here is a photo of squaretop in October, courtesy of summitpost:




is the peak in question part of Lenawee or Ruby?

[El Kabong]

Nice work, good to see that you picked the "right" way down.

Here is a TR from last year about the "wrong" way down

http://tetongravity.com/forums/showt...ight=squaretop


Sucks that they are not plowing the pass road after all the improvements last summer, I was thinking some of the bowls above naylor lake would be fun descents in the winter, maybe next year if they start plowing again

[FiveLarge]

nice report dude. Looks like a fun tour.

here is a photo of squaretop in October, courtesy of summitpost:

is the peak in question part of Lenawee or Ruby?

Thanks for pic...I searched on summitpost, and only found a few photos, but none of the north face. Maybe I just don't know how to use the search function over there. I'm going to add it up in the TR.

I was thinking Lenawee, but not sure.

[FiveLarge]

Nice work, good to see that you picked the "right" way down.

Here is a TR from last year about the "wrong" way down

http://tetongravity.com/forums/showt...ight=squaretop

Nice. Aside from the snow conditions, definitely a more "interesting" line than the "right" way down. I guess that was the advantage of coming up the Naylor drainage. Definitely looked at the line you skied, with the exit out the looker's right slot, but was pretty set on the other line.

[Kya]

Nice! Good stuff

Had to bump this since I bumped a non skiing thread. This one is way happier! Beautiful Day

[KillingCokes]

Nice. I skied that a few years ago. It's a fun line for sure. You guys got nicer conditions than I did. Sweet pics

[IridePow]

Nice TR spthomson.

It was a beautiful day out there in the CO mountains. We could have laid out there on top with some lawn chairs and beers all day!

Here is one more shot from the line we skied. We did the couloir which is pretty much in the centre of the picture.



P.S. spthomson: I think the pic from the bootpack is missing in the TR.

[FiveLarge]

P.S. spthomson: I think the pic from the bootpack is missing in the TR.

Check. Fixed.

P.S. I think you double posted.

[homi]

well done
did argentine today and saw your tracks
some nice corn up there

[Alpine Dreams]

Good stuff.

[shera]

We skied through the rocky area on looker's left last year. Brett found the line all the way through so we didn't have to hike out or anything. He also wrote a very cool TR, but the pics don't show up any more. Hmmmm.

It's good to see that Colorado Spring skiing is getting underway.

[iskibc]

Nice one.

[killclimbz]

Very nice.

[stupendous man]

Definitely getting an education in clear creek county from this board.

[IridePow]

We skied through the rocky area on looker's left last year. Brett found the line all the way through so we didn't have to hike out or anything.

Here is a close-up from the line you and El Kabong are talking about I guess. It's not the best angle, but you recognize it. Looks like it's currently doable with maybe a short hike in on the top.
If you go straight down from the top there will be a mandatory 40ft huck or something at the bottom, if you head skiers left half way down it is continuous.

[StaggerLee]

Are those salmon colored pants?

[Pow4Brains]

Nice work doodz! What a perfect day.

[shera]

Here is a close-up from the line you and El Kabong are talking about I guess. It's not the best angle, but you recognize it. Looks like it's currently doable with maybe a short hike in on the top.
If you go straight down from the top there will be a mandatory 40ft huck or something at the bottom, if you head skiers left half way down it is continuous.

Yes! We did hop over to the left about halfway down.

[FiveLarge]

Are those salmon colored pants?

Red. Actually, IIRC, I believe Sessions calls it "Fire", which makes me feel more sexy when I wear them, as opposed to them just being "red". And obnoxious. Which is what I was going for when I bought 'em.

[StaggerLee]

You ARE on fire my friend.

[sledneckripper]

Sick man. We ride up around that area every once in a while. I have family in Georgetown, so we ride the sleds up from the north side and hit Squaretop and Bierstadt and Argentine. One time we got over 15,000' vertical in one day from doing sled laps off Argentine and Squaretop. Some sick terrain fo sure.

[sick.bird]

CAW!! CAW!!!