Category: Thrillhead archive- June 2008

Sean Crossen’s 14er skiing video

Posted by Frank – July 21, 2008

Crossen 14er video

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

Castle Peak South Face from Cumberland Basin 6.29.08

Posted by Frank – June 29, 2008

The south face of Castle is something I’ve wanted to ski for a long time. It’s a line that is highly visible from the Crested Butte area, yet has only been skied a handful of times due to difficult access. In late March, when I skied Teocalli, I snapped this photo of Castle. On Sunday, we went up the blue route and skied the red one.

At this point in the season, alpine starts are tougher to motivate for, so Brittany and I met up with Andy where he was camping up Brush Creek at the crack of 6:45. From there, my truck had another hour+ of difficult 4wd road to get through. This is why this line doesn’t get skied much- the river crossings were pretty scary, and my truck basically floated over the 2 deepest river crossings. Eventually, we hit a roadblock- this guy high-centered and must have had a long walk out:

The stuck truck was basically at the point we needed to get to anyway- Cumberland Basin. The wilderness has long since reclaimed the road in this valley, but there were faint trails in the area that got us through the willows without too much difficulty.

The low-lying clouds were hiding our objective and made for an especially scenic morning:

Brittany, Teocalli in the background:

Eventually we were under the face of Castle. This is an amazing place- it really reminded me a lot of the high basin under North Maroon.

Since we were off to such a leisurely start, we opted to climb the more W-facing couloir instead of our descent route. Andy:

Brittany and I:

Brittany topping out on the ridge:

Fifteen minutes later, we summited. The Elks still have an incredible amount of snow:

We walked down the ridge a little bit, then dropped into our line. The snow was a little suncupped, runneled, and occasionally icy, but for the end of June, it was pretty good. Frank:

Brittany:

Andy:

Frank:

Andy getting his angle:

Brittany got good photos of gb, too:

As we came out of the “banana” part of the route and into the tight exit couloir, we came right under a waterfall. Summer skiing at its’ finest:

Frank (waterfall upper left of couloir)

Andy:

Brittany:

On our way out, we checked out the old mining ruins. Lou Dawson had a good write-up last summer about these ruins. [url]http://www.wildsnow.com/?p=872[/url]

A view of the face on the way out:

We got back to our shoes and started the hike out. The water level on the little streams we had crossed on the way up had gone up noticeably:

Brittany in the lower valley:

The drive down valley was equally scenic:

In my hurry to get going in the morning, I had neglected to get gas. So I ran out of gas, but thankfully it was almost to Andy’s car, and he was nice enough to run into town and get a gallon of gas for me. Otherwise, it was a great ending to what was, by far, the best season I’ve ever had. Yes, I know there’s still snow to ski, and I’m sure Andy will keep getting after it, but I like to end things on a high note whenever I can (North Maroon last year), and this face of Castle will get me through the summer, no problem. I guess that means it’s officially bike season for me.

Crested Butte adds more Terrain next season!

Posted by Frank – June 25, 2008

Crested Butte Mountain Resort just announced via a press release that Teocalli 2 and Teocalli 2 and a half bowls will be open next winter. This terrain lies to the skier’s right of the already open Teocalli bowl. From what I’ve seen of Teo2, it looks like a pretty fun area- probably better than Teocalli, which is not an area that I go to very often. Even if it isn’t that good, new terrain should further thin out the crowds and leave the other areas fresher for longer, so I’m stoked!

We toured into this area in January. Unfortunately, my camera batteries died, so this is the only shot I have of the area:

You can faintly see the ropeline on the upper right hand side of the ridge (this is the current ski area boundary– Teocalli bowl). Now, if they could just give us a gate so we could ski down to Brush Creek, then we would really be talking.

Movie Review: Fire On The Mountain

Posted by Frank – June 24, 2008

I recently watched Fire On The Mountain, The Story of The 10th Mountain Division. It’s a great documentary of the 10th mountain division, which was formed as WW2 approached. While their accomplishments in WW2 in Northern Italy and the battle of Riva Ridge (a run at Vail is named Riva Ridge for this), what these soldiers did after the war and their effect on skiing and other outdoor sports is astounding.

