American Peak and three of the four couloirs- Traitor, Independence, and Patriot from Left to Right:

Jarrett one-upped us all, sporting a windbreaker befitting the peak we were climbing.

We climbed Patriot first, and made the quick hike to the summit from there. Brittany and Jarrett, ready to drop in on run number one:

Wetterhorn with a dusting of snow:

Brittany in Patriot Couloir:

Jarrett, same line:

Next up, Victory Couloir, which was a fun one since it featured a spiderweb of different line choices.

I’ve made a date with this pinner couloir next spring:

Mike goes for Victory:

Frank:

Victory for Jarrett:

Ski-eye view from the top of Victory:

Brittany in Victory:

Next up was Independence, with a ready-made bootpack from a previous group. Frank:

Mike:

Brittany:

Jarrett:

We were starting to get tired, but since we’d been saving the bast for last, it was easy to motivate for the day’s fourth couloir, the Traitor. It was a bit steeper than the others:

Brittany makes a 50+ degree turn in the top of Traitor:

Concentrate Mike, concentrate:

Jarrett insists that it’s impossible to get a good looking shot on his heelside. I’m not so sure.

Frank:

Time to ride the basin down to the car (Frank):

Brittany:

Too many photos? maybe, but we packed four couloirs into one day, so I decided we needed to fit all the photos into one entry as well. We’re still finding great snow- no runnels, no suncups, and very little dirty snow. The Traitor couloir even had what I would describe as “mature powder” stashed away in the steeps. It’s good out there, and we’re looking forward to next weekend.

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Today’s ride was upper-402-fourohFred-Farris-Canal-upper, and it was likewise in terrific condition.

Good as it was, I was struck by some things. Primarily, of course, is that it is dry. Even the marshy areas were bone dry- not surprising when the snowpack in the area is at 5% of average, but still eye opening. A fire ban will soon take effect here in Gunnison county, and water restrictions might not be far behind. Riding right now feels much more like fall than spring- the trails are open so early that many of the aspen trees haven’t even budded yet. In any case, here’s some photos of Pete Sowar on Farris:

Quite a few trails are already open- check out the CBMBA page as well as the 14erskiers guide. For those of you looking for some ideas which aren’t on the CBMBA page, here’s a few suggestions: lower 401, 401 as an out and back, Roaring Judy from Jack’s Cabin, or even Texas ridge as an out and back. The sage grouse closures at Hartman’s are done for the year, and Doctor’s Park will be open in a few days as well (closed for sheep currently).

All that said, we’d rather be skiing. Those of you who hung them up long ago might have trouble believing this, but this spring has been excellent- and surprisingly better than last spring in some ways. CO seems to be getting a storm once a week or so, and these small storms have been keeping the snow consistently smooth unlike last season when we kept getting hammered with big storms that would slide out as soon as the sun came out. The best bets right now are high northerly aspects, which doesn’t leave a lot of choices here in Crested Butte other than perhaps Copper Creek. Better choices include San Juan classics like Yankee Boy basin, American Basin, and Cinnamon/Engineer passes, all of which are plowed and open. Independence Pass is open now as well, although the terrain there leaves a bit to be desired. This spring’s MVC (most valuable couloir) might be Mt Hope’s Hopeful Couloir, which has been cranking out great reports all spring. The venerable Dead Dog couloir on Torrey’s has been excellent as well, including last weekend when Brittany skied it with several inches of fresh snow (TR coming soon).

Mark dropping into Dead Dog:

The final conditions report for this area is Cottonwood Pass- yes it’s open but the construction between Jack’s Cabin Cutoff and Taylor Reservoir is pretty substantial- Monarch is a better choice currently.

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The miners of the late 1800′s must have been both crazy and a whole lot tougher than we are today. There are roads and mining camps everywhere in the Silverton area, which makes for some great ski possibilities thanks to the access, not to mention an ATV/jeep paradise in the summer (or now, since the county has plowed a large number of dirt roads). Check out these buildings for an example of the lengths the miners went to in their hunt for wealth:

Don’t see them? It’s a game of Where’s Waldo? Maybe this will help…

[For those of you not seeing them, they're in the dead center of the face] It was hard not to look at these buildings and imagine them in Europe, where they would certainly be filled with skiers, climbers, and hikers relaxing in chalets after a long day in the mountains.

On our Kendall Peak tour, we passed this mining operation in a beautiful setting. I took photos.

The San Juans have always been my favorite range in Colorado, and the peaks we summited had great views from the heart of the range. The mighty Grenadiers:

The Twilight group:

Molas Pass and Engineer Mountain:

Far to the West, I pointed out this peak and mentioned that it looked like a good ski descent. Jarrett and Brittany pointed out that I was looking at Mt. Wilson and the Boxcar couloir- which of course, I have skied:

Sneffels group:

Dry but mighty Uncompahgre:

In late March, an avalanche claimed the life of Crested Butte resident Knox Frank. While neither Brittany nor I knew Knox, we obviously have many friends in common, and we would like to offer our condolences. Evidence of the large slide was still visible from a long way away:

I had an interesting ridge encounter:

Jarrett’s track is the one farther away from the dry ground, while I tried to stay even closer to the ridge. To the left of the photo, snow stretched for 25′ to a fairly small cornice just 5-10′ high. Meanwhile, the ridge here was very gentle and broad, extending 30′ to the looker’s right. In other words, while I was being careful and staying close to the edge like I tend to do, I was still taken by surprise. Had I fallen in, it was at least a 10′ drop. Kind of amazing given the gentle terrain just inches away from dry ground. More of a moat than a cornice in a lot of ways.

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As with most of the Silverton area, mining ruins were everywhere. This would make a great tower for a chairlift, wouldn’t it?

I suffered a setback early in the day- the heel throw on one of my crampons had apparently snapped the last time I took them off. I almost turned around right then and there, but some duct tape and a Voile strap made it fairly functional and solid. Still, it wasn’t confidence inspiring on steep terrain, like this steep ice filled couloir that Jarrett and his friend Pete climbed up:

I opted for a short rock scramble to an easier snowfield, and Brittany came with me, not wanting me to go by myself. Even that route was somewhat steep:

My crampon rig survived, and we were now in big, beautiful Arrastra basin. Skinning here was straightforward, and we passed some well-preserved mines along the way. I took so many photos of the mines here, I’ll do another blog entry on them soon.

We eventually reached the summit ridge and switched over to booting. Big, bad Pigeon Peak is behind Brittany:

Much like we found on King Solomon, the snow on this steep North face was still rippled, recycled powder- basically hero snow that was highly edgeable while also sloughing. It doesn’t get any better- in May or any other month. Jarrett drops in:

Frank, from below:

Brittany chooses another line:

Looking back at the multiple options on Kendall Peak. Our lines are hidden to the right.

After the summit pitch, we still had a nice basin ski to descend to the final headwall. Jarrett:

Brittany enters the steep, aesthetic lower couloir. This time, it was corn, not powder:

Frank, same place:

After notching two quality descents, both around 3,000′, in May of one of the worst snow years in decades, it goes without saying that Silverton impressed. We’ll be back, possibly even for one last hurrah this spring.

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In honor of it now being “work season” for me:

We set off from the “Y” on snowmobiles and quickly realized that this would be the last time the snowmobiles come out to play, given all the stretches of dirt we were riding. Last year, we used our snowmobiles into June. Once we got to Owen, it looked like our best choice was the Jenga chute, and we started booting up.

On the ascent, I was still hoping that I would perhaps go past Jenga up onto the hanging face above it, which are some of my favorite turns in the area. But, we could still feel windslabs that didn’t inspire the confidence needed to ski an exposed route like the hanging face. I dropped in first and as is often the case, the skiing was quite good so long as you kept your eyes glued to the surface texture- “Ripply” snow, as we call it, was powder while smoother surfaces were damp slabs.

Brittany:

Jenga, short and sweet as always, on the left. Previous’ days tracks which stopped below the summit near the spire.

Afley, looking a lot less like the ice cream cone that it is:

A great day, to be sure, but also a sign that the end is coming, and much sooner than we’d like it to. We’re off to Silverton tonight, hopefully to find one last good dose of steep skiing before it ends. Check out our new affiliate Jenson- quite often one of the cheapest sites to visit for bike parts:

Ski: The Crested Butte zone lacks good high trailheads and high peaks (most peaks in this area fall just short of 13,000′), making things difficult in late spring. The Irwin zone is currently a good choice, with the road through the townsite plowed and decent access (skins on at the car) to peaks like Owen. Snowmobiles are no longer warranted, unless we get a big dump. Kebler is closed but plowed at the “Y”- some work is being done on it and it won’t be open for a couple more weeks. Slate is open to Pittsburg and beyond, though you’ll be walking at first. The snowpack still looks good up at Paradise divide (despite the low snowpack, the remaining snow is actually quite good- not too runneled or dusty yet). Gothic road is now open to the bridge just before Rustler’s Gulch. Again, you’ll be walking. Those are currently the best access points around here. That said, we may take advantage of higher traiheads in the San Juans next weekend.

Bike: Hartman’s Rocks in Gunnison has been open for a while, with conditions reportedly “very dry and dusty”. The bigger rides South of the powerline, like Aberdeen, will be closed for another 2 weeks for Sage Grouse habitat. Open rides in Crested Butte include Upper, Upper Upper, Whetstone Vista, Lupine, and the Caves loop in CB south. 409 has seen tire tracks as well. Reports from Strand are of a muddy trail that isn’t quite ready. Snodgrass hopefully won’t be long. Trail conditions can also be found HERE.

That’s about it- if anyone has more info, please leave a comment.

The Colorado Trail guidebook lists 28 sections, although 2 of them are entirely in Wilderness and therefore aren’t part of this guidebook. Of the remaining 26 sections, I have completed 3, ridden some or most of another 11, and not an inch of the remaining 12 (as of today, 5-1-12). While I’m not making it a goal to finish this summer, it’s certainly a possibility given how long the summer riding season will be after the lackluster winter of 2012.

The value of this page will be greatly enhanced by comments from 14erskiers’ readers. For instance, I’m going under the assumption that ALL of the non-Wilderness miles are open to bikes, but unfortunately that isn’t always the case. So if you know that a section isn’t open to bikes, please leave a comment here so I can edit the page. Likewise, one of the draws of this project for me is that I get to pour over maps and attempt to discover the best way of riding a section- whether it’s an out and back, a shuttle, or a loop with other trails and roads. So if our readers know that a route I have proposed isn’t feasible or the best route available, please let me know by leaving a comment here.

A few shots to get you stoked on the CT:

Strangely, we haven’t been to this summit before, even though it isn’t far from Crested Butte’s version of the sheep pen- the Anthracites. In fact, although these lines frequently get favorable comments from ski tourers when seen from the top of the Anthracites, I can’t remember ever seeing tracks there or hearing of parties making it out there (which isn’t to say it hasn’t been skied, but is rather a comment on Ohio Peak’s relative unpopularity). We skipped the snowmobiles, since Kebler Pass is currently plowed to the “Y”, intending to make our way up the established Anthracites skin track, and follow the NE ridge from there. Luck was on our side this morning, however, and we were able to catch a snowmobile ride far above Floresta thanks to a cabin caretaker.

Ohio Peak actually has two summits. This one is marked on topo maps as Ohio Peak, at 12,271′, and the couloir that drops from the summit caught our eye:

Meanwhile, the North face of the higher, but unmarked, 12,290′ summit was really calling my name:

Needless to say, we stayed well away from the cornices on the ridge:

We reached the top of the line and enjoyed the sights from our new vantage point. This line looks amazing, but access would make it a difficult day mission…

The Castles never get old:

I dropped in first:

Brittany followed- still finding plenty of powder:

We had originally considered skiing this couloir, with the distinctive “Moose’s Tooth” feature at its top, but it is pretty short:

The face off the higher unnamed summit was still calling my name, and since we had such great conditions on our first run, we headed up the aesthetic North ridge for a second run.

We had a great view of our tracks from the ridge:

Once again, we stayed tight to the ridge:

I would really like to ski the pyramid peak in the center of this photo, though I’m not sure how to do it without an overnight:

Once again, I got first tracks down this beautiful and interesting face:

Brittany makes her way down the face:

Video from both runs. My second run was nearly a disaster thanks to a zipper faux pas… I got really lucky…

A quick traverse and skin brought up to the top of the Anthracites’ Northwest Bowl…

One last look at our tracks on the face:

This line in Northwest bowl is another one I’ve looked at for a long time, but hadn’t yet skied (Brittany):

First non-powder turns of the day:

A day well-spent:

View of the two Ohio Peaks from Irwin the following day:

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And of course, you can wear flip flops after shredding pow in April…

It’s a fine line between “giving it your best shot” or “pushing your limits” or whatever other cliche you can think of and, well, disaster. The other side of the coin is another cliche- “The mountain will still be there” (Unless one tried to ski Mt St Helens in early May of 1980, and was hoping to give it another go in June, of course). Let’s go back to the Grand for a moment. Bill Briggs’ first descent was completed with a solo, thigh-deep slush ascent of the upper East face. Anyone with a passing knowledge of wet slides could argue that thigh-deep slush is a no-go. Of course Briggs did go, so we have a hero with a landmark first descent. But what if the slope had gone, would we just look at Bill Briggs as a cautionary tale in the history of ski mountaineering?

I’m not trying to “Monday morning quarterback” Briggs’ decision. I simply want to make the point that the line between success and failure gets very sharp as one gets to the upper end of things. People don’t push themselves, or the sport, or even simply knock off classic lines without some amount of risk entering the equation. Doubt will always creep into your mind, so when is the reason for turning around just an excuse that placates your fears?

Sometimes you’ve simply got to be bold if you’ve got big dreams. This is of course true not just in ski mountaineering, but in life as well. But as Kenny Rogers’ famously said, “You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, Know when to walk away and know when to run.” Well said, Kenny. How do you know? Experience and gut instinct, I guess. Which can still lead to giving up too early, or pushing it too far. Both lead to an unpleasant feeling in the pit of one’s stomach. Tough game to play, given the consequences. Palliative care workers say the terminally ill regret the things they didn’t do more than the things they did do. I’m not sure if that totally applies here, but I’ll throw it out there as food for thought anyway.

I would LOVE to hear from our readers on this one. One thing I hope to see more of here at 14erskiers is the great dialogue among our readership that other websites get. So please, if you have any thoughts on this, let’s hear them.

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