Category: Twelve-ers

TR: Mountain X 3.16.10

Posted by Frank – March 18, 2010

March is the time to ski steep alpine powder in Colorado, after the often sketchy snowpacks of Nov-Feb, but before the full-blown corn season of April-June. It’s a small window, but more often than not it’s the time of year whenn my favorite descents are made. This year, prolonged winds ruined the snow on many aspects and elevations right before we went into the high pressure window we were waiting for. It kind of put a damper on things. Until Luke and I headed out to terrain we’d both been eying for years and discovered it had somehow escaped the wind. It won’t be hard for many of you to determine where we were, but I’ll be calling it “Mountain X” anyway. I plan on spending a lot more time exploring this area…

We skied this face and down the lower pitch which looked like fun tree skiing to come back to on a cloudy day, perhaps.
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Scarp’s To Peeler 3.6.10

Posted by Frank – March 7, 2010

We’ll get back to our TR’s from our big road trip soon, but for today, here’s a TR from yesterday’s long local adventure. Things are really shaping up here, with a fairly deep and stable snowpack starting to allow some bigger descents. We headed up the Red Lady hike but instead of dropping in there, we headed out for a nice ridgewalk towards Irwin:
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Pete had been in the area a few days ago and suggested we ski a face off of Scarp’s Ridge. I knew the face he was talking about from other trips to the area, and it had always looked like a good one so that’s what we were aiming for. It was pretty steep and it rolled over, so it was hard to tell if we were in the right spot or not, but we gave it a go regardless. I dropped in first:
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Wolverine Basin 1.30.10

Posted by Frank – January 31, 2010

OK, maybe not the greatest movie ever, but for a Colorado kid it’s tough to beat a movie about Colorado kids kickin’ some butt. I just had to mention that, since “Wolverines!” kept going through my head as we headed up Emmons yesterday.

Originally Brittany and I were going to ski Redwell, but after hearing that conditions in Wolverine were good, we opted to check it out instead. Wolverine is Emmon’s steepest bowl, and a line I’ve only skied once or twice in the past. Red Lady was getting its’ usual hammering, surprisingly still powder despite the hot temps of late. At one point, we watched three people skiing the bowl at once, always interesting even if there are a bunch of tracks there already. Meanwhile, not a single track went to the looker’s right side of the bowl, which was also “interesting.”
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Things are looking considerably better than they did a couple of weeks ago when I skied the South face of Schuykill
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We made a couple of turns to check out the top of Wolverine. Brittany:
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The view from the top was far from disappointing…
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And the turns weren’t disappointing either…
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Brittany, looking more and more comfortable on steep, sloughy terrain:
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Our line was just a hair looker’s left of the summit…
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After the steep upper bowl, we still had 2,000′ or so of good meadow skipping below us. The warm days and cold nights have once again created a ton of surface hoar, which made for great skiing on our way out, but will soon be yet another layer in this season’s poor snowpack. Frank:
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A much better shot of Wolverine from a couple of days later..

Brittany’s camera batteries died, so we didn’t get a ton of photos, but there it is, the day of the year (so far).

Schuykill Mountain (12,146′) South Couloir

Posted by Frank – January 12, 2010

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:
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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:
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Must. ski. Marble. area. peaks. soon.
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The South face looked to be in and thin, as Conan checked it out:
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This route was very fun, with lots of rolls and constrictions and even some small icefalls in the thin conditions…
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Looking back up at the route:
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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.
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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:
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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…

TR: Carbon Peak 12,079′ 1.9.10

Posted by Frank – January 10, 2010

Carbon Peak sits in the headwaters of picturesque Ohio Creek and is one of the more distinct peaks from the town of Gunnison. With the current snow conditions remaining less than ideal, We started brainstorming ideas for a good weekend outing. Since Carbon is one of the few local peaks I have yet to climb or ski, and I feel a lot better about South faces than other aspects, we decided to give the Spoon route on Carbon a go.

The Spoon:
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On this trip, I was sporting the newest beta version backcountry poles from Black Diamond.

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Lets take a closer look at these new poles. They feature the newest in moldable grip technology, which they have dubbed the “washcloth grip system”. I found them to form-fit to my hand very well, thumbs up!
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By moving the pole to its’ sideways position, the pole doubles as a snow picket. Top-notch versatility!
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The beauty of their new system is that each pole is different, to better cover a wide variety of uses. The other pole featured BD’s new patented “goggle brush”. Faceshots are a thing of the past, as this pole allows the skier to quickly wipe their goggles whenever an annoying vision-stealing faceshot occurs. Brilliant!
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Finally, the other end of the second pole is designed to chop steps in ice, the way mountaineers used to do it. What a weight savings, not having to take crampons anymore!
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14erskiers gives these new poles a big thumbs-up! They can now be purchased at ImjustjokingIforgotmypolesandhadtomakedue.com

On to the action… We started off from the Carbon Creek trailhead and headed up the road to avoid private property:
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Finally we were able to leave the road and make our way up the southeast side of the mountain:
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Shredding The Gnarnia Of The Red Lady Glades 12.11.09

Posted by Frank – December 12, 2009

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.
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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.
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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:
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Another group had completed the ascent as well, but were too scared of the glades and opted for turns in the bowl instead:
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Prayer flags mark the summit and we hoped they would guide us safely on our upcoming descent.
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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.
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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:
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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:
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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.

