Well, the end of calendar winter went out without so much as a whimper, with days on end of hot sunshine melting what has now become a fairly average snowpack in most CO mountains. Now that it is officially spring, snow has begun to fall once again. Though the Crested Butte ski area isn’t know for large snowfalls when storms come out of the NW, the surrounding backcountry can do quite well. Axtel may only be a few miles to the W of Crested Butte, but conditions couldn’t have been more different. Here’s the proof: Tom Runcie having the run of the year:

Where did Tom go?

UPDATE:
I thought I would add Tom’s photos of me as well:

Sean put this video together a while back documenting his efforts to ski all the fourteeners. While he ultimately came up a little bit shy, he put in a great effort and skied an awful lot of peaks in winter-like conditions, quite unlike my effort which tended to mostly occur in the spring. Lots of guest appearances from “The Crew”, too- guys like Pete and Jasper and Webster and even the O.G. Lou Dawson on El Diente. It’s well worth checking out, although perhaps with the music muted

Some highlights: Pete and his huge pack unable to mount his bike to get up the Maroon Creek road around 10:30. Faceplant!!! Wendy Fischer shredding Wetterhorn in early season conditions around 17:25

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:

Chris Webster, Pam Rice, Pete Sowar, Sean Crossen, me. 4.28.08

“You think you’re ready, you think you’re prepared. You know it’s going to be hard. And then you get there and… [silence]” -Ted M., paraphrased from a phone conversation last week after he and Al B. skied Capital.

I’ve had a long time to think about this mountain. We were within 4 or 5 hundred vertical feet two years ago, but the face was too hot. Chris and Pete had been even closer on another attempt. Last year, we never gave it a go- conditions were never what we had hoped they would be. For the past two weeks, we have been waiting, planning, watching, and hoping to get another chance. Saturday afternoon, we took the chance and headed out on the long drive to Aspen. Sean, Pete and I ate at the white house in Carbondale, where Lou came by to wish us luck. Then we drove up to Snowmass Village where Greg and g.r were kind enough to give us some couch space (Thanks guys!). Sunday morning, we started off from the Snowmass Creek trailhead at around 8,300′ with hopes of making it a few miles in to set up a basecamp. We met some guys coming back from a descent of Mt. Daly, so we had a skintrack to follow. They even found the summer trail:

Finally, we broke out of the forest and got a good look at the East face of Daly, which we also hoped to ski if things went well on Capital:

We set up camp right below Daly, next to a little opening in the snow where we could access the creek rather than melt snow. Sean started making fun of Pete and I as we tried to get our campsite perfectly level: “Hey guys, we need a level over here.” We all laughed, and then Chris comes over with his iphone, which had a level

With our perfectly flat campsite, we turned in around 8pm, and surprisingly I slept pretty well until our 2:30 wake-up call. The moon wasn’t huge, but it was still nice to have:

And then the sun came up:

Sunrise on Daly:

Rather than take the scary and time-consuming knife edge ridge from K2 all the way to the summit, we opted to climb our chute first, which would get us close to the summit without much difficult climbing. We headed to a notch in the ridge and dropped down the “one-in-a-million” couloir to Pierre Lakes basin, which is probably the most amazing alpine area I’ve ever been to. Now we got a look at what was ahead- all we have to do is get up there:

At this point, Sean called it a day. While he has tried Capital before, and knew what he was getting into, I guess he had to see it one more time before officially retiring from fourteener skiing, just a little shy of his goal. “I’ve got a kid, it changes you, it just does”, he said. Sean wished us well and we entered the secret chute (Chris and I):

Pete tops out on the secret chute:

Well, we’re closer. Just a few hundred feet to go…

I started leading this section, knowing that I would soon be the weakest link once the climbing got more difficult.

Chris and Pam:

Pete:

Then it was time for Pete to lead:

Chris and Pam had a conference at this point. While the climbing was well within their abilities, they were having a hard time picturing skiing down any of it. Eventually, they decided to continue. We watched while Pete led this steep snow pitch to regain the ridge, which I then followed.

