TR: South Arapaho Peak, West Couloir - 5/19/07

**IridePow** · 05-20-2007, 11:41 PM

South Arapaho Peak (13,397ft), Indian Peaks Wilderness
West Couloir - 5/19/2007
Hippy_Prophet, Dave, IridePow

Hippy_Prophet sent me an email on Thursday to make some plans for the weekend. Several ideas were tossed around, but then Dave came up with a great idea in the Indian Peaks Wilderness.
This area is basically his backyard and he spied a nice line two years ago. The only thing I knew was, that it is something steep, west facing.... and that in his 20 years backcountry skiing he never heard of or seen anybody skiing this line.
Sounded interesting to me!

We started from the 4th of July Trailhead and went up the Arapaho Pass Trail.

Hippy_Prophet:

Dave:

We went past the skywalker couloir:

We were not super confident that the line will go. It seemed to have less snow in that area than other years.
That's why we opted to take a closer look from the bottom instead of climbing South Arapaho Peak via the East Ridge.

So Dave where is this line???

Did not look as promising as the picture from 2 years ago (Mid May 2005).
Taken from the peak west of South Arapaho Peak.

A little bummed due to the lack of snow, but still eager to drop this line we decided to climb up the couloir to check out if it will go.

Dave climbing:

IridePow:

About half way up we were psyched to find out that the line will go. There was definitely less snow than in 2005 when Dave took that picture. But besides two or three tricky parts where we would have to navigate through some rocks we definitely would have an epic ride in front of us!

Hippy_Prophet:

On the Summit:

Hey little guy what's up?

Hippy_Prophet making some friends:

Mount Neva in the west:

Another scenic shot:

We could start right from the summit, but had to take the skis/splitboard off for a few steps to get into the couloir. On a good snow year you definitely can ski it right from the top.

Looking down our line:

Dave dropping in:

Hippy_Prophet pointing it:

Dave enjoying the middle part:

First rocks to navigate around (about half way down):

Lower part of the couloir:

Below the half way mark:

The free heelers going for the style points:

Another few rocks at the bottom:

Hippy_Prophet milking the last few turns in the apron:

Done with the 1600ft couloir.
Steepness varied from 40 to 45 degrees. Maybe a few degrees steeper on top.
There were still another 400ft skiing before we had to start hiking back to the trailhead.

The line we skied:
(picture from mid May 2005)

Thanks Dave for this great suggestion.
It was a blast to hit this line!
Good variety of snow climbing, technical riding and route finding.

Z · 05-21-2007, 12:20 AM

ha! what a hippy!

nice line.

**Alpine Dreams** · 05-21-2007, 06:08 AM

Stong work, nice line.

**Woolbury** · 05-21-2007, 09:17 AM

Great job. Dave has got that place wired, and if your crazy enough to follow him, you'll hit every bit of steep snow in the I Peaks.

Hippy P and I hit the Emperor Sunday, fewer rocks, but just as steep. Good times.

**Rontele** · 05-21-2007, 09:21 AM

strong work, gents

**HikeforTurns** · 05-21-2007, 09:23 AM

Cool. Im glad someone made it out this weekend. Looks like an interesting line too. Thanks for the Neva shot.

**skier666** · 05-21-2007, 11:24 AM

Hey there buddy!

**SydVicious** · 05-21-2007, 12:49 PM

Nice! That looked like a pretty sick day!

sledneckripper · 05-21-2007, 01:19 PM

Sick dood. You should have skied the east side of Arapaho

That would really stir up the hippies down in boulder.

**LaBelle23** · 05-21-2007, 02:49 PM

Nice work! I love to see TRs from my neck of the woods. Our season in the IPW is just getting going too!

**mtnbikerskierchick** · 05-21-2007, 04:49 PM

Um yeah, that's steep!

Nice line boys and not one that's often done it seems. I love seeing people try new things! Way to go! South Arapahoe still has lots to offer this season I think!

**Kya** · 05-21-2007, 05:15 PM

Awesome! I loved this pic when I first saw it. Brittany was faster, but it deserves another posting

Fun.

**Hippy_Prophet** · 05-21-2007, 05:53 PM

Oliver, Nice work on the TR . That was one of the best days of the season. Let's get together and do another line like that.

Any skier worth his salt who has looked over toward North Arapahoe from South Arapahoe has started doing the math wondering if it is worth it to pay the fine to ski the line. One of these days...

**homi** · 05-21-2007, 06:44 PM

looks like a fun day
good running into you guys last week

**summit** · 05-21-2007, 07:01 PM

saaaaaweeeeeeeeet

**mjp** · 05-21-2007, 09:03 PM

http://www.mountainbuzz.com/gallery/...php?i=1860&c=7 Pic looks familier.
I thought your trip report looked very familier. Skied the same line 2 years ago after climbing skywalker and found it to runnelled to ski any good, so dropped into what we call Vader coulier next to skywalker. Nice work and great ski.
sorry about the pic can't figure out how to post, thus the reason for no good trip reports.

**Tri-Ungulate** · 05-21-2007, 09:23 PM

Goddamn telemarking hippies! Braappp Braaaaappp Run You Over!!!!

Nice TR, guys.

**goldenboy** · 05-21-2007, 09:49 PM

Man there's a lot of good Tr's today. Corn harvest in full effect!

**FiveLarge** · 05-21-2007, 10:28 PM

Nice, O and co... Thanks for the call. I'm not sure what the deal is...I feel super motivated by Thursday night...then progressively less as the weekend progresses...

**IridePow** · 05-21-2007, 11:15 PM

Originally Posted by mjp

http://www.mountainbuzz.com/gallery/...php?i=1860&c=7 Pic looks familier.
I thought your trip report looked very familier. Skied the same line 2 years ago after climbing skywalker and found it to runnelled to ski any good, so dropped into what we call Vader coulier next to skywalker. Nice work and great ski.
sorry about the pic can't figure out how to post, thus the reason for no good trip reports.

Nice!
We thought it would be a little funny to be the first ones down there, since this is a very popular area. We just never heard anything about it before. We had a blast either way.

P.S. I think mountainbuzz does not allow any hotlinking. At least it did not work for me either.

**IridePow** · 05-21-2007, 11:16 PM

Originally Posted by spthomson

Nice, O and co... Thanks for the call. I'm not sure what the deal is...I feel super motivated by Thursday night...then progressively less as the weekend progresses...

You gotta sack up man!
There are a few really nice lines waiting for you.

**IridePow** · 05-21-2007, 11:37 PM

Originally Posted by Woolbury

Great job. Dave has got that place wired, and if your crazy enough to follow him, you'll hit every bit of steep snow in the I Peaks.

Hippy P and I hit the Emperor Sunday, fewer rocks, but just as steep. Good times.

Man..... the Hippy had quite a weekend!
First Arapaho and then the Emperor.
I did Emperor with him last year and that's definitely one of the better lines in the state.
A 3,000vert descent in a very cool couloir.... you do not get that every day.

**bcrider** · 05-22-2007, 08:56 AM

Great line, pics, and adventure!

**Woolbury** · 05-22-2007, 11:39 AM

Originally Posted by IridePow

Man..... the Hippy had quite a weekend!
First Arapaho and then the Emperor.
I did Emperor with him last year and that's definitely one of the better lines in the state.
A 3,000vert descent in a very cool couloir.... you do not get that every day.

Yes, it was a great ski, I hadn't done the line before. Even with Arapahoe under his belt, I lagged on the climb and let Lacy(HP) blaze to the summit.
Got some good pics if I ever get some time to do a TR...

Hippy contemplating the steep 3000' ahead of him...

**BurnHard** · 06-02-2007, 02:45 PM

Does anybody have beta on S Arapaho peak & snow conditions? I'm planning on hiking it tomorrow, mostly same route as this TR since I'm new to the area. I'd think that only 10 days after this TR there should still be enough snow to ski the same line.

Iridepow, do you have a GoogleMaps/Earth / GPS coordiantes for the colouir you skied? I can't quite make it out on the map. I have USGS quads of the area and a 1:40k map of the Indians...