TR: Pawnee Peak, South Couloirs (IPW) – 6/9/2007

**IridePow** · 06-12-2007, 10:53 AM

Pawnee Peak 12,943ft – South Couloirs
Brainard Lake Area (Indian Peaks Wilderness)

Riders: Dave, IridePow

I met up with Dave for a bit more June riding in the Indian Peaks Wilderness.
We brought the bikes along since we were not sure how far the roads were open.

The road around Brainard lake was actually open all the way, but the last few hundred yards of road to the actual trailhead was closed. So we decided to pedal that part. It’s always fun to ride your bike with skis/snowboard on your back isn’t it? At least the tourists thought so when we came back later in the afternoon.

After stashing our bikes we made quick progress hiking on dirt/snow along Long Lake up to Lake Isabelle. We had a solid freeze on Friday night, so post holing was not a problem (even the way out was pretty easy again).

Lake Isabelle and a stunning view of the continental divide with Navajo and Apache:

Close-up of Apache couloir and Queens way:

From there we headed north towards Pawnee, more or less following the summer trail.
Dave putting in the stairs:

Brainard Lake, Long Lake, Left Hand reservoir:

Nice views on the summit.
Navajo and Apache in the west:

Lake Granby to the north west:

Dave soaking in the views:

Mount Toll to the north - quite a popular spring/summer ski route.
(There are two skiers hiking up near the bottom of the pic)

Mount Audubon looks a little dry:

There are several south facing couloirs on Pawnee. We chose one a little more east than the most obvious two, since it looked more interesting.
It’s has a 55 degrees entrance before it starts easing and some interesting rock features to navigate around.

Dave getting ready at the top:

Looking down:

Dave Dropping in:

IridePow on the steep top part:

Dave surveying the scene after the first few turns:

Top third of the couli:

Navigating around some rocks was required:

IridePow enjoying some great lower turns:

The first line from the bottom:

After that first drop we decided to traverse over and hike up a few hundred vertical feet again, instead of just letting it run down to the lake. There was another good couloir we saw on the way up.

This would have been the most obvious line a little east from the summit:
(as seen above our traverse to the next objective)

On top of our next line:

Dave showing off the tele steeze:

Bottom of line 2:

The two couloirs we did:

From another angle:

On the way out we had to bring the “grass boards” out for a short section:

We could ride a bit past Lake Isabelle before we had to start hiking out again for a 7 hour car to car time.

Good by Brainard lake and Mount Audubon:

**GBB** · 06-12-2007, 11:01 AM

way to go get some.

**HikeforTurns** · 06-12-2007, 11:17 AM

Nice one! I may have to head back there now that the road is open...

Many tracks in Apache?

**Below Zero** · 06-12-2007, 11:29 AM

This is a great TR. I'm surprised more people are not viewing or responding.

Nice work. Great pics.

**leroy jenkins** · 06-12-2007, 11:38 AM

Nice TR, theres some good looking mountains back there.

**TurnEarner** · 06-12-2007, 11:45 AM

ssssweetnessss...way to keep gettin' after it well into june.

**smitchell333** · 06-12-2007, 11:52 AM

Nice. Beautiful day there.

I've done a very similar tour - just did the more central couloir from the top and the lower couloir at the bottom with no additional hike really.

I was up in the area this morning and it was a totally different day - raining at 7am steady. Too much thunderhead possibility to go above treeline, but good skiiing anyways.

sledneckripper · 06-12-2007, 12:22 PM

Nice riding bro. Looks fun as hell.

**DJMingus** · 06-12-2007, 12:31 PM

Another fine spring TR....

Way to get it done!

**Ireallyliketoski2** · 06-12-2007, 12:43 PM

Long Leak Trail, the name says it all.

**jSki** · 06-12-2007, 04:49 PM

IridePow, thanks for posting all these TR's. You really helped us a few weeks ago with your skywalker TR. If I hadn't read that I wouldn't have known about Vader couloir when we climbed skywalker. Skywalker was frozen avie debris the entire way down and would have been a miserable ski. Vader on the otherhand was perfect snow which made for a great ski.

Keep the TR's coming, the Colorado crew is really stepping it up this spring.

**Alpine Dreams** · 06-12-2007, 05:18 PM

Great TR! Really good beta shot of Toll.

**Woolbury** · 06-12-2007, 06:38 PM

Nice TR guys! Apache looks really good right now also. Any of the peaks in the vicinity are great targets the next couple of weeks. We were on Toll at the same time-wish we would've crossed paths at the trailhead. Here's our Toll TR on TTips if any of you are heading that direction.

http://www.telemarktalk.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=35539

**IridePow** · 06-12-2007, 06:53 PM

Originally Posted by HikeforTurns

Many tracks in Apache?

We could not really tell from Lake Isabelle.... it's still too far away.
But we did not see any skiers going or coming from that direction, besides a group of climbers who were going to do Queens Way.

It's definitely looking pretty good I think.

**IridePow** · 06-12-2007, 06:58 PM

Originally Posted by jSki

IridePow, thanks for posting all these TR's. You really helped us a few weeks ago with your skywalker TR. If I hadn't read that I wouldn't have known about Vader couloir when we climbed skywalker. Skywalker was frozen avie debris the entire way down and would have been a miserable ski. Vader on the otherhand was perfect snow which made for a great ski.

You are welcome.
Just trying to share the love..... and give back a little bit.
I could gather very good info and stoke during this season from other maggots myself.

Yeah, the west couloir (vader) is quite a nice line! Glad you enjoyed it.