Another old transferred TR:

North Face of North Maroon, 14,014′
6.3.07
Partners: Jordan White and Brittany Walker

The north face of North Maroon is about as classic of a ski descent as one is likely to find anywhere. Proudly facing the thousands of photographs and postcards taken from Maroon Lake, this face is as obvious as it gets. The face also has a longer ski history than most. The first descent was on June 24th, 1971, a mere 9 days after Bill Brigg’s first descent of the Grand Teton, and stands with that descent as a major landmark in American ski mountaineering history. Fritz Stammberger made the first descent, and was a most interesting character, who married a playboy playmate and disappeared in the Himalaya amidst allegations of being a CIA spy. Check out Dawson’s book “Wildsnow” for more on Fritz Stammberger.

I’ve had some tough luck getting this route skied. The first time, in the late 90’s, we had rain and obviously non-freezing temps, so I never even got on the route. The next time, I actually made it onto the face and was above the first cliffband, known as “Meiner’s ski jump”, when the sun came up and rocks nearly instantly started falling down the face. The last time, I called up the Ute Mountaineer in Aspen and asked them how the face was looking. They responded “It looks great”. They must have thought I was asking if it was worth checking out to take a photo or something, because after driving 3 hours to the trailhead, it was obvious that there wasn’t much snow on the face.

Enter try #4, last weekend. My friends Chris Webster, Pete Sowar, John Jasper, and some others had just skied it on Memorial day weekend, so I knew it went. Jordan had just moved to Aspen to start a summer internship, so he was up for it, and Brittany is always up for it. I wasn’t sure if this was a good sign, driving over McClure pass:

Brittany and I parked at the trailhead, and got this photo:

Jordan agreed to meet us at the absurd time of 2am to start up the trail. By 2:30, though, Brittany and I had not yet seen Jordan, so we started off by ourselves. The turn-off from Minnehaha creek is sometimes difficult in the dark, so even though I had been here before, we wasted some time getting on the climber’s trail. We wasted some more time going up a really steep gully, and by the time we reached the big snow bowl near treeline, dawn was just starting to show. About this time, I could see a faint headlamp far below, Jordan had somehow slept in but was now literally running up the trail to catch up. As he crested the big snow bowl, he snapped this shot of Brittany and I (2 dots):

He was able to catch up as Brittany and I cramponed up, and we looked at the first part of the ascent:

Going up:

Given our slow progress so far and my previous rockfall experience on this face, I was pretty worried about our timing. Jordan said he heard that skipping the face entirely and ascending the NW ridge was something we should consider, by continuing up the couloir instead of making the first traverse on the face above the Meiner’s ski jump rock band. I agreed and we started to head up:

At this point, Brittany decided that the conditions and the route were a little too difficult for her, and headed back down. While she regretted not pushing onwards, I was proud of her for recognizing her limits and staying within them- a very important quality in any ski mountaineer. (Brittany skied it a year later). Brittany shot this photo on her way down, the foreshortened view of the face:

Jordan and I continued on, and the NW ridge proved to be fun, steep, and ultimately faster than the N face.

S Maroon from the summit (or plain old Maroon if you prefer ) Whetsone mtn sits on the left, meaning that I am so close yet so far from Crested Butte.

Other summit shots:

OK, time to ski! (I had my video camera once again, so Jordan and I traded his camera, while Brittany took some from below)

Not far into the descent, we ran into the “punk rock” cliff band. Most years, this requires a downclimb, and this year was no exception: Brittany’s photo:

Our view:

Next pitch:

Jordan, the dot heading towards me on the same pitch:

Heading towards me on the next pitch:

This is right after. I am traversing towards the next slot, while Jordan is watching, just below where the last shot was taken:

Or, here:

Then, here:

The next slot was really fun, good corn, steep and sloughy:

We made our way out, and met up with MBSC to ski the lower pitches. The route:

Walking home:

Plenty of tourists to keep us entertained on the walk out:

This one’s my favorite, I love the way this lady is holding her jacket. Very Ahhspen:

It feels so good to get that one after all the trouble it’s been giving me. It’s a really great route, not just a straightforward face or couloir, but an intricate routefinding-intensive one. I hadn’t felt this good since last year- just goes to show that the best ones are often the ones that take the most effort.

Another old TR:

I couldn’t find a partner, so the fairly easy and safe Columbia seemed like a good option without a partner. A few inches fell the day before, so trailbreaking was tough work solo, but I went up the Horn fork basin and summited via the W flank/ S ridge route in about 5 hours. I was able to skin the entire route, which was good given this mountains reputation as being a loose pile of scree, especially on this side of the mountain.

