Category: Thirteeners

Jenkins Mountain 13,432′ 6.12.11

Posted by Frank – June 23, 2011

Jenkins Mountain is the westernmost summit along the ridge of peaks looming North above Taylor Park. The peak is named for James Jenkins, a miner who founded the mining camp of Pieplant (1896-1910) at the base of the mountain. Years ago a friend of mine observed what appeared to be a nice looking couloir on the North side of the mountain, but the line is generally pretty hidden and Jenkins isn’t all that popular, so nobody seemed to have much information on it. Then Google Earth came around, and once again, this line appeared to have a lot of promise. Still, it took another couple of years before Brittany and I finally decided it was time to at least take a look. We were glad we did.

We started off around 10,300′ at the old Pieplant townsite. There are a number of well-preserved buildings in the area, and the well-marked Timberline trail heads straight towards Jenkins from there. Apparently the town was named for a Rhubarb-like plant which grows wild in the area, which local miners made pies out of.
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The old mining trail seen above leads straight to treeline on Jenkins, and even after switching to ski boots we made the summit in just under 3 hours. Jenkins is one of those great summits that “connects the dots”, geographically speaking. The central Sawatch range couldn’t be any clearer from this vantage point- Clear Creek with the ghost towns/ trailheads of Winfield and Vicksburg to the East, 14er La Plata and popular ski peak Sayres just to the North of that, and even the high 13er Grizzly and Lincoln Creek looking close enough to touch. La Plata/ Clear Creek:
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Taylor Reservoir:
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Castle and Cathedral:
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Some exploration near the summit revealed that Jenkins actually has a number of fine couloirs that drop off the North side into Church Basin, so we chose the steepest, cleanest looking one a little bit East of the summit. We dubbed it the “Belltower Couloir”, since it drops into Church Basin. Frank:
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Golden Tops North Face and Cassi Peak SW Couloir 6.5.11

Posted by Frank – June 9, 2011

With Gothic road open to the Judd Falls trailhead as of 6/3/11, Brittany and I were ready for the change of scenery (so to speak) and set our sights on a couple of goals in the upper Rustler’s Gulch area. I had skied the aesthetic South Couloir of Golden Tops (UN 13,260′) a couple of years ago, and had been wanting to go back to ski the North side. Our plan also included either Precarious or Cassi Peak (UN 13,232′), one of the few peaks in the area I hadn’t yet summited.

Brittany climbing towards the basin underneath Golden Tops. Trail 403 is in the forested area behind her. It’ll be a while…
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South Maroon. We tried this peak a couple of days later on 6/7/2011. Unfortunately, we found it to be in rough condition. More on that later…
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Brittany climbing the South Couloir of Golden Tops:
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Spider Face to The White Widow 5.31.11

Posted by Frank – June 2, 2011

Now that snowline has begun its relentless upward creep towards the highest peaks, access is becoming more difficult and it’s time to set our sights on different zones. Springtime typically means the Gothic valley for Crested Butte ski mountaineers, but the heavy snowfalls we’ve had this spring have greatly delayed the opening of the road. With the road partially melted, unplowed, and still gated, the only choice was to go in with bikes.
photo John Jasper
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Our goal for the day was the Spider Face. Brittany and I tried to ski this same line last spring, but found a little too much water ice for our tastes. With this year’s deep snowpack, we hoped that much of the ice would still be covered by snow. This photo is from 6-5-11, just a few days later:
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Little Alaska Five Peak Tour 5.8.11

Posted by Frank – May 16, 2011

After consecutive days on Pyramid, Sopris, and Ruby chute, Brittany and I were joined by Tom Runcie and we set our sights on “Little Alaska”. Little Alaska is an informal name given by Marble-area skiers for the group of peaks in the upper Yule Creek valley which are quite impressive from the Marble zone. Lou has a great panorama shot of the area on Wildsnow. For Crested Butte skiers, there is an all-too-brief period when this zone is easily accessible via snowmobile once the snow is set up enough for both traction and avalanche stability. On my previous trips to ski “The Blob” and “Ant“, the weather hadn’t been overly cooperative and I had to settle for some low-visibility ski descents, but thankfully that wasn’t the case on this near-perfect day.

So often on my snowmobile, I’m reminded of “Oh, The Places You’ll Go!” by Dr. Seuss. I really love my snowmobile. Best piece of ski gear I own. Tom:
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Brittany:
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Time for bootpack #1, Purple Mountain:
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Italian Subs (Umm, Yummy) 4.16.11

Posted by Frank – April 20, 2011

Italian Mountain is a large massif at the head of both Cement Creek and the Taylor River. Last year, while skiing Taylor Peak, I spotted a number of lines off of Cement’s unnamed sub-peaks. My friends Ben and Luke recently skied one of these lines, so armed with that beta Pete, Josh, Brett and I went up to check it out. The line:
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This area of the Elks borders the Sawatch range, and is correspondingly dryer and windier than what we’re used to in the snow-favored areas closer to Crested Butte. Shallower snowpacks tend to slide more, and we observed a number of large slides on generally East-facing terrain on peaks like Hunter Hill, Doubletop, and Italian. The slides didn’t look too recent and we were skiing different aspects, but it was still something to take note of. As always, future lines popped up everywhere. Pete and I have been eying this one for years:
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Teocalli North Face and West Face Combo 4.15.11

Posted by Frank – April 19, 2011

The North face of Teocalli has been on my list for quite some time, ever since Pete Sowar and I traversed under it when we skied the NE and W faces in 2008. Last Friday, things finally worked out to give it a go, along with Brittany, Pete, and Josh Macak. The USGS library has this great photo of Teocalli Mountain from 1973, taken by noone other than the famous William H Jackson. The notes on this photo are interesting: Teocalli Peak, from the Aztec teocalli, or sacrificial mound, that were always built in a pyramidal form, and which this mountain closely resembles. Is situated upon a small tributary of Red Rock Creek, flowing into East River. Its height is 13,274 feet. Gunnison County, Colorado. 1873.

Red Rock Creek is now known as Brush Creek, although I think I like Red Rock Creek better. Today, the official height is a little lower as well, at 13,209′. In any case, we quickly made our way up the south slopes and took a quick break at the start of the rock outcrops.
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Nearing the summit:
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One option we had in mind is the beautiful splitter couloir that drops off just before the summit:
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NE Face White/ S Face Whiterock/ S Face Red Rock Bowl (No Name) 4.5.11

Posted by Frank – April 8, 2011

North of Crested Butte lies the Whiterock massif, a collection of peaks in the mid-13,000′ range. Pete, Jasper, Josh, Howard and I hoped to link several faces together in a big day- the first climb alone, of 13,401′ White Benchmark, is over 4,000′ from the Snodgrass trailhead. We had traveled much of this ground before, linking up White and Whiterock back in 2009. In addition to these two peaks, we were also hoping to ski the Spider Face, a line which has been eluding me for years. Looks like it will have to wait a little longer…

We started off in the dark, skiing down to the East River via headlamp. As much as I hate the alarm clock going off well before dawn, once I’m up it’s hard not to admire the beauty of the early morning hours.
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Whetstone:
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Treasury Mountain: Wine Bottle Couloir and “Bear Cub Basin” 11.12.10

Posted by Frank – November 14, 2010

This past summer, I had a great view of the massive North Face of Treasure Mountain. This basin, called Bear Basin, drops over 4600′ from the 13,528′ summit of Treasure down to the townsite of Crystal. Needless to say, exploring this zone quickly vaulted to the top of my wish list:
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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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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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