Skiing Colorado’s 54 fourteeners is an experience that I will never forget and marks a highpoint in my ski career. As such, it is a subject I love discussing and thinking about. Last spring, there was a discussion about what one needs to do to “officially” ski the 14ers. One consensus was that a skier needs to do the descents in a way that at least matches those who have come before them. This led me to start thinking about what the best descent on each peak could be in a perfect world. There are still some firsts left on the 14ers- first snowboarder (maybe Eric Kling or Jarrett Luttrell), first woman (Brittany Walker, Pam Rice, and Christy Sauer are all closing in), and first to do them all in one season. But for somebody who isn’t in a hurry to be first at something, maybe getting the best possible descents would be the crowning achievement. In any case, here’s my list for the best lines on each peak, starting with the peaks of the front range. At the very least, it should be a fun discussion on what route is best, since many of the 14ers have a number of high-quality routes.
Part 2: 10 Mile/ Mosquito Range
The San Juans are arguably Colorado’s finest range. It is certainly the biggest and most varied, and most of the range gets plenty of snow for ski mountaineers. There is literally a lifetime’s worth of skiing available in the San Juans.
San Luis: San Luis sits high and dry in the La Garitas, in the rain shadow of the bulk of the San Juans. As such, there aren’t a ton of great lines on this generally mellow peak. Therefore, the Yawner gullies get the nod. “D” Scale: D5?.
Wetterhorn: Wetterhorn is a striking peak, but it doesn’t offer a ton of skiing possibilities with its vertical faces. This peak has seen some turns off the summit, but no one has yet skied the whole mountain with their skis on. Therefore, the holy grail of this peak is just to ski off the summit down to the East face. It will just take a good wet spring storm or two without wind, but it can be done if someone is patient enough, in my opinion. “D” Scale: D9.
Uncompahgre: Like Wetterhorn, some of Uncompahgre’s faces aren’t possible without a parachute. Perhaps the most logical and fluid route would be down one of the West facing gullies during a good winter. (Shadow Face Left) “D” Scale: D6?.
Handies: Easy access and a number of top-notch lines make Handies one of the best anywhere. The lines dropping into Grizzly Gulch offer the best steeps on Handies. There are a number of variations, but they’re all pretty solid choices. “D” Scale: D9.
Sunshine: While there are some steep cliffy areas on this peak, those areas don’t have much in the way of skiable lines through them (i.e. the south face)(Or do they?). We skied the NE bowl, and it was a high quality corn run, so that’s the route I’ll stick with unless someone suggests another route. “D” Scale: D5?.
Redcloud: Like its neighbor Sunshine, Redcloud has some great long cruiser descents off of it. But the seldom-skied East face offers some different options, and a small cirque on the North face has some steep and exposed lines on it. We looked at these routes as we skied down this peak, but it was so steep we couldn’t tell if the lines were clean or not. With some recon beforehand, I’m sure routes exist during a good winter. “D” Scale: D9?.
Sneffels: This striking peak is hard to beat. While the South facing Birthday chutes offer the best fall-line route off the top, they’re pretty short. The spectacular North side is where it’s at. For now I’ll say the standard Snake couloir route is the best of them all, but there are some variations that I’d like to ski soon. “D” Scale: D11.
Wilson Peak: With a classic line dropping straight off the summit, visible from the Telluride area or your nearest Coors can, why mess with anything but the NE face? “D” Scale: D12?.
Mount Wilson: These days, the cool thing to do seems to be linking up all 3 peaks of the Wilson group in one day. This is a bit of a shame, since these are top-notch peaks fully deserving of their own day in the sun. Wilson has only recently felt skis right off the summit, though some of these descents have been of the “skied a few feet, climbed back, skied a few feet, eventually reached good snow after plenty of contrived descending” variety (mine had some rock walking as well). The “54 Best Descents” shouldn’t have any of that nonsense, so step one is to wait for good conditions. Straightlining off the summit and into the Boxcar couloir seems like the overall best route, IMO. “D” Scale: D11.
El Diente: El Diente has a number of routes going off the summit these days. A couloir dropping south goes from near the summit, while a hanging snowfield traverse leads to other routes on the North. With good conditions, this route on the North side seems like the most direct and interesting one: “D” Scale: D11?.
Sunlight: Any descent from the summit register will involve some tricky sidestepping to another route, but the question is, which route? Ted Mahon may or may not have been the first to explore possibilities on the NE face, but someone should head all the way up No Name creek to complete a route from the valley, if it hasn’t been done already. Besides, there’s some top-notch skiing up No Name. “D” Scale: D11?.
Eolus: There may be a lot more routes on Eolus than I know about. Anyone wanna give a route up, maybe on the North side? Anyway, for now the East couloir gets the nod, but this is one I’m sure can be done better. “D” Scale: D10.
Windom: The Widowmaker is the classic line of descent, but we were also checking out another route when we were in Chicago Basin. The SW face looks doable from the basin, and it has indeed been skied. It looks fun and people should consider this line when tackling Windom. “D” Scale: D11?.
