I’ve been working on updating my fourteener trip reports page and the Mt. Wilson/El Diente trip was in dire need of an update. I carried my video camera that day, so I only have a few photos from a disposable camera that Jeremy Wegner brought along. At some point in the future, I hope to edit the video and get it on youtube or vimeo. But for now, we’ll stick with words and photos.

After our ski descent of Wilson Peak the previous week, we knew the Wilson group was holding better snow than most years, and the chance of getting summit ski descents was better than average. At the time, I had no plans of skiing all the 14ers, but Mount Wilson and El Diente both offered sufficiently aesthetic and challenging lines to motivate me for a return trip.

We made good time, mostly on foot, up the Silver Pick approach on our way to the Rock of Ages saddle. Our running shoes were stashed near treeline and the view from the saddle looked good:

We chose to ski El Diente first, since that route faces slightly East (but mostly North) and would be the first to soften up. The climb up the face was mostly straightforward until the end, when we were faced with either climbing the difficult ridge or following the exposed snow ramp that leads to the summit. With Chris Davenport’s group’s tracks from 2 weeks ago still quite visible, we chose the snow ramp.

While easy climbing, the exposure was still tremendous. I called my mom from the summit, since it was Mother’s Day, but I didn’t tell her I was about to ski a steep and exposed line. We were easily able to ski off the summit, something which hadn’t become the accepted norm at the time. The skiing was excellent corn that had already baked to perfection and we regrouped at the bottom of the valley to survey the scene on Mount Wilson.

Our plan was working well as we started back up, with the slightly less sun exposed slopes of Mount Wilson remaining mostly frozen and bootable. Once again, the going was quite easy until we got within 100′ or so of the summit, at which point the climbing got quite difficult. While short and less exposed than others, these last few moves were harder than any other 14er except Pyramid and Capitol.

Like El Diente, Lou Dawson had not skied off the exact summit of Mount Wilson during his 14er project, but Davenport had been able to ski off the exact summit just a couple of weeks ago. We could see his tracks, which appeared to be straightline for about 40′ into a big sweeping turn, but that option was no longer available since much of the East facing snow had melted out there. We were left to either billygoat a short section with our skis on, or do a difficult downclimb of the terrain we had just ascended. I chose to put the skis on, simply because I’m more comfortable with them on. About 10′ of this:

Got me into a position where I was able to pivot off my tails and do my own straightline into more snowy and open terrain. That was a fun move! We made our way through a mini-col to the north face and once again skied near perfect corn to the valley floor. A quick snow shower blew in while we reascended the Rock of Ages saddle, where more quality corn skiing awaited us. Mount Wilson and El Diente make for a great two-fer of skiing with some pretty good access, and are a great tune-up for the toughest peaks like Pyramid and Capitol.

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.