Category: Backcountry Skiing

June POWteenth on Grizzly Peak 13,988′ 6.13.10

Posted by Frank – June 15, 2010

Grizzly Peak is Colorado’s highest thirteener, formerly thought to be a fourteener but demoted after new surveys made the mountain twelve feet short. I wonder how many hundreds or even thousands fewer ascents the peak sees due to those twelve feet. Regardless, Grizzly is known as a great climb in an area of the Sawatch range which is uncharacteristically rugged. Grizzly has been on my “to-do” list for years, but I hadn’t yet gotten the chance to give it a go. With a powerful late spring storm poised to drop a few inches or more over the weekend, we nearly decided to bag it but in the end decided it was worth a try. We were certainly glad we did…

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Photo from Independence Pass, Memorial Day, 2006

Brittany and I were joined by Jarrett Luttrell and Kim Ross, and as we headed up Independence Pass from Aspen, we found ourselves in a blinding snowstorm of the Star Wars variety. At the campsite:
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We awoke the following morning with a few inches of new snow, and some continued light snowfall. Needless to say, it was beautiful:
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The hike up valley quickly broke out into meadows and we were able to enjoy the views of this area, which most of us hadn’t been to. Jarrett and I both commented that it felt like one of the first trips of the fall, rather than one of the last trips of the spring. It even smelled like fall. Kim, riding high on expectations:
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The sun came out momentarily and gave us a great view of our objective. The actual peak is slightly behind, while the Grizzly couloir remains mostly out of view on the right, tucked up against the cliffs.
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14er Evolution and El Diente’s “Luttrell Line”

Posted by Frank – June 1, 2010

It’s been fascinating, in my opinion, to witness the way 14ers are approached and skied in the PD (Post-Davenport) era. While Dawson’s books have been around for quite some time and give detailed information on many 14er ski routes, Davenport’s website and real-time photo trip reports really changed the game in a lot of ways. Suddenly everyone knew Mount Wilson and El Diente were doable from the summit, suddenly everyone knew the way to ski Pyramid was by climbing the NE ridge, suddenly aspiring fourteener skiers had a better idea what time of year a certain peak might be “in”. Routes have continued to evolve, with another example being our Secret Chute route on Capitol, which we had a feeling might become the standard route for that peak.

I thought about the way standard ski lines develop on these peaks as Brittany and I ascended El Diente last weekend. I call it the Lattrell Line, because it’s got some good alliteration, but I’m sure locals have both climbed and skied the route before. Regardless, we hadn’t heard of or seen this route before Jarrett Luttrell snowboarded it earlier this month (although I had speculated that a line might exist). As we were ascending Jarrett’s descent line on El Diente, and knowing the other popular route on El Diente, the North Face to the hanging traverse, I was struck by how much better Jarrett’s line is. It’s longer, steeper, more hidden, easier to climb, and everything else a classic line might be. It is our hope that this line will soon become the standard line for skiers of El Diente. We will do a full TR of our day on El Diente shortly, but for now here’s the route itself.

The route. Yellow sections are hidden.
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The route is just around the corner from the Northwest Buttress, closer to Navajo Lake. If it looks like you’re climbing into a brick wall, you’re on the right track.
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Just when you think there is no way the line goes through, a small exit couloir finally appears:
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This leads to what we’re calling the “Fox Traverse”, because it vaguely looks like a Fox’ head (you can see our tracks if you look closely enough):
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After the Fox Traverse, you enter the second exit couloir that leads nearly to the summit:
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From the summit:
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There it is. It’s in great shape right now and probably will be for a while, so get it while the getting’s good.

Spider Face Attempt 5.23.10

Posted by Frank – May 27, 2010

The Spider Face, photo taken on 5.9.09:

Pete Sowar has a photo of this face in his house, and it’s been on my list ever since. Pete and John Jasper were able to ski it after a number of attempts just a couple of weeks ago, so Brittany and I thought we’d give it a shot as well. We knew there was some ice on the route, but we were told it wasn’t too bad and we wouldn’t need a rope.

We headed up to the base of the route and quickly booted up to the first ice pitch. Brittany:
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Frank:
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We then climbed a short snowfield to get to the bottom of the 2nd ice pitch, which was quite a bit steeper than the first, as well as a bit longer:
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We both felt confident enough to ascend it, but what worried us was that we would have to downclimb it as well. As those of you who have done much climbing know, downclimbing is quite a bit harder than ascending, so we had some real concerns. After some discussion, we decided that neither of us were in the mood to get quite that rowdy, so we climbed back down below the first ice pitch and skied from there. Another shot of the line, the ice is somewhat visible:
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We had a nice view of El Nacho, which Jarrett and Brittany had skied a couple of days before.
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We decided to salvage a few more turns by climbing up to the morraines in what we’ve started calling “mini-Queen” basin. We found some good corn. Brittany:
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Frank:
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That was about it, other than some technical ski stream crossings:
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White Widow Couloir 5.8.10

Posted by Frank – May 11, 2010

With this weekend’s opening of Gothic Road heading towards Schofield Pass outside Crested Butte, local ski mountaineers have a number of new options available. Or, to be more specific, they have more options that don’t involve an overnight pack or a huge day. With that in mind, Tom Runcie and I headed out towards one of Whiterock Mountain’s subpeaks with a couple different lines in mind. The first line we wanted to ski was the White Widow, a line I skied several years ago but hadn’t been back to:
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Mayday, Mayday, We Have Powder! 5.1.10

Posted by Frank – May 6, 2010

The last day of April ended with a bang, and the first day of May came in just as strong, with more snow and winter-like weather. Brittany and I were joined by usual suspects Rob Dickinson and Tom Runcie, plus Ron Pankey and Eric Freson. We considered a number of different areas, but in the end decided to check out a zone that Eric and Ron knew. While it isn’t the world’s most secretive zone, I tend to keep areas that people show me secret, therefore I’ll refer to this zone as “La Zona Rosa”, after the hip Mexico City neighborhood. It’s just fun to say “Zona Rosa”.

It was a bit difficult to get there at this time of year, and required some interesting snowmobiling (Eric):
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There was a lot of enticing terrain to drool over and perhaps get to on another trip…
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Lap 1, Tom:
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Brittany:
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Frank:
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Ron:
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With a tremendous looking “quarter slot” couloir above us, Eric, Rob, Tom, and I decided to head that way for our second run, while Ron and Brittany decided to take another quick lap. Looking down the slot:
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I dropped in first, with slough chasing me down (photo Tom Runcie:)

Brittany got these shots of me exiting:
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Rob (photos Tom):

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Tom:
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La Zona Rosa, muy bien, si?:
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Mount Axtel: Wang Chung and 4th Bowl 5.4.10

Posted by Frank – May 4, 2010

Ben Furimsky and I headed out with plans of skiing Mt. Owen today, but after getting a good look at the face we decided to change plans and head elsewhere. Owen had a huge cornice blocking access to much of the face, plus some debris and wind affected snow, so we went over some other options. We both ski Axtel a lot, and we both wanted to ski something different, but Axtel looked like it was in perfect shape and Ben had put a snowmobile track all the way to the summit the day before. With the track in, we knew we could get a couple of laps in no time at all. I usually find snowmobile laps to be more trouble than they’re worth, but this one was just too easy.
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Maroon looking super caked:
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Ben:
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Deep Day In The Playground… On The Last Day Of April. 4.30.10

Posted by Frank – May 3, 2010

It’s been a crazy spring in Colorado, with snow, snow and more snow that just keeps falling. While this hampers attempts at skiing the big lines that we look forward to all year long, late season powder makes things sting less… a lot less, in fact. Rob and I headed out on Friday to see just how deep it piled up, and ran into Jeremy, Susan, and Spencer, so we joined forces and decided a mission out to the playground was in order. Normally, skiing the South slopes of the Anthracites is a necessary evil to get to the playground, except apparently in April when the snow is piled deep. Susan:

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Ant Peak 12,655′ 4.25.10

Posted by Frank – April 26, 2010

Ant Peak is part of the string of mountains stretching from Mount Justice to Purple Mountain known by Marble skiers as “Little Alaska”. Other peaks in the range include “The Nipple”, at 12,789′ and “The Blob” at 12,781′. These peaks are most commonly skied from Marble, although their South faces are very prominent from many Crested Butte area summits and offer up 3,000′ descents into the Dark Canyon. There is a short window every spring, however, when these peaks can be reached via snowmobile access. Barring another big snowstorm at lower elevations, this was probably my last trip up Slate River, which is badly melted out with a lot of long dirt sections.

Last year at almost the same time of year, travel up the valley was quite simple- but this year that wasn’t the case at all, and John Jasper and I even took the time to build a short road to make sure our sleds didn’t get dumped into the river.
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At Yule Pass, the Raggeds Wilderness starts, so we parked the sleds there, and headed down Yule Creek. JJ, Chair Mountain behind:
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The North Face of Ant has been on my list for a long time, as it offers up over 2,000′ of steep skiing right off the summit of a highly aesthetic peak. This is what we were heading for:
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Broken Hand Peak “Broken Dogleg” Couloir 4.11.10 13,573′

Posted by Frank – April 13, 2010

After Brittany, Pam, Chris, and I skied the South Couloir of Crestone Needle, I really wanted to climb Broken Hand Peak from Broken Hand Saddle. The summit is only about 700′ above the saddle, and I’d been eying a really interesting couloir on the North Face that drops 2,000′ down to Colony Lake. Brad, who had earlier changed his mind and skied Crestone Peak instead of the Needle, was the only one up for a descent of Broken Hand. The ascent up the south slopes of Broken Hand Peak was pretty simple, up grass and snow slopes with amazing views of the Needle.
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The line I wanted to ski forms a double dogleg right off the summit, so I’m calling it the “Broken Dogleg” Couloir, although I’m sure it’s been skied before and might be known be another name. Here’s a shot we took from Humboldt back in 2007:

From the summit, the line looked every bit as interesting as I’d hoped, and since the line keeps twisting and turning, we couldn’t even see very much of the line.
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We dropped in and found some highly variable snow conditions- some carveable windbuffed chalky snow, but some pretty icy areas as well, so we descended carefully. Brad:
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One last view of the Needle as we descend the couloir:
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Looking down, halfway down the couloir:
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Brittany got some photos from below, where she was waiting along with Pam and Chris. Brad and I are the two dots in the center of the photo. This shot and the one following really give a sense of how complicated and interesting this face really is.
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Brad is just leaving the couloir, while I’m skiing some good windbuff in the apron:
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Although we skied it in very difficult conditions, this was still one of the best lines I’ve skied in Colorado. Top 5 for sure- it’s just so varied, with double fall-lines and twists and turns as you descend. Not to be missed when it’s in condition.

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Taylor Peak 13,435′ 4.9.10

Posted by Frank – April 12, 2010

Jeremy Wegner and I headed out on Friday with no real plans other than to check out the conditions near Aspen. It’s a long snowmobile ride, but at this time of year it’s nice to check out a new zone when the sledding is so easy. With any luck, Luke Shaffner and his buddy Nate visiting from Montana would join us as well. We decided to kill some time waiting for them with a quick snowmobile lap. North facing conditions remain excellent (Jeremy):
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Then we started heading across the valley just in time to catch Luke dropping in on another sled accessed line:
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As it turned out, Luke had gotten a work call right before he left the trailhead and had to head home, but Nate was still able to join us. Jeremy and I had decided we wanted to ski Taylor, so that’s where the three of us headed next. I’d been wanting to ski Taylor ever since Pete and I skied Star Peak a couple of years ago, so I was excited to check it out. Taylor:
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Another day:
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East face of Castle, looking good:
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East face of Cathedral, really want to ski this one:
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Lots of fun lines on Conundrum, and I’m not even talking about conundrum couloir:
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Jeremy closing in on the summit:
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The face looked good, minus the dust, of course:
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Jeremy:
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All in all, a great day, filled with new lines and a list of lines we’d like to go back to. Until next time…