The Line was so Nice, I had to Ski it Twice: Gothic East Face

I’m not one for skiing the same line over and over again- I prefer exploring. But sometimes, when a local classic like the East face of Gothic is in great condition in February, it’s worth doing twice, even if that means a week apart. When we skied “the fork” on Gothic, we ran into some friends that had just skied the East face and raved about the conditions, so we went back the very next day. We knew the main line would have tracks on it, but we also knew that it’s a big face with plenty of options. Here’s a shot that Pete Sowar took in fat conditions showing some of the options:

While conditions were nowhere near that good, we did find powder conditions. Pete dropped in first:

Second pitch:

“Dave Bum”:

Back up top with Josh Macak:

And there were even a couple of photos of me:

The following weekend, I wanted to ski it again. I knew we could still get fresh tracks down another variation, which I’m going to call the Doubletree couloir from here on out. Plus, snowmobile access is kind of difficult for me and my broken hand right now. Finally, Jeff Welch was visiting from the front Range and I was sure he wanted to ski it too. So back up we went:

A bit of snow and wind had erased our tracks from 6 days ago:

Jeff makes his way towards Doubletree:

Josh joined again as well:

And Jeff got a few photos of me as well:

Despite at least 30 tracks on the face, we managed to avoid all of them, so we had another great day. We did have some heavy sloughing that poured through the crux of the standard route. We had already discussed our plans with another group and waited long enough for them to get through- but it’s a great example of the need to make sure other groups are watching out for each other in the backcountry.

Want a great view of the East face? Ski Crested Butte and head to Ten Peaks:

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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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