Thoughts on the Hidden A(Gem)da Wilderness Proposal

Posted by Frank – November 6, 2009

The Hidden Gems Wilderness Proposal has been a hot topic for those in Western Colorado for the last few months. I highly recommend that readers check out the Hidden Gems website to get up to speed, but the short story is this: more Wilderness areas in Gunnison County, Summit County, the Roaring Fork Valley, and the Vail/Eagle valley. some of these are entirely new areas, while others are additions to existing Wilderness. Some of these areas may indeed have merit, although given the backlash by local residents, it seems most do not. Most of these areas don’t affect those of us in Crested Butte, but it appears a new “Gem” has been discovered. More on that in a moment…

Let me start by saying that I am a fan of Wilderness. It’s an amazing thing to have pristine and untrammeled land right outside my back door. In the winter and spring, I recreate in Wilderness areas on nearly a daily basis. The majority of Colorado’s Fourteeners are within Wilderness boundaries. Getting deep into one of Colorado’s larger Wilderness areas, such as the Weminuche or the Maroon Bells/Snowmass can be a life-changing event.

Despite this, I am against the Hidden Gems proposal. There are problems with designating lands as Wilderness, here are a few of them:

  • Mountain bikes are not allowed
  • Hang gliding, BASE jumping, etc is not allowed
  • Horses are allowed
  • Cows and ranching equipment are grandfathered in
  • Events like running races are not allowed
  • Climbing bolts are not allowed unless done by hand
  • No backcountry skiing huts can be built (recently pointed out by Lou D)
  • At what point is there enough Wilderness in a given area?

Of course, I’ve neglected to mention that Wilderness areas also ban motorcycles, ATV’s, and snowmobiles, among other things. I’m OK with that, because even as a snowmobiler I can recognize that I don’t need to be allowed everywhere. I also don’t have a problem having my bike banned from these existing areas, even though studies show time and time again that mountain bikes do no more damage than hikers on most soil types. A bike certainly has less impact than a horse or herd of cows, and yet they are allowed in Wilderness areas. I have a problem with that kind of hypocrisy. Either ban horses as well, or let the bikes in. Finally, there is the question of: How much is enough? Here in Crested Butte, I can reach trailheads to the following Wilderness areas in the following amount of time:

  • Maroon Bells/Snowmass: 5 minutes
  • Raggeds: 20 minutes
  • West Elk: 20 minutes
  • Fossil Ridge: 45 minutes
  • Powderhorn: 1 hour
  • Collegiate: 1 hour

This is a tremendous amount of acreage where people can really only hike, ski, or ride a horse. What this means for me is that we currently have a nice balance of protected areas and areas that allow other forms of recreation. Of course, even in non-Wilderness areas, some activities are still banned, like dirtbikes on some trails or snowmobiles up certain valleys (i.e. Gothic). This also means that we have no need for more Wilderness in this area.

Several groups have lined up to oppose the Hidden Gems campaign. I encourage readers to take a look at these sites and follow through on the recommended actions such as writing your local politicians. The Roaring Fork Mountain Bike Association opposes Hidden Gems due to the number of trails which will be shut down on the North side of the Elks. The White River Forest Alliance
 is an umbrella group representing all of the user groups affected by this proposal.

CLOSER TO HOME…

Meanwhile, it appears that another “Hidden Gem” has recently been discovered much closer to home here in Crested Butte. It is being called the Whetstone Wilderness and lies just south of town. The Crested Butte town council recently voted to support the measure, and more information on that aspect can be viewed here. What this newspaper article only hints at is this: The Whetstone Wilderness is proposed for one reason, and that is to thwart the Mt. Emmons Molybdenum Mine Project. Like the Climax mine outside of Leadville, this proposed mine will need a place to put all the tailings and toxic water. The proposed Whetstone Wilderness *may* be problematic for the mining company.

It’s a silly Wilderness area otherwise, popular with mountain bikers, dirtbikes, and snowmobilers. A fit person could easily walk the whole thing in a day. My friend Jarrett pointed out that none of these summits feel remote in any way- from the top of Whetstone the steady drone of human activity can be seen and heard. On the north, it would be bordered by the Splain’s Gulch 4×4 roads (or would those be in it?) as well as the Trapper’s Crossing McMansion/Ranchette subdivision. Those homes tend to be abandoned except 4th of July weekend and Christmas, so I guess it already has a Wilderness feel to it any way. On the west side is Ohio Pass, and the south and west sides are private property, mostly ranches. Here it is, roughly:
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This is one “Gem” I guess I’ll have to support, assuming it throws a wrench in the mining plans. The Green Lake trail may be one of my favorite rides, and I’ll miss the easy snowmobile access, but if the payoff is sending the mine packing, it would be a small price to pay. I wish this area wasn’t included with the rest of the Hidden Gems, the vast majority of which I do not support. The mine is such a looming problem for those of us here in Crested Butte that I will even have to support the whole proposal if I truly feel it will hurt the mine. What a mess…

More on this subject in Part 2

Bike TR: Somewhere Between Creede and Lake City 8.9.09

Posted by Frank – August 11, 2009

One of my favorite things about biking is the exploration factor: You can cover so much ground and see a lot of terrain in just a day’s worth of riding. Of course, it never hurts when the actual riding kicks ass, too.

My friend Jarret had been raving about some of the rides he had pieced together in the San Juans between the towns of Lake City and Creede. I love the San Juans, Lake City, and Creede, plus I was feeling the urge to get out of town, if just for a day. These days, it’s tougher for me to find unexplored trails in Crested Butte, which really fueled my fire to check out the area to the south. So we made the effort to get down there, and Jarret’s friend Heather joined us as well as Pete. We first had to run a long shuttle between Spring Creek Pass down almost all the way to Creede, and then we were off. Because Jarret did all the leg work figuring out how these trails link together, I won’t be giving the exact play by play directions, and will just let the photos do the talking. I’m sure anyone motivated could figure it out pretty easily, although there are a couple of turns that aren’t marked at all.

Pete on the short hike-a-bike:
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Wetterhorn and Uncompahgre:
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This trail defines cross-country, with several miles like this above treeline:
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Pete starting the descent off of the high country:
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Uh-Oh, looks like double-track. We weren’t on it for long…
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Jarret in on of many rock gardens:
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Back to smooth:
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Heather in a really fun boulderfield:
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The trail got spectacular in the Aspens:
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This trail had a little bit of everything. At times, it reminded me of the following trails in the Crested Butte area: 413, Doctor’s Park, Scarp’s Ridge, 401, Beckwith Pass, and Baxter Gulch. Like I said, a little bit of everything. We cruised into Creede for some well-deserved beers and food at Kip’s Grill, which is an awesome place to end a ride and highly recommended. Jarret was kind enough to show us a few other rides to check out in the area, so I think I’ll be heading back soon. Thanks again Jarret!

Mount Emmons Bike Descent 8.17.08

Posted by Frank – July 4, 2009

Been meaning to get this one up for a while…

Last August, Rob, Sydney, Brittany and I rode our bikes to the summit of Mt. Emmons (12,392′). Mt. Emmons is directly above the town of Crested Butte and is often known as Red Lady, for the bowl that is the most prominent feature seen from town. It has been targeted as a molybdenum mine for decades now, something that nearly everyone in this town is completely opposed to. Thankfully, the price of moly has dropped along with many other metals, so a mine won’t make much sense in the short term. Still, the folks at High Country Citizen’s Alliance have been putting up the good fight and hopefully will win out and send the “Lucky Jack” project packing.

Jack and I built this duplex 2 years ago, and this photo shows the upper route as seen from town.
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We started the ride with the lower loop and then headed up the long grind of gunsight pass. This is a long, difficult road with lots of talus as you get higher up, and yet most of it is rideable. The views are fairly worth it, however. Brittany and Sydney:
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Rob:
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Topping out…
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A short hike-a-bike would lead us from the pass to the summit (flagpole):
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Mt. Owen and the Ruby range, with the road from the summit:
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Town and the ski area from the summit:
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The riding right off the top was amazing…
Rob:
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Brittany:
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Sydney:
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We had to walk a little of the ridge above Brittany in this photo. With some pads and a big bike, I’m sure a lot more of it would be rideable. But then you’d have to get it up there…
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Rob heads to town:
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Sydney:
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Brittany:
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Once in the woods, we got on the more established upper Plunge, to the more established lower Plunge and finally back on the lower loop into town. While not a ride I would do 10 times in a season, this was a really fun ride right off the top of a big mountain right outside of town. Best of all, it ended right in town, where we were able to quaff a frosted malted beverage while soaking in our “tracks”. Might have to do it again this summer…

Whetstone Mountain 4.21.09

Posted by Frank – June 5, 2009

Yet another old TR from the spring. This time I forgot my camera, so all of these photos are from Tom.

Whetsone Mountain is a high, somewhat isolated mountain right outside Crested Butte. At 12,516′ it offers over 3500′ of skiing to the valley floor but unfortunately there are a couple of problems when it comes to skiing Whetstone. Like the resort, Whetstone sits in the shadow of mountains to the West, so it probably sees only 250-300″ a year whereas a few miles to the West may see double that amount. The bigger problem is that private property surrounds much of the mountain and makes access more difficult than that of the surrounding peaks. Many of the property owners are cool about it, though, and grant access when requested.

We ended up with a big group- Sydney, Ben, Tom and three of his friends from out of town, plus myself. We decided to ski the North facing “M” face, which holds some of the steeper alpine lines on Whetstone. Ben dropped in first and was then able to radio back up to us and guide each of us into a different line, which made for one of the best days of the spring. Conditions were perfect springtime powder.

I went second…

Tom’s buddies:

Sydney:

Our proud tracks, easily seen from HWY 135…