Baxtiathar 11.3.13

After the previous days’ ski near Irwin and the accompanying remotely-triggered slide, we set off on Sunday with our sights set on staying away from windloaded areas. “Gimme Shelter”, as the Rolling Stones would say. We drove as close as we could get in the northern part of the Ruby range with the knowledge that NE and E facing ridgelines were the most suspect. Jenny:

The rivers aren’t quite covered or frozen, although last night’s near-zero temps may have solved that problem.

In the basin, we found a nice sheltered line that we’ve looked at for years, but never skied because it doesn’t “go” from the ridgeline. Due to its slight similarity (mostly due to neither one going from the summit) to a line near Cooke City on Abiathar Peak, we decided to call it Baxtiathar.

Conditions were just barely good enough to skin up the majority of the route, then we dropped in:

Brittany heading through the exit:

Jenny:

Ben Morello in the apron:

Next we skied towards Angel Pass, intent on skiing the “triple shot” back to the car. Lots of other lines to think about:

The Diamond:

Triple Shot, 1st pitch:

Ben:

Same turn from the bottom:

Brittany:

Even at lower pitches, the snowpack is slowly growing, and skiing well. Some areas in our local mountains are now sporting a 1.4M base. Hopefully the snowy fall will continue. Morello:

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Frank Konsella

Frank loves snow more than anything... except his wife.  He ensures his food is digested properly by chewing it 32 times before swallowing.He is a full-time real estate agent serving Crested Butte and Gunnison and would be honored to send you his monthly newsletter.

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