Horn Fork basin, Harvard’s S face looking good:

Birthday Peak, I wouldn’t mind skiing this on my birthday:

My skintrack leading to the summit, Princeton on the left, Yale’s Silver Creek bowl on the right.

Taylor Reservoir, making me wish I could just drive over Cottonwood pass and save some time getting back to Crested Butte:

Summit shot:

I started descending the W face before noon, but this was still later than I wanted to be. I chose Columbia because it offered some safe ridge routes, so I stayed on the ridge crest and the wet stuff flowed down the double fall line away from me and into a gully. I guess I should have started at midnight, but I was still in a perfectly safe area on the ridge, so I never felt particularly vulnerable. You can make out the wet debris in this photo:

That was about it for Columbia, it’s a pretty standard Sawatch 14er that wasn’t my favorite although solo missions are always a little more interesting, even on a ho-hum peak like Columbia.

Another oldie for the holiday weekend…

Mt. Shavano 14,229’
Brittany and Frank
April 8, 2007

From Quandary, I made my way to Leadville through a strengthening snowstorm, got a hotel, and watched the Avalanche blow a lead and miss the playoffs for the first time. Brittany joined me there, and we went to sleep hoping that we would still have a chance to ski Belford and Oxford the following day. We knew that a crew had just been up those peaks, so we were hoping to have a nice track to follow to those summits. We woke up early to continued snowfall and 4” of wet slop outside. It was obvious that the higher elevations would have at least double that. We went back to sleep with intentions of hitting the last day at Crested Butte instead. But as we drove south from Leadville, the banana belt known as Buena Vista to Salida reared its’ head. You could tell that the southern Sawatch hadn’t gotten nearly the same amount of snow, and the peaks were even trying to poke their heads through the clouds. We met at Bongo Billy’s in BV, and the conversation went something like this:

Me: “It’s not so bad down here, we should ski Shavano”
Brittany: “Hah, that’s funny…. Wait you’re not serious, are you?”
Me: “Yeah kind of…”
Brittany: “Really, uh, OK, I guess we could try…”

A photo of Shavano that Brittany took on March 31. The “angel of Shavano” is located in the gully facing the photo, arms outstretched upwards:

We made our way towards the trailhead and were stopped by a snowbank 2 miles short of the summer trailhead. (We didn’t know that there is a way around this if you make a few different turns.) At 12:15pm we started hiking up the road, almost 5,000’ and 5 miles away from the summit.

Frank, skinning up towards the bottom of the angel snowfield.

Climbing the angel:

A little before 6 pm, I summited and started taking some photos from the summit.

Salida, basking in the sun as always

Brittany joined me shortly- this photo shows the Sangre de Cristos in the background, shrouded in clouds

Frank:

The skiing was really good, with skiable powder-filled snow patches leading us down to the angel snowfield

Frank:

By the time I started taking photos of Brittany, it was getting darker and I should have changed my camera settings, but we were obviously in a hurry to get off the mountain:

Silhouette:

I did what I could in photoshop, but the photos are obviously super grainy:

All in all, it was a super fun week, despite the days spent doing my taxes

Happy thanksgiving and here’s an old one…

Mt. Princeton 14,197’
Solo
April 2, 2007

On the summit

Harvard and Columbia

The unmistakable hulk of Uncompahgre in the distance, maybe 100 miles away.

This shows the ascent route, following the summer trail. This was without question one of the most tedious climbs ever, with variable snow covering the talus below. The wind was usually a gentle breeze, but every once in a while it would pick up and blow me to the ground for bonus points.

Doesn’t look too bad from this angle:

Here’s some of my turns, looking back up the route. The top was variable, but there was a powdery middle and a corny bottom

Looking at Princeton afterwards, from Highway 285. The relief of this mountain is impressive, and it’s a very aesthetic peak, but it’s not very interesting as a ski or even as a climb. Of the 54, this one ranks near the bottom.

Quandary Peak 14,265’
Partners: Andy Dimmen, Scott Yost, Scott McDaniel
April 7, 2007

After a couple of days of tax fun it was time to head back to the mountains. Even though the weather on Saturday looked pretty marginal, I thought that Quandary might not be a bad idea. After all, it gets so much traffic there’s pretty much a highway to the top, and there’s barely any avalanche danger on the standard route, so it was at least worth a shot. I recruited my friend Scott McDaniel from Boulder, who is headed to the Bolivian Andes in June. I knew he needed to get out, because he has been far too busy starting a new business and hasn’t had nearly enough time getting strong for Bolivia. Scott Yost(who joined me on the Needle and Uncompahgre) is going with Scott M to Bolivia, so he said he would make the drive from Crested Butte to meet us. Andy was looking to ski Quandary as well, so I contacted him and he met up with us as well.

