Ant Peak is part of the string of mountains stretching from Mount Justice to Purple Mountain known by Marble skiers as “Little Alaska”. Other peaks in the range include “The Nipple”, at 12,789′ and “The Blob” at 12,781′. These peaks are most commonly skied from Marble, although their South faces are very prominent from many Crested Butte area summits and offer up 3,000′ descents into the Dark Canyon. There is a short window every spring, however, when these peaks can be reached via snowmobile access. Barring another big snowstorm at lower elevations, this was probably my last trip up Slate River, which is badly melted out with a lot of long dirt sections.

Last year at almost the same time of year, travel up the valley was quite simple- but this year that wasn’t the case at all, and John Jasper and I even took the time to build a short road to make sure our sleds didn’t get dumped into the river.

At Yule Pass, the Raggeds Wilderness starts, so we parked the sleds there, and headed down Yule Creek. JJ, Chair Mountain behind:

The North Face of Ant has been on my list for a long time, as it offers up over 2,000′ of steep skiing right off the summit of a highly aesthetic peak. This is what we were heading for:

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It seems as though the winter of ‘09-’10 will never start in much of the western U.S. It isn’t just Colorado, it’s thin in Utah and Jackson as well. And when it’s thin, it’s usually sketchy, too. We seem to be doing better in the Crested Butte area compared to other areas of Colorado, but right now the game remains to make the right calls before you ever leave the house. I’m leery of certain aspects right now, especially NE and N, even though that’s where the powder is. A windloading event a few days ago, combined with buried surface hoar from an earlier dry spell made those aspects a bit touchy. So, I’m switching gears to south faces, which seem to be nicely consolidated with all the warm weather we’ve been having.

One South face I had not yet skied is the South face of Schuykill. My friend Conan decided it sounded like a good route as well and we gave it a go. My snowmobile wasn’t quite ready, and in the end I had to get towed, and I forgot how tough that can be (or else I’m just getting old). We were able to use Pete + friends’ old skintrack to the summit through the awe-inspiring upper basin below the East face of Schuykill. We even got to do a little scrambling:

Tom and I were able to ski the NW face of Schuykill last spring, which was a fine technical descent of its’ own right. I guess that only leaves Schuykill’s East face, maybe another time when the snowpack is a lot deeper and less touchy:

Must. ski. Marble. area. peaks. soon.

The South face looked to be in and thin, as Conan checked it out:

This route was very fun, with lots of rolls and constrictions and even some small icefalls in the thin conditions…

Looking back up at the route:

We ended up in Democrat basin, one of my favorite places to be locally. Looking up at (L-R) Afley, Oh-Be Joyful, and Hancock.

We put the skins back on and made our way up towards the low point of the Schuykill ridge. It felt as if it were 90 degrees, amazingly hot for this time of year. Conan did a great job of breaking trail and we were once again looking at the East face:

The snow in the upper basin was really wind-affected, but thankfully the lowest pitches heading back towards Pittsburg went back to powder, albeit of the old, recycled variety. It was so shaded by then I didn’t take any photos, not that those low-angled pitches were very exciting anyway. South faces seemed to work out pretty well…

The Red Lady Glades, on the flanks of Mount Emmons outside of Crested Butte, are one of the steepest descents anywhere in the world. It has rarely been skied, and only by the most experienced and risky skiers. I’ve looked at this steep face ever since moving to Crested Butte, and finally decided yesterday was the day to risk everything for a rare descent. I brought Adam Buckwalter along, who at the age of 19 would surely be the youngest skier ever to complete this sketchy descent.

On the climb, I was able to carefully take this photo of a leaf with my point-n-shoot, thankful I didn’t have a SLR which would have been too awkward to take out on such steep terrain. I don’t think people realize the danger getting shots like this entail.

Higher up we discussed roping up while negotiating these gaping crevasses, but decided to risk it knowing how long the rest of the ascent would take.

The ascent was too perilous to take any more photos on the way up, and filled with dangerous moments too scary to discuss at this time, but we were able to reach the summit. Ruby/Owen/Purple:

Another group had completed the ascent as well, but were too scared of the glades and opted for turns in the bowl instead:

Prayer flags mark the summit and we hoped they would guide us safely on our upcoming descent.

Adam negotiates a turn halfway down the descent. On terrain this steep, the margin for error is exceedingly small and our adrenaline was maxing out.

I anchored myself to the near vertical wall with 5 ice screws and a couple of snow pickets to get this photo of Adam hanging it out on the edge:

We completed the descent without incident and have been inundated with calls and inquiries from the press about how we were able to survive. We’re still trying to wrap our heads around completing such a lofty goal ourselves, and words can’t describe all the feelings and emotions that go along with a successful expedition like this.

Meanwhile, on a serious note… We chose the Glades because they are very low angled and the current snowpack is unbelievably weak. I often stepped off the established skintrack to get a feel for the snow and would get huge settlements that would shake the snow off the trees 25 feet away. Nearly any steep face seemed to have slid during last week’s storm, hopefully scouring out the rotten snow beneath:

Our snowpack may still heal and give us a good season, but for now things are looking grim. Hopefully this weekend’s storm will be a good addition to the snowpack and will either rip more bad snow out or at least start bridging it over. If not, this may be a season of low-angle turns in the backcountry until springtime, and a lot of days at the ski area.