CO Mountain-Skiing Linkups

[trogdortheburninator]

Aside from all the butthurt on the interwebs, we've managed some pretty nice ski tours in the last few weeks. Weather has been phenomenal every weekend, and the snow has been good to great.

Brainard Quadfecta - March 14th
If you get to Brainard before the road opens, you can find some darn good skiing and solitude.

When the winds are calm, one can ski comfortably up the ridge of Audobon.


This leads to the always fun crooked couloir


Which sets one up for a quick jaunt up Paiute Peak



Mount Toll is right there, so you may as well ski that too


Then you just hop up old Pawnee for a feel good finish (aside from the 2 mile road skate...)


Looking back from Pawnee




Stevens Gulch Fun Time - March 21st

More proof that closed roads are a guys best friend.

Start with a long slog up the hikers route on Torrey's.


Luckily good skiing awaits to the SE

[trogdortheburninator]

From the base of the dead dog, you can hop right back up to Grey's Peak.


Copious rock skiing eventually leads to something worthwhile







More rocks, then more pow



One could just ski out and around from here, but the direct exit leads up and over Mount Kelso, where more pow awaits



This tour of course ends with Brisket at the smokin yard!


The weekend of the 27th was interrupted by a painful ski from Crested Butte to Aspen, with only one good mountain-skiing run


But the reign of perfect weather and great skiing started right back up.

Gore mini-traverse - April 4th - Silver Couloir on Buffalo, Big Bad Wolf Face on Red, My What Big Eyes You Have Couloir on E E Red

Got up early and drove to silverthorne, where we caught the entire lunar eclipse. Hit the trail just as headlamps were no longer needed, and found the lonely summit of Buffalo. 2700' of pow was a nice start to the day



From there we just headed up valley with great travel conditions. Jed refuses to buy grown up boots, so he gets his workouts by poling up 30 degree slopes.



After a mid morning nap, we cruised along to the summit of Red Mountain.

Red's north face is shorter than buffalo's, but still provides a good time. It also provided a bit of avy scare in a narrow protected alternate couloir.

[trogdortheburninator]

A skiers right traverse quickly takes you to the NW face of East East Red. This face mostly sucks, but climbing it gets you to one of the finer runs in CO: the big eyes couloir. Narrow and steep enough to be fun, but never scary.






The exit involved a pleasant skate through creeks and swamps. We then hitchhiked back to silverthorne, bussed up to the car, and hastily procured burritos.

[TEXASS]

Thats badddd asssssss Im hitting the airport in the morning. Silverton here I come. Thanks for the stoke

[Fritz]

Looking pretty good!

[simple]

Nice job Andy! You guys killed it at the GT. If you can slow down we should hook up this spring. Colin

[trogdortheburninator]

Simple,

Andy was on the indian peaks tour, and my partner for GT, but for some dumb reason he was busy for the stevens gulch and gore range. He also hates the interwebs.

[simple]

Cool well hello Andy's internet friend!

[rangercarl]

Well done sir!

[trogdortheburninator]

04/11/15 - Mountaineering with Skis in the Crestones

Sometimes you get an idea in your head, and all evidence tells you to bail, but you choose to ignore the facts and stick with the plan.

Such was last Saturday's ski tour in the Crestones. The original plan was ambitious. The executed plan came up a bit short, but sure was hard and memorable.

Camped for a few hours on the westside of the Crestones, then started up cottonwood creek in the wee hours of the morning. Eventually mountains appeared:


We knew things would be thin, but the first view of the Needle showed just enough snow that we couldn't possibly leave it alone.



Climbing was quite pleasant, but given that we didn't have time to let things soften, ski conditions would be far from ideal.





We leave our skis on for this, which probably gives some context for reluctance to down climb.



The best skiing was near the summit. Icy and bumpy, but turns could be had.



Below was a grueling mix of turns, side steps and down climbs. A descent that should take 10 min probably took 90.

We got back to the basin, the sun disappeared and the clouds came out. We felt remarkably tired for so early in the plan.

A quick snack and we set out for Crestone Peak. The south face is mostly mellow, with just a little scrambling. We were moving a bit slow, but eventually reached the saddle and got a view down the NW Couloir.



The line was thin as expected, but the snow was smooth and edgable.

A quick jaunt led to the summit



Then back to the couloir entrance, and into the unknown. Copious class 3/4 down climbing + quite fun skiing.



Repeat a few times and make sure not to blow the final turns down to the 300' waterfall cliff. Boot up a ways to get a clean exit line, then look back from where you came from and be glad for bomber stability and sharp edges.



Plentiful deadfall blocks the exit out Spanish creek, but eventually you can dine on damn fine pizza at Bliss Cafe while wondering who is more wasted between the skiers and the locals.

[trogdortheburninator]

04/25/2015 - A linking ski traverse of East Face of Huron, North Face of Missouri and NW Bowl of Belford

Spring weather is a crazy mofo. Unsettled days provide one of the best chances for a big tour, but then again pulling things off in that weather takes a bit of luck and a lot of stubbornness. Yesterday we were mostly unlucky with the weather, but we had just enough stubbornness to pull off a really nice ski tour.

We started from the Missouri Gulch trailhead, then made the extended approach to Huron. The weather did not look promising, but maybe there are enough rocks to get some contrast







Stability looked good, and we were pretty sure we could find the entrance to the run. Nonetheless, when we reached the summit it was rather intimidating dropping blindly into this:


We still managed to make due









The weather wasn't getting any better, and morale was lacking a bit. Luckily peer pressure is a strong tool, and once E signed on for another mountain, A followed suit. With that, we headed up towards Missouri. Weather was in and out and the terrain was beautiful. Good coverage allowed us to skin high on the mountain. By 13k or so, things were feeling pretty tough. What looked like a single kick turn away turned out to be 10. Vert is hard sometimes. We reached the summit just in time for another squall.

[blazes_boylan]

sweet stoke!

[trogdortheburninator]

linked quality seemed to suck, trying to add some more uploaded files... so Huron-Missouri-Belford linkup gets to continue here from the summit of missouri:

This run looked much less intimidating, and the snow turned out to be perfect. Fun was had:









Now was time for another sales pitch if we were going to ski another mountain. Luckily I had math on my side, and a short lived sucker hole in the weather had opened up. Basically, we could either ski low angle terrain down to treeline, or a short 1300' climb could get us up Belford where a 2400' fall line run might be waiting. Things started out beautiful.



But keeping with the theme for the day, we were soon in the worst squall yet.


The whiteout continued to the summit, and it looked like we were going to be reading by Braille on a long and potentially rocky descent. Just as we resigned to our fate, the clouds parted to reveal a beautiful run with amazing snow.






The stellar conditions didn't last, but we still managed to keep skis on all the way to the bridge.

[spankthepow]

hot damn!

[trogdortheburninator]

05/03/2015 - Dalke Couloir on Ogallala and North Face of Elk Tooth in RMNP

With only 5+k' and two mountains, you might think this was a rest day, but actually far from it.

The plan started after seeing a photo posted by KillingCokes on his website showing the N Face of the Elk Tooth from the summit of Ogallala:


Having never heard of a ski descent (although one seems likely), I had to know whether that gully feature on the far edge went continuously, or cliffed out. Excessive googling revealed no good photos in summer let alone winter/spring. Satellite suggested that there may be a rock band half way down.


Anyhow, a plan was hatched. Because it's a long way in there, it seemed to make sense to ski some other stuff too (weather would ultimately limit this).

With the earliest alarm of the year, we were on the trail a bit before 5. Of course the winter closure in wild basin conspired to add some extra mileage.

With a short cut above the calypso cascades, we made decent time on the approach. Lots of good skiing revealed itself along the way.




Approaching the Elk Tooth felt a bit like a child unwrapping a XMAS present, with the gift not revealing itself till the last minute.

Is that the face? Nope.


There it is, but does it go?




Yes! Just what I wanted!


Now we just had to deal with the fact that it was cloudy, frozen, and we wanted to ski the south east side of Ogallala first. After assessing te options, it seemed that climbing to Cony pass would provide the best access to the divide.

[trogdortheburninator]

The divide then provided fat skinning, and a glimmer of hope as the sun started to poke its head out.






We quickly reached the summit of Ogallala and set our sights on the Dalke. The entrance is rather exposed, but only for a turn or two.




After the first 50' we pulled over and waited 10 minutes for a bit more softening, then let her rip.




The next question was how to gain the summit of the Elk Tooth with the Rapidly warming south face. We had planned to climb the sickle shaped couloir, but the obvious chockstone at its top changed that plan. Knowing that it is a popular summer scramble between Ogallala and Elk Tooth, it seemed like the low point of the saddle would minimize time in the face. Post hole booting changed to steep skinning, then back to semi-sketchy booting. The ridge crest also revealed an imminent thunder storm.

Where's Waldo?

[trogdortheburninator]

We reached a few dead ends, but eventually found ourselves on the N Face. Snow ranged from exposed sketchiness to steep sketchiness. Luckily the gully features had more stable snow compared to the shallow superficial snow covering more windward features.


50' below the summit, we dropped our skis and went to the top. A few more storms, or even some consolidation could enable a "true" summit descent, but for how the lower start would do.

Looking back at the Dalke


The skiing was much better than we feared, but we didn't want to dilly dally.






The line was spectacular

The crux steepened a bit and may not provide access every year.




Below was just pure fun.






We hit tree line just as the thunder snow started.

The exit was an isothermal death slog that took just as long as the approach. Brutal.

[rmnpsplitter]

Thanks for sharing. What an awesome zone. I was back that way a couple years ago in the summer and there were still a few patches left that looked like fun riding. Props on the slog in/out. I think you can access this zone from the Allenspark trailhead?? Might save time on the approach and exit. Either way really nice shots!

[trogdortheburninator]

Thanks! Before the thunder storm we were hoping to ski copeland too, so we would have had to climb back to the AP trailhead. Just getting to Cony though, I think you are right that it would be faster, especially with the winter road closure at wild basin.

[HikeforTurns]

Nice work on ogallala. Thats been on my list for too long. Some sweet slogs in this TR!