Here’s a partial list:
founded Vail ski area
founded Aspen ski area
Sierra club director
founded NOLS, the National Outdoor Leadership school
co-founder of Nike

There are too many ski school directors and others to even begin to name them all. Skiing in the USA wouldn’t be the same if it weren’t for these soldiers. Some of the trips around Camp Hale, CO (near Leadville and Vail) were pretty incredible- spending weeks ski traversing above treeline in the dead of winter. All the more amazing considering their 80lb packs and gear of the day.

If you get a chance, see this movie.

Light Skis: Worthless Descenders June 20 2008

Posted by Frank – June 20, 2008

I’ll probably do a few blog entries this summer, about ski gear that I think is silly and/or misguided, and I’ll start with this one: light skis.

The lightest pair of skis I own is a pair of Black Diamond Verdicts (the older black and orange ones, I hear the new ones are better). From what I understand, they are very light for their width (98mm underfoot- the skinniest ski I own as well). What I do know about this ski is that they ski more poorly than any of my other skis. Their shape isn’t all that bad, so what I have come to realize is that their biggest drawback is their weight. Light skis sound great in theory- less to carry up all those fourteeners, right? The only problem is that you then have to ski down…

What is it that makes light skis ski so poorly? In a word (more accurately, two): tip deflection. The smallest inconsistency in the snow will knock a light ski all over the place, whereas a heavy one will keep on truckin’. As a former racer, my ski technique is simple- I just roll onto my edges and expect my skis and body position to do the work. That doesn’t work with light skis- I have to use a lot of foot steering to keep a light ski on the track I want it to be on. Without question, I feel my lower legs getting fatigued due to all the foot steering I do when I ski the Verdicts.

The moral of the story? The next time you’re shopping for skis, don’t worry about each and every gram. It might be a little more work on the way up, but it’s so worth it on the way down. At least that’s the way I see it.

Anyone care to agree or disagree? Comments…

The Last Little bit of Snow

Posted by Frank – June 16, 2008

:(

I’ve been closely watching the snow melt in front of my building. Yesterday, the remains of what was once a proud and gigantic pile of snow finally gave up the ghost, succumbing to the high temps of what is now almost summer. Here’s a couple of photos in its’ honor:

For me, it was sad to see the snow go. It’s just another sign that this amazing winter and spring are leaving and being replaced by summer. Summer is OK and all, but I really wouldn’t be sad if we entered another ice age and summer was replaced by snowfall all year long. Summer sports just aren’t as much fun!

A new lift in the Wasatch?

Posted by Frank – June 10, 2008

First, the background. Go here: TT thread and here: TGR thread

I’ve got to admit, I really have no idea why the Utah folks are so upset about this. The Wasatch front is home to a bunch of ski area, all within a short drive from Salt Lake City. The Wasatch is small, it gets a lot of use, being so near the second largest city in the rocky mountains, but that’s part of the appeal- there are so many lifts and easily accessed backcountry that skiers flock there.

But it is what it is. Folks in WA and BC shouldn’t complain about rain and poor visibility- that’s part of the deal living there. CO people can’t complain about boring terrain (everywhere except Crested Butte and Silverton). Live in Jackson, WY?- go ahead and accept the fact that your ski pass will cost a billion dollars and your season is unbelievably short. The Wasatch has lifts everywhere, one more isn’t going to make it seem like some “wilderness” in the shadow of Salt Lake City has been lost. At least that’s how I see it.

The Damage done- checking out a winter’s worth of avalanches

Posted by Frank – June 3, 2008

At this point in the year, it’s always interesting to check out what new avalanche paths have been created or expanded. Their power to uproot huge trees is always amazing to see. Despite the huge winter this year, I think there were bigger slides in 2005, when we had nearly a 100″ storm at new year’s, which fell on a week snowpack and started an avalanche cycle that took out 100 year old trees in some cases. Here’s a few photos from the Sneffels/ Yankee boy area:

A close-up of the shot above. That’s a telephone pole.

These trees on the approach to Chicago Basin weren’t part of a slide, but they did bend and break from this years’ heavy snowfall:

Back to Sneffels:

One more from Chicago basin:

Whiterock on 2/9 (photo CB Avalanche center)

Same slide, June 1st:

I’m sure as bike season starts to begin again in the high country, we’ll be finding even more evidence of the power of moving snow. In the meantime, there’s still good skiing to be had!

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.