And then, I cracked. That’s the only way to describe it. I’ve done plenty of exposed 4th class climbing, and I used to be able to lead 5.10 back when I climbed more often, but the exposure and the snow and the loose rock and the awkward skis did me in, and I cracked. From that point on the ridge onward, Chris had me tied in to a little 75′ rope on all the other rock pitches. Quite literally, I would not have made it without him (or Pete and Pam, for that matter). Pam, higher:

Pam nearing the summit:

self portrait on the summit:

At the trailhead, I made fun of Chris for having copies of “The Economist” and “The New Yorker” in his pack. So he decided to put them to good use:

It took 3 hours to get from ~13,600′ to the 14,130′ summit. It was now afternoon, but some high clouds in the morning and a steady breeze had kept the snow from getting too wet. Still, on one of my first turns I sent the top 3″ off the East face in a small wet slide. Sean must have had quite a view of that from the valley floor. This made us nervous, so we made lots of deliberate ski cuts, though nothing ever moved like the first one. Pete:

Chris:

back to Pete:

Hey look, there’s a cairn under my feet, we must be on route

Pam. Notice our ascent route:

me:

One short rappel through the top of the secret chute, and things felt considerably better. Gotta have a dav shot:

I have no idea how this cornice can stick there:

We did suffer one set back at this point, however. Pete’s ropes dug into the cornice when we tried to retrieve them, and try as we might, we could not free them. Given the time and temperature, we sadly ended up leaving them rather than climbing back up to retrieve them.. They were soon to be retired, but it was still a bummer. So if anyone goes up there, you’ve got some ropes to use, though Pete would of course like them back.

Pete skiing the secret chute:

me, enjoying some good snow in Pierre lakes basin:

A look back at the peak and our tracks:

Here I am heading towards the One-in-a-million couloir, so called because everything else is a wall of rock:

Sean had left before us, so we were excited to have a bootpack out. Pete in one-in-a-million:

Once at the top of the couloir, we had 2,000′ of corn and pow below us to get to the campsite. We decided to make a couple of calls and let people know we were OK:

Pam heads to camp:

Pete:

We climbed Daly the next day. This is what Capital looks like from there:

Perhaps someday that face will also see ski tracks. The S-shaped N-facing couloir goes from the ridge, it just needs a couple of raps out. Chris took this shot two years ago, and is the best view of our route:

“This Whitehorse has given me nightmares. This Whitehorse runs through my daydreams.” -Sky, regarding a difficult line on Whitehorse peak in the WA cascades.

It’s a strange game us ski mountaineers play. How many other activities can evoke so much fear while at the same time evoking so much excitement? Do “normal” people get sweaty palms and a lump in their throat thinking about their upcoming weekend activities of shopping and gardening and golfing or whatever? Many of these sought-after lines are only in shape a few days a year, or not at all, so long periods of time can go by where all you can do is think about the mountain, but you can’t ski it.

And so it is with Capital Peak for me. In 2006, we weren’t far away from summiting and skiing it. In 2007, we never liked the weather or snow conditions enough to even try it, so needless to say, I’ve had time to contemplate that mountain.

As I begin packing my things up today, it is with both a confident determination as well as a healthy dose of fear and respect.

He kind of bogged down at the sidehill, but crawled it up and over. Then it was my turn. I bogged down a few feet higher, with a little more sidehill, pulled uphill with everything I’ve got, but it wasn’t enough. My snowmobile started tipping, and it brought me with it. I got tossed downhill far enough for my sled to gain some momentum as it rolled sideways over me, and then started flipping end over end. Thankfully it righted itself and stopped before the next roll:

My left arm took the brunt of the hit, and it’s pretty swollen, but thankfully I was allright. The sled? Broken windshield, obviously, bent handlebar, and one of the skis twisted on its’ post, but that was easy to fix. All in all, it could have been a lot worse 20miles from the trailhead.

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

What a great weekend of people gettin’ er done in the Elks last weekend. Friday, a first descent of the E face of Thunder Pyramid was skied. Saturday, the North face of North Maroon got skied, Pyramid’s Landry line was both climbed and skied, and a group summited (S)Maroon as well (not sure if they were skiers or climbers)

Between 1929 and 1950, the area was a national monument and attracted pilgrimages and miraculous healings of all sorts. With the pope in the country, we decided that we should ski the cross in his honor.:D

Pete, Brittany and I thought it was just going to be the three of us, but at the last minute, Jeremy and Kellie decided they wanted to come along as well. Thankfully, Jeremy has a huge rig, so the four of us (minus Brittany, who was coming up on her own from the front range) piled in with all our gear and three sleds (photo from Minturn after skiing).

A friend of mine from high school bought a place in Vail with his sister, and said we could crash there. So the five of us roll in Friday night and as it turns out, some friends of his sister were staying there too! Thankfully, they were cool and didn’t mind us intruding on their romantic off-season getaway. After breakfast at Denny’s in Avon, we hit the trailhead around 6:30. The first 1/4 mile or so was plowed, but gated, which was kind of a pain in the butt, but after that it was smooth sailing up the groomed Tigiwon road for the 8 mile, 2,000′ snowmobile approach.

From there, we made our way through the forest to halfmoon pass, where we got our first view of Holy Cross:

The cross is on the left, while our ascent route is on the right hand (N)ridge.

From the pass, you have to descend almost 1,000′ down to East Cross creek. The snow here was still in the shade and frozen really, really solid, which made for an interesting descent which we all made in a “power-sideslip”.

The climb up to the North ridge was steep, but one of the best things about springtime is that you can really skin some steep slopes.

The ridge route proved to be really straightforward, and we were able to skin the entire way to the summit.

Kellie nearing the summit, with Sopris behind:

This area of the Sawatch is so much more rugged than the rest of the range, and we drooled over lots of lines in the area. UN 13,831′:

UN 13,346′, AKA Gold Dust Pk., AKA Finnagan Pk.:

If you look closely, you can see skiers on both Pyramid’s Landry line and the north face of North Maroon on this lovely Saturday.

The cross couloir drops off about 20′ from the summit, and was looking good:

Jeremy dropping in:

Pete:

Brittany:

me:

Jeremy:

Brittany:

The couloir was a little variable, you had to really stick to the skier’s right to find good snow. We had opted not to bring a rope and mess with rapping the lower part of the couloir, so we hit the exit and skied a really fun corn face down to the bowl of tears. Don Pedro nearing the exit:

Jeremy on the lower corn face:

me:

Pete, with the peak behind:

Coming out the valley, we looked up at the route and the cliff that prevents this couloir going in one clean shot:

The winds began picking up and we were glad to be off the summit:

We made our way down the valley and found the best snow of the day on this north facing slope: (me)

Kellie, getting a little airtime:

It was a steep, but scenic skin back up to the pass on the way out (Pete):

We made our way down some pretty fun meadows back to the snowmobiles and were back at the truck 10 hours after starting. It was a fun day out and a fun route, and I might just need to return sometime soon to ski some of the other lines in the area. I’m not sure if the area around E cross creek gets skied much in the winter, but it’s an area that I would visit if I lived in the area- lots of hucks and pillow lines to be had.

This face may warrant a return visit:

We skied the far left side of Redwell basin, something that I have had my eye on for years,although it wasn’t as steep as it looks from the summit of Emmons. Pete:

Luke:

Our tracks:

We then headed up the amazing Peeler basin towards Peeler Peak. The avalanche paths had us picturing huge slides snapping trees 30′ up:

It was about this time last year when we skied [URL=http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83655]Purple Peak:[/URL]

The winds were crazy this afternoon- Pete literally blew over on the summit of Peeler. Still, we found good North-facing snow (Luke):

Pete:

me:

Pete:

Luke:

Crossing the Slate River, heading home after a long day: