Sundance Mountain 6.18.16
(Last Updated On: August 14, 2016)
As the snow finally starts losing the battle with summer, I find myself less and less inclined to ski. