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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As I drove from Golden through heavy fog on I-70 in the dark morning hours, I was expecting snow up high. Instead, I was amazed as I drove out of the thick fog. As I looked toward the sky, my eyes squinted hard. Were those stars up there? Indeed they were. And the sky was emerging blue as I met up with Mark in Bakerville and we made our way up to the trailhead. We were able to drive all the way to the summer parking where we began our hike.

We hiked with happy faces up the valley- happy to have been blessed with perfect weather, happy to have fresh snow on the ground, and happy to be able to skin up the trail instead of bootpack. Luck was surrounding us!

Gray’s was looking caked, and our friend Andy (as I found out later) was breaking the skin track up the face.

Mark skinning.

As we watched other skiers and climbers made their way up the valley, they all headed toward Gray’s. Mark and I were the first to summit Torrey’s that day, and no one was quick to follow.

A view of Evans and Bierstadt.

On the summit!

While powder surrounded us, the new snow had warmed quickly on Dead Dog since it faces east. Playing it on the conservative side, we skied down the ridge to the lower entrance rather than dropping in right off the summit. Mark dropped in first.

Though heavy, the snow was pretty good

A few shots of me.

Mark skiing the apron.

A better look at Dead Dog from afar.

After skiing Dead Dog, we ended up in a depression. In order to follow snow, we skinned our way up a couple hundred feet, making it so we could follow ski following the drainage.

We were able to ski to about 1/4 of a mile from the car! Not bad for mid-May in a poor snow year!

But, as we made our way out the valley, clouds began to surround Torreys and the other high peaks. We finished our perfect blue-bird day with snow falling all around us. What a fitting finale to our unbelievably fantastic day!

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:

King Solomon was the goal. To make our lives easier, we set up a shuttle between Little Giant and Cunningham basins and began following the road up toward our goal. The light is always beautiful in the morning.

The road walk was largely dry, with patches of snow.

The snow was still holding well up high!

There were mining ruins everywhere.

We found ourselves ascending a southwest-facing grassy slope out of the Little Giant basin to reach the summit of King Solomon.

And though we thought we were on a pretty cool line, we were reminded of larger, tougher peaks to our south- the Needles.

Me, checking out the entrance to our line.

As we checked out the snow, we realized that our north-facing line was still rather frozen. So, we waited. And waited some more. We spent over an hour at the summit, waiting for the line to soften.

Jarrett dropped in first.

As it turns out, the snow was pretty good

Frank.

Me.

After skiing the steep upper part of the line, we still had a ways to go. We continued following the drainage downward.

The snow kept getting thinner and thinner.

Some parts were like this.

And there was some of this.

But, there were only a couple of willow bashing episodes and then the rest of the gully was free and clear.

Of course it ended with a nice cold stream crossing.

But all and all, it was a fantastic day.

A look bad at the day’s line.

Thanks Jarrett for showing us the goods- some of the best skiing we’ve had all season!

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:

On Saturday we set our initial sites on Axtell. Being the day after a storm that came in with a lot of wind, we decided to try to stay below treeline. As we drove out the Kebler Pass road, we quickly realized that the snow-bridge that had given skiers easy access to Axtell the week before was now melted. This doesn’t mean Axtell is impossible to ski. But, it certainly makes it harder to access- more difficult than we wanted to deal with for something like Axtell. So, we decided on a back-up plan– to “backcountry ski” at ski area we would go.

A fox was there to greet us.

Frank wished the T-bar was still running.

The scenery was beatified with a touch of the new snow.

A look up the Gothic Road / East River Valley shows that the valley is quite dry. In fact, after skiing, we decided to check it out and could drive all the way to the closure at the East River crossing about a mile outside of Gothic.

To the Headwall!

Although slabby from the wind, we still enjoyed the Headwall ski. Frank.

Me.

A look back at our tracks.

Lower down the turns were even better.

Big track, little track

A few days later, I headed up to the same area for an after work solo ski. Here’s a couple of shots from ski day 112.

I like corn

With 112 days in the bag, I’m still in good shape to try to achieve my goal of 120 ski days. With my full-time job, this takes some work. Even more work in this bad snow year we are having. Still, I have hope and a goal. And I think I can get there if I continue to try Who cares if they all think I’m crazy. I’ve never really been normal anyway. Most of all, I’m still having fun!

Now’s the time to buy your ski gear for next year. That’s what I did, here, at Altrec. Please help support 14erskiers by clicking on the link below. Thanks!

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.

On the road we saw evidence that the bears were awake, and likely starving after a long winter of torpor and little food to eat in the area.

The Headwall was looking pretty good!

But there was still lots of brown in the lower elevations.

We enjoyed the evening sun near the peak.

And the views were spectacular in the waning light.

Happy to be here!

Frank, ready to go on the upper entrance.

Me.

The smile says it all:)

Frank left a cloud of snow behind him.

The Headwall skied so well that we decided to make our way over to the Tower 11 chutes.

Frank.

Me.

I don’t think I’ve skied the Headwall in better conditions this year. With a full lap taking easily less than 2 hours, it’s well worth the effort, especially as an after work outing. Let’s hope that Mother Nature still has some spring snow in store for us