Category: Thirteeners

Mount Bellview 13,520′ 11.9.08

Posted by Frank – November 11, 2008

Brittany and I decided to head up Schofield pass Sunday morning for a little skiing and exploring. We knew we could ski Halloween bowl again, but were open to some other choices as well. Not far after I parked, we saw this stuck Tacoma which confirmed that I parked mine in a good place:
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At the top of the pass, we saw a skintrack heading up the popular 401 bike trail, and decided to follow that to the summit of Mt. Bellview. While we knew this would lead to a South facing slope which wouldn’t yield good skiing, we were in a mood to explore and headed up 401:
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Brittany nears the summit with Baldy in the background.
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Frank on the summit with Snowmass in the background
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Brittany on the summit with Crested butte in the background:
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The day before, a small storm deposited lots of rime ice on the vegetation not yet covered with snow:
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Precarious Peak to the NW:
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Maroon Bells, Bellview Mountain, and Pyramid:
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The mountains to the west (westernmost peaks of the Elks). I think they include Daly (not the one next to Capitol), Meadow Mountain, and Mt Richey. Anyone know for sure?
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The top of the run was pretty smooth wind affected snow, and actually skied quite nicely. Brittany:
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Frank:
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Lower down, the snow got thinner and more sun affected. while we still hit very few rocks, we were forced to make “gorilla turns” and get well away from the sun crust while turning:
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In the end, we had fun despite the pretty poor snow conditions. We’ve gotten a little snow since then, but we sure could use a couple of feet to really get this season going again.

Queen Basin/ Whiterock

Posted by Frank – June 1, 2008

pologies in advance for the lack of action shots…

I wasn’t in the mood to drive anywhere or put too much effort into anything given the weather forecast for temps which weren’t supposed to reach freezing. Brittany and I drove out the recently opened Gothic road to see what things looked like. In the evening light, one of my favorite routes anywhere, which we call “White Widow” looked melted out. As it turns out, it was still in except for a little bit at the top. Plan B was to ski “El Nacho”, something I skied in ‘97 or ‘98, but not since. My friends Luke and Jeremy decided to join us as well.

Brittany hiking, with Gothic mountain behind:

A little higher up, with Crested Butte behind:

Once we got a little higher, we determined that the Elks were indeed still holding snow in June:

I hadn’t been up high in this area for a while, so it’s always fun to get a different view. CB and Whetstone:

A HUGE slide occurred this winter (2-9-08) in the bowl below us. Here’s a couple of shots from the Crested Butte Avalanche center:

We could still see the evidence:

L-R, the many summits of Avery, Precarious, and Pyramid.

Different view of Maroon (S) (seen through the saddle):

Whiterock looks fun off the summit:

The old East Maroon wagon trail and pass are pretty obvious:

I was a little bummed that White Widow was mostly in, since it’s one of the best couloirs I’ve skied, but I guess we’ll hit it another day:

Our intended route, “El Nacho” looked pretty poor, so we changed plans a bit. Queen basin has a bunch of couloirs, called the ten little indians, so Jeremy picked one:

Brittany and I choose a fun hanging face instead:

Brittany:

We came out under El Nacho. Get it? Notch –> Notch-o –> El Nacho? Not sure who named it.

I was a little worried about crossing Copper creek, but it wasn’t too bad. Luke kept his helmet on, Safety First!! :D

The last time I skied this area, the skiing through the forest was a rotten mess. Sunday, even walking back through the patchy stuff after noon, the snow was still amazingly solid, even though it was a light freeze. I was only sinking in an inch or two, and the air temp felt like it was at least 60 by then. It’s amazing how a good snowpack stays good, and a bad one stays bad.

Mount Daly 4.29.08

Posted by Frank – April 29, 2008

After our success on Capital, we had the luxury of sleeping in until 6am to ski the magnificent E face of Mount Daly (13,300′), right above our camp. At least one group, if not two, had recently skied it before us, so we had a bootpack to follow in places where blowing snow hadn’t covered the tracks. The face:

The bootpack:

Even though it was cold and windy, it was hard not to hang out on top and check out the tremendous view of Capitol.

Great looking face:

Pete drops in:

A couple of me:

Pete, with the Bells and Pyramid behind:

Chris:

Pam:

Pete, letting it rip on perfect corn:

What a great couple of days, but it was time to pack up and leave our awesome campsite:

Star Peak 4-22-08

Posted by Frank – April 22, 2008

I can’t believe it’s taken my this long to climb or ski Star Peak (13,521′). It’s been on my to-do list, as it is very visible from hwy 135 south of Crested Butte:

After a long snowmobile ride up Cement creek, we parked the snowmobiles here:

In other words, our sleds were in the saddle on the left in this photo:

Not bad access, eh? Anyway, we traversed and skinned our way to the base of the East face, and then booted right up it:

From the summit, we had great views of Teocalli:

and the East face of Castle:

and Cathedral:

We waited on top for a while, waiting for things to soften up on the SW face, which is the face most visible from Crested Butte and the one we wanted to ski. Pete did some bowling,

and discovered that the face wasn’t even starting to thaw. So we decided to double down and ski the E face first, and then come back for the SW face a little later. Pete drops in:

me:

The corn was perfect, something that has been a rarity in this snow-filled season. We made a quick traverse and headed up the N ridge.

We were distinctly aware of how close we were to Aspen at this point. Ashcroft is in the valley top center.

The SW slopes were ready by the time we summited again, so Pete dropped in for seconds:

me:

The little dot would be Pete, exiting the route:

We still needed to get back to the sleds, but the N face of Crystal Peak (12,777′) looked so good, we decided to go for desert. Pete:

Looking back at Star, we had a great view of our lines on the right (E) and left (SW)

Pete gets first tracks again:

me:

See this sign:

That would be this sign:

Just thought I would point that out- one of the main reasons I mountain bike is just to add to my ski tick-list, so it was pretty cool to go back there. Here’s Brittany’s bike TR from that area:
TGR TR

Teocalli West Face

Posted by Frank – April 14, 2008

Same intro from a couple of weeks ago:

Teocalli mountain (13,209′) was named by the Hayden survey for its’ resemblance to aztec pyramids. Anyone driving from Gunnison to Crested Butte will surely notice this distinctive peak lying to the N about 2/3rds of the way up highway 135. Roughly 25% of the dogs in Gunnison county are named “Teo”. The south face is a local’s classic- both times I’ve skied it before, it had some of the best hero corn I’ve ever skied. But Teocalli is a skier’s mountain, and it is riddled with top-notch skiing possibilities on all aspects in addition to the S face (pictured).

After the lifts at Crested Butte shut down for the season on the 13th, we weren’t about to let the lack of lifts slow us down the following day. Pete and I had wanted to ski the West face of [URL=http://thrillheadcreations.com/forum/weblog_entry.php?e=108]Teocalli[/URL] a couple of weeks ago, so we brought Luke along to hit it up. A coyote decided to welcome us to the summit:

Knowing how good the North face routes are, it was hard not to drop in:

This side of Thunder Pyramid is screaming for a first descent:

Pete drops in:

Luke:

Pete:

Then he decides to make it look deep:

Luke again:

A couple of me:

Back to Pete:

Eye Candy:

The route:

Teocalli Twofer

Posted by Frank – March 28, 2008

Teocalli mountain (13,209′) was named by the Hayden survey for its’ resemblance to aztec pyramids. Anyone driving from Gunnison to Crested Butte will surely notice this distinctive peak lying to the N about 2/3rds of the way up highway 135. Roughly 25% of the dogs in Gunnison county are named “Teo”. The south face is a local’s classic- both times I’ve skied it before, it had some of the best hero corn I’ve ever skied. But Teocalli is a skier’s mountain, and it is riddled with top-notch skiing possibilities on all aspects in addition to the S face.

People usually ascend the climber’s right ridge. While ascending this ridge, climbers will pass a couple of steep, spectacular chutes that drop to the NE. The only problem is that descending these chutes will drop you into Middle Brush creek, which is difficult to access on a snowmobile due to a really nasty sidehill. So, Pete and I decided to try skiing down and then reascend Teocalli, where we hoped to ski the W couloir and reach our snowmobiles.

Pete on the skin:

and booting:

I’ve always liked the view of Crested Butte from here, with the North Face terrain front and center. Uncompahgre is visible in the far distance.

[URL=http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=92006]Star Pass[/URL] is in this photo. Last night, starting at midnight, competitors in the 10th annual [url=http://www.elkmountaintraverse.org/index.html]Elk Mountain Grand Traverse[/url] had to make their way over the pass on their way to Aspen (~40mi)

We had a great view of the S face of Castle. Pete made the first descent of this face a few years ago, trending skier’s right, then skier’s left on the super-exposed ramp and into the central couloir. The two couloirs on the looker’s right can be linked up with the East face. Jasper and Geo may have been the first to do this route a couple of years ago.

A little short of the summit, we arrived at our couloir:

The entrance was not as simple as most, and we took some time checking it out. We started on the right and then weaved our way through the rock bands until we could enter the couloir proper.

Pete drops in:

Wait, where am I going again?

Woohoo, Pete’s in!

Then I made my way through.

The couloir wasn’t as powdery as we had been hoping for, but it was still plenty carveable. Pete:

Me:

Pete enjoying the best snow of the day down in the apron. Our chute is the improbable looking one in the center, while another one is off looker’s left and there is a nice, straightforward one off the summit.

The route:

Our original plan was to ski down valley a little ways and then come up Teo ridge and rejoin our route from the morning. But the col between Teocalli and UN 12,934′ seemed like a better and more interesting option, so we headed the way.

This way was indeed fun, as it brought us deeper into the wilderness and farther from our sleds. We passed right under the N face of Teocalli, which has even more high-quality lines.

Once on the N ridge, we admired the surrounding mountains and their possible lines. Unfortunately, our bluebird day was turning gray, so the photo quality goes down from here on out.

A unique view of Snowmass, Capital, and Maroon:

Our route up the N ridge of Teocalli looked daunting from the col.

Pete cruised right up the snowy chossy exposed mess, while I struggled and cursed my way up. Pete:

Anyway, we made it up and by then, the skies had really gotten cloudy. This prevented our hoped for run #2 from ever softening up, so I guess the W couloir will have to wait for another day. Not a great picture of it, but it’s here:

We skied down the S face, which had softened up a little bit in the morning when there was sun, but it was far from being hero corn. We took a couple of shots despite the poor lighting conditions. Pete:

Sometimes mountains make me feel small:

Yesterday was one of the better days I’ve had in a while, despite the turn for the worse in terms of weather. I should be out skiing right now, since we’re getting some snow, but yesterday kicked my butt, especially since I got to carry the rope which we never used (but was glad to have)