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After skiing a fun line with good snow the day before, Frank and I wanted more. We wanted a place with options, and narrowed it down to Baldy- a single peak with options abound.

Me, skinning up the south-east facing ridge.

As we rounded up to the top, we realized we still had time, and decided to drop in on the west side. But, first we enjoyed a few fun turns on the ridge.

Frank enjoying the recycled pow.

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Somewhere near Crested Butte is a peak with a fair bit of private property. Out of respect for the property owners (many of whom regularly grant access to ski this particular peak), I won’t be naming the peak though most skiers familiar with this area will recognize it. Conditions were excellent- despite the heat wave, we were skiing powder! Brittany on the ascent:

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After skiing Augusta the day before, a front moved in. Hoping for some fresh snow to fall, but still uninspired to ski frozen corn, we decided to check out the north-facing aspects on Axtell. Frank and I headed out with our same posse of the day before, with Jarrett, Kim, and Sydney.

As it turns out, we found some good snow! Kim.

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Augusta is one of the mountains that towers high in the backdrop of Crested Butte toward Paradise Divide. If you’ve been here, you’ve probably noticed it. From afar, it’s majestic and beautiful- and it stays white longer than most of our surrounding peaks. For that reason, Augusta has been brought up a few times when Frank and I have discussed “what to ski this weekend”. Simply put, it’s fairly mellow and has kept good coverage in a bad winter. With our friends Jarrett and Kim visiting this weekend, it seemed Augusta was the perfect choice.

We snowmobiled up into Poverty Gulch and parked our sleds at the bottom of Cascade. Instead of skinning up Baxter Basin, we opted to continue up Poverty Gulch, approaching Augusta from the north. The scenery was beautiful along the way.

Purple Mountain on the right.

Photo courtesy of Kim Ross

We gained the ridge on Augusta’s north side, and paused for a break. Sydney and I with Augusta in the back.

Photo courtesy of Kim Ross

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If there’s one thing I’m looking for more than anything else these days, it’s the feeling of exploration that I’m seeking. No matter how good a slope might be, if I’ve skied it a bunch, I’d rather ski something new, even if the conditions aren’t as good. I’m probably in the minority on that one. I consider the West Elks to be the sub-range of peaks to the South of Kebler Pass that are most clearly seen as one drives into Gunnison from Monarch Pass. While they may be close, access isn’t very easy so my explorations in the area have been limited to riding my bike on the Lowline Trail. I had always thought of accessing the area from the East via Mill Creek, but then a friend of mine mentioned a tour he did in the area from the South, off one of the many drainages that empty into Blue Mesa Reservoir from the West Elks. I was hooked.

Unfortunately, it took until last week until I was finally able to find the time, the weather, and the partner. Danny Spencer and I headed past Gunnison and discovered that… roads in this area had just been gated a few days ago to prevent damage on the muddy roads of springtime. Bummer. Time to formulate a plan B. Carbon Creek wasn’t too far away and it isn’t an area we would normally drive to, so we hoped to find something worthwhile in that area. First we explored the possibilities of accessing the Southwest side of Whetstone. It didn’t look great.

Awesome Axtell… the boring side:

We were left with Carbon Peak, which has a couple of stellar couloirs that I’ll have to put on the list for another year:

There was a nice rib on the North side that looked like it still had some soft snow on it, so that’s where we headed.

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After a nice corn skiing session on Gothic’s spoon the day before, I was curious how the North faces were holding up. When Adam called and suggested a tour up to Redwell Basin, I thought it was a great idea. From the top of Mount Emmons, Redwell Basin honestly didn’t look all that great due to some wind affected snow, but we decided to give it a go anyway with the hopes that the snow quality would improve as we descended. There were quite a few slides within the basin from the last storm cycle, although the standard route hadn’t slid. Here’s Adam’s buddy Brae dropping in:

The snow was pretty good- as long as you paid careful attention to the surface texture and stayed on the rippled looking snow. Adam:

Brae:

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This prolonged high pressure has been both a blessing and a curse. The warm sunny days have somewhat stabilized our snowpack and have brought spring cheer to the town. But, at the same time, the snow that has fallen the last few weeks has been quickly, and sadly, melting away at an alarming rate. It seems as though winter came late and spring is coming early. With that being said, now is the time for us to get out and enjoy what little snow we do have, because it might not be here for much longer. In hopes of finding corn, Frank, Sydney, and I decided to check out the south-facing Spoon on Gothic Mountain.

The Spoon in view.

Sydney and I skinning up Washington Gulch.

We bootpacked most of the way up the mountain.

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