Category: Thrillhead archive- May 2008

Hi, My name is Winter and I have Returned 3.25.09

Posted by Frank – March 25, 2009

Axtel 2nd Bowl
Tom Runcie and myself
3.25.09

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:
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Where did Tom go? :)
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UPDATE:
I thought I would add Tom’s photos of me as well:

Springtime Access

Posted by Frank – May 27, 2008

Well, we’re getting deeper and deeper into the shoulder season when accessing the peaks can start to get difficult. As the snow melts, many of the access roads reach an annoying state where there’s too much snow to drive, and too little to snowmobile. It’s just as difficult on foot- skis go on, skis go off, skis go on, skis go off. River crossing which were once easy become more difficult after the snowbridges melt. Worst of all are the gated roads like the one to Maroon lake, which is tough to swallow since it is paved and therefore won’t get trashed like a muddy dirt road can in the spring.

There are bright spots. In the San Juans, county road crews plow several roads, including Cinnamon Pass, Engineer Pass, and Yankee Boy Basin in an effort to draw tourists. Mt. Evans is now open to Summit Lake. Independence Pass will be open soon.

Brittany and I used the plowed Yankee Boy Basin road to our advantage on Memorial day. Four hours and fifteen minutes was all it took for a quick summit and descent of the birthday chutes on Sneffels. I’ll try to get a TR up for that tomorrow…

Mt. Sneffels Birthday Chutes. 5.26.08

Posted by Frank – May 26, 2008

Mt Sneffels. 14,150′

There are a number of different fourteeners that I don’t mind re-doing at all to help Brittany reach her goal of skiing all of them as well. Sneffels, with its’ great access and multitude of terrific routes, is one of them. It also helps that it’s only a couple of hours away.

With a little bit of new snow last week, we were hoping that the North facing Snake couloir would be holding powder. We also knew that road crews had been working to get the road open high into Yankee Boy basin, making for a relatively short day. So we headed that way Sunday afternoon. Sneffels, from outside Montrose:

Then we made our way through spectacular Ouray:

Onward through the freshly cleared road:

To the end of the road, where we camped in my truck:

There was a slight bit of snow on the road:

Unfortunately, neither of us slept well, partially because the truck was constantly buffeted by high winds. When the alarm went off, the clouds above seemed to be racing by at 100mph, and the wind on the ground didn’t seem much better. Oh well, we’ll give it a go anyway, we thought.

Skinning up Yankee Boy:

The clouds were putting on a good show over Teakettle and Potosi, however:

We decided to climb the standard Lavender col route. The col is named for Dwight Lavender. Born in Telluride c. 1911, Lavender is credited with a number of first ascents in the San Juans, including the first ascent of the Snake couloir in 1932. He was considered the driving force of the San Juan Mountaineers, which put up tons of new routes in the San Juans between 1929 and 1936. He graduated from Stanford, where he manufactured the United States’ first piton. Sadly, at the age of 23, he died of polio. (Info from “Roof of the Rockies” by William M Bueler)

The wind was fierce and I was literally blown to the ground a couple of times.

This rock step is the crux of the route, and the wind certainly made it more interesting:

Telluride:

We looked down into the Snake and saw some tracks from a day or two earlier. Combined with the relentless wind which was making for a less than ideal situation, we decided to ski the S facing Birthday chutes instead of rappelling into the Snake. Besides, I had already skied the Snake and skiing the Birthday chutes might be deemed more legit in terms of my completed 14er project in somebody’s eyes. Looking down into the Snake:

The clouds and wind hadn’t allowed the Birthday couloirs to soften much, but they were still fun. Brittany:

And a few of me:

Skiing the apron, with the birthday chutes above:

All in all, not the greatest conditions, but the nice part was that we were done in just over 4 hours. That was certainly a welcome change from the typical 12 hours or more that many fourteeners take.

Now What?

Posted by Frank – May 23, 2008

In the wake of skiing all the 14ers, lots of people have been asking me what I plan to do next. Are you going to try to ski CO’s 100 highest? Are you going to ski all the 14ers in the continental USA?

Right now, I’m not interested in having any goals, other than to keep skiing lines that are fun. It’s been too long since I traveled someplace for some skiing. Ideally, I’d like to get myself someplace like northern India or Peru or Bolivia. I guess I better start saving up some money to make that happen. Closer to home, perhaps next spring should be a road trip to Bishop, CA to ski the Eastern Sierra, or perhaps Jackson Hole to ski classics like Mt Moran’s Skillet glacier.

Anyone out there have some good destination suggestions for me?

Final Fourteener: Harvard 5-17-08

Posted by Frank – May 18, 2008

Mount Harvard 5.17.08

I’m really not sure what to say. As many of you know, I’ve been skiing a lot of fourteeners the last couple of years, and Harvard ended up being the last. I’m not sure what I feel about that right now, one thing I know for sure is that nothing is “done”- I’ve still got so many peaks left to climb and ski, some of them over 14k, some of them not. Another thing I know is that it’s been a heck of a journey.

I’ll end up leaving somebody or something out, so I’ll say this: Thanks to everyone who gave me a place to crash, or posted a TR or answered a pm with helpful beta, or skied a peak with me, or helped in any other way. Thanks to all of you.

“Don’t get me wrong; you won’t see me skiing Bross or Sherman anytime soon”
—That’s what I posted almost 2 years ago to the day, 5-19-08. Of course, about a week later I skied my first peak with Brittany, and the next thing you know, I’m skiing Bross and Sherman (which were actually really fun, like all the 14ers). So that’s how it was for me- I was hitting some of the fun lines here and there, and then all of a sudden I was ticking them off one by one, as fast as I could. So thanks, Brittany, for setting those wheels in motion, I’m sure we’ll be hitting some more of them together real soon :)

Moving on…
We were able to make it to the North Cottonwood trailhead (barely) and we started skinning a little after 5am. We were joined by 2 splitboarders, a tele-er, and a couple of dogs, too. Eventually we got out of the trees and saw the goal for the day (Brittany skinning):

We were able to skin all but the last 20 feet or so. Along the way, I saw these guys:

I figured I should bring something up to the summit to celebrate, it ended up being a Guinness :)

Brittany and I:

Our friends for the day:

This side of Oxford and Belford could be fun:

Brittany rips it up:

Columbia in the background:

Yale in the background with me skiing. (We brought a video camera, so not many shots of me)

One last look at Harvard:

The snow in the trees was already getting pretty manky, otherwise this “bobsled run” in the trees probably would have been fun:

A lot of people have asked, “Why Harvard?” for my last one. It just ended up that way. I knew I didn’t want Capitol to be last, but other than that, Harvard was just luck of the draw. I will say that it was nice to have a mellow one to finish up on, even if it was a bit anticlimactic.

24 hours of Hockey

Posted by Frank – May 12, 2008

Starting tonight at 6:30, my brother Steve will be participating in “24 hours of Hockey”. For those of you who have never played hockey, rest assured that playing 24 straight hours of hockey is extremely physically demanding. I have a feeling that by the end of the day on Saturday, Steve’s 45th birthday, he’s going to be feeling very, very old ;)

Here’s the website:

  • Category: Miscellaneous, Random Thoughts, Thrillhead archive- May 2008
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    • Chicago Basin Part 4: Windom Peak 14,082′ 5-11-08

    Posted by Frank – May 11, 2008

    Chicago Basin Part 4: Windom Peak 14,082′ 5-11-08
    After gearing up again in the high basin between Sunlight and Windom, we started booting up towards the West ridge of Windom, since the North face looked surprisingly thin for such a deep year.

    As with Eolus and Sunlight, the top of Windom got a little rocky and needed some negotiating. Brittany:

    Eventually, we were on our second summit of the day. Jordan:

    We skied off the top for a few feet, but then came back up to this snowy point, which is the same height as the summit anyway.

    I got to descend first. The fluted-like wind lip entrance of the widowmaker couloir was really fun:

    Jordan was the next to enjoy the entrance:

    Brittany’s turn:

    Jarrett a little lower:

    A couple of me after the choke:

    Jordan lower in the couloir:

    Here’s a view of our ascent and descent routes:

    The next morning it was time to leave beautiful Chicago Basin. Brittany crossing one of the many avalanche paths:

    My “angry midget” was starting to scare me- it had learned to stand on its’ own :)

    Brittany crossing the bridge:

    My turn:

    We had some time to kill at Needleton, but thankfully we had remembered the most important part of the journey and had stashed some beers in the cold Animas river:

    This guy came cruising by on his little train cart. Kind of a cool job- heading out before the train to make sure there’s no rockfall or anything on the tracks.

    Then the train came to take us back to civilization:

    We bought a round of beers, and the nice train folks gave us some donuts, too! Ummm, donuts and beer. Notice Jordan pratically drooling watching Jarrett:

    All in all, a pretty great trip- there’s nothing more to say. Adios for now, Brittany and I are off for Harvard, and hopefully the end of my 14er project.

    Chicago Basin Part 3: Sunlight Peak 14,059′ 5-11-08

    Posted by Frank – May 10, 2008

    Chicago Basin Part 3: Sunlight Peak 14,059′ 5-11-08
    After our day on Eolus, we turned in early for an early morning wake-up call for our attempts of Sunlight and Windom. This time, 4:30am was cold and clear rather than snowy. The sun finally hit us in the upper basin near twin lakes. Jordan, thinking that just as Eolus lived up to its’ name by being windy, so to was Sunlight living up to its’ name:

    My legs sure are long:

    This is a pretty cool place to be- Brittany skinning in the upper basin, with Eolus behind:

    We dumped a little gear high in the basin between Windom and Sunlight and started booting up Sunlight. Jarrett and Brittany:

    Things got a lot more interesting as we got into the rocky top section of Sunlight. Jarrett:

    Eventually, we made the rocky summit (Jordan):

    We took our time at the summit, checking out all the lines in the area. Windom’s widowmaker, which we hoped to ski next, looked quite steep from Sunlight:

    Then it was time to ski. We started by the summit register and USGS marker, just below the summit block (as every other Sunlight skier has done). We first had to ski off the East side before we could go through a notch back to the south side. Brittany:

    The notch:

    Then the skiing became more straightforward and fun (more Brittany):

    Jordan:

    A couple of me:

    Back to Brittany:

    Jarrett:

    Jordan:

    The route:

    We skied back to around 13,000′ in the upper valley to our gear cache, and then began the boot up Windom. More on that later…

    Chicago Basin Part 2- Mt Eolus 14,083′ 5-10-08

    Posted by Frank – May 9, 2008

    Chicago Basin Part 2- Mt Eolus 14,083′ 5-10-08
    After our hike up the day before, we set the alarm to 4:30am to ski our first peak of the trip. We were worried about the weather forecast, and sure enough it was dumping at 4:30. So we woke up again at 6:30 and it wasn’t snowing as hard, but it was still very windy. So we went back to sleep one more time and got up at 9:30, even though the wind was still howling. We set off at 11am, figuring we could at least make a trail for the following day if the winds were still too bad.

    Eolus was named after the greek god of wind, so it was only fitting to see it like this:

    Still, the higher we got, the more we thought we might just get to summit Eolus, as the winds weren’t too bad. The next thing we knew, we were in the couloir, protected from the wind. Brittany:

    Above the couloir, we had some rock scrambling to do here and there to reach the summit.

    After a while on the summit, we dropped down the southwest side to access the top of the east couloir. Brittany:

    me:

    The couloir was short but oh so sweet- some of the best snow I’ve skied on a fourteener. Powder in May in a steep aesthetic couloir- can’t beat that! Here I am, dropping in:

    Jordan:

    Jarrett:

    After the couloir, we had lots of lower angled skiing ahead of us. Brittany rips up the bowl, with the couloir behind:

    Brittany again, heading towards Mt. Kennedy:

    Jordan gets deep into some willow bushes on the lower gully:

    We felt lucky to have skied Eolus given the weather, and got back to camp around 5pm. Here’s a photo of Eolus and the line we skied:

    Chicago Basin Part 1: The Trainride and the Hike-in.

    Posted by Frank – May 8, 2008

    Chicago Basin Part 1: The Trainride and the Hike-in.
    Thursday, May 8th, 2008.

    On the afternoon of May 8th, I headed out from Crested Butte to pick up Jarrett in Gunnison. Jarrett had contacted me on this blog wanting to join our group in the San Juans, and since I knew he head just soloed the Landry line on Pyramid, he seemed more than capable of the peaks we would be heading to. Thankfully, he’s also a good guy, and we had a good game of “name that obscure bike trail”, followed by gawking at all the skiable lines around Red Mountain, Coal Bank, and Molas passes. We made it to Durango where we crashed at my friends’ Maury and Marcia’s place. Jordan and Brittany soon joined us, and then we got some sleep before the early train ride.

    We parked a few blocks away where the parking is free, so we got to walk through sunny and green Durango to the train station.

    The gear:

    We got on the train and enjoyed the scenery for the next couple of hours:

    Then it was time to get off the train at Needleton. The conductors unload your stuff quickly, and then the train pulls away and you’re suddenly in the midst of a silent wilderness. Off we go with our “angry midgets” on our backs:

    We were hoping to hit snowline quickly so we could put the midgets on a diet and get the skis, boots and skins off our backs. Unfortunately, the combination of the heavy snowfall and our being one of the first groups of the year meant that we had to deal with deadfall- and a lot of it:

    After 3 hours, we were finally able to begin skinning, and after another 3 hours we finally made it to a campsite. That means we averaged just 1mph, but it was hardly easy walking or skinning, so I guess we did OK. Our home for the next 3 days (I think I look tired!):

    The sun sets on day 1: