Star Peak and Doctor Evil Couloir 6.3.16
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Star Peak has long been one of my favorite local mountains. Its distinctive pyramid is highly visible from Highway 135 between Gunnison and Crested Butte. Unfortunately, accessing Star Peak isn’t that easy, with only a short window available when there is still snow down low in Cement Creek but the snow is safe up high. I’ve only skied it once, though we were able to follow the sun and ski both the east face and the west face on the same day. Meanwhile, the peak is also quite distinctive from the Aspen side of the Elks, and Brittany hadn’t skied it yet so we drove over to the land of the rich and famous where Jordan joined us as well.
Yes, we’ve reached that time of year when things get a little ridiculous:
Thankfully, conditions improved considerably once we got above treeline, although we were dealing with a pretty marginal freeze. Star Peak is still hidden behind this subpeak:
First up was the booter towards the subpeak. Jordan:
After the booter, more skinning, with Castle and cathedral in the distance:
Star is a great peak because it has a lot of choices. We skied the NE face, which was nice since all three of us had yet to ski it. My first turn:
Jordan:
Brittany:
Next up, we got to the top of the Doctor Evil couloir. It’s a cool name, and makes tons of sense with the nearby rock outcrop that looks like an extended pinkie finger, but it’s just a connector couloir. Jordan:
Frank:
Brittany:
The best snow of the day was in the apron of Doctor Evil. Brittany:
We didn’t have the greatest conditions on Star, and we weren’t able to finish the day on the nearby Ribcage ridge because the snow was way too warm at that point, but it was still a fun day. And it’s another adventure that we get to remember every time we look at Star from Highway 135.
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