Skinning up the ridge

We chose to go down the Cristo couloir on the south side. There was a short section of rock that we traversed across near the top of the couloir, but otherwise it was filled in nicely. The snow, however, was as bad as it can be. A 2” crust on top of powder on top of ice. Nice.

Looking down:

Scott M making the snow look pretty decent while dropping the knee.

Andy making things look a lot better than they were.

Another old 14er TR that needed to get updated and put on this site. Not much else to do as I suffer through day 3 of the Swine Flu…

March 4, 2007
Partners: Brittany, Chris Webster, Pete Sowar, John Jasper,Pam Rice

Approx 14 miles
Approx vert: 6500’
Start: 5:30am
Finish: 9:30pm

Last week was clearly the week of the year in Crested Butte. With around 3 feet of snow at the area, and double that in the backcountry, we gorged on powder everyday until we could barely stand. Sadly, all that snow in the backcountry was just waiting for a trigger to send it down the mountain, and the ski area was no longer holding freshies by the weekend. Another plan was needed to make the most of a valuable ski day. Sitting in the rain shadow of the San Juans, the Sangre de Cristo range received barely any snow all week, so plans were made for an attempt on the S couloir of Crestone Peak.

Pete, Jasper, and myself headed down from Crested Butte and picked up Brittany in Salida. Chris and Pam secured our lodging in the little town of Crestone, where we met up. One of the joys of climbing fourteeners is finding yourself in a town like Crestone, where a hippy burning incense in the middle of the road with a pile of magic crystals wouldn’t seem even remotely out of place. Seriously, the place is weird.

Our trailhead was low like many in the Sangres- just 8,420’. We were still able to skin up the patches of snow available at that elevation, but the going was slow. Even below treeline, the occasional cliffband had to be negotiated.

Pete and Jasper were out front, just charging their way through the forest. Eventually the going got easier and we started making good time.

Pico Asilado, and yes, the line does go…

Looking back…

By now though, we were all starting to wonder if we had made a mistake. The southern “wall” of the Crestones should be dominating our view to the left, but there were only lesser summits to be seen anywhere. We hadn’t seen Chris or Pam in quite a while, and Chris had the map. We had blown it, of that we were now sure, and Chris had correctly left this nice big valley and gotten into the correct one an hour or two previously. Personally, I had given up on the day, but Pete, Brittany, and Jasper all wanted to at least climb up to a visible col a few hundred vert above and at least see what could be seen. I reluctantly changed my mind and decided to follow. Halfway up the col, Crestone Needle announced its’ presence and it was obvious that the correct valley was just on the other side of the col.

We made the col and realized that we had been given a second chance, because all we had to do was drop a few hundred feet of vert and we would be at the base of the couloir.

Jasper at the col, Needle right, Peak left.

Needle close-up

We got to the base of the couloir and found Chris and Pam, who had only been there for 15 minutes! It turns out that even the right way is no walk in the park. The climb:

Note the sand dunes and the Blanca group in the background:

The top 200’ was exposed mixed climbing, but thankfully the Crestone conglomerate yields many choices for hand holds. Pam nearing the summit, with the famous pink pants behind.

At this point it was after 3pm and it was time to get going.
You can see Pikes way off in the distance:

The San Luis valley. The trailhead is in the lower left, where the trees start at the edge of the valley.

The ski alternated between rock hard chalk, breakable crust, and windswept frozen features. The couloir was shaded by now, so we don’t have too many ski shots (all of mine are blurry), but here’s a few decent ones:

Chris:

me:

Negotiating the crux:

Further reinforcement that it’s not easy getting to the base of Crestone:

The sun began to set on the peaks, and we still had a LONG ways to go.

We went under this cool overhang and saw some crystal ice-art:

We had no choice but to make our way through the forest in the dark via moonlight and headlamps. The snow was rotten, there were downed trees everywhere, and creekbeds and cliffs to negotiate. Still, the frozen waterfalls were cool and it wasn’t too cold at all and we all made it out OK.

Surprisingly, the bar in Crestone was open and serving cold sandwiches. A cold sandwich seemed completely unappealing, however, so we left Pam and Chris to their wonder-bread sandwiches and raced towards Salida. Pete was traveling at the insane speed of 70 in a 65 when we got pulled over. The cop took 10 or 15 minutes to give him a warning and we got to Salida at 11:04. In other words, 4 minutes too late to even get a hamburger at McDonalds. The only choice available was 7-11. I don’t know what time that hot dog went on the rollers, I don’t know what’s in the squeeze chili, I don’t know what the squeeze cheese is actually made of, but I do know that it was one of the most delicious and satisfying meals ever!

All in all it was a great and satisfying way to spend Jasper’s birthday. Thanks to Brittany and Pete for sending me their photos to add to my own for this TR. More photos on Chris’ site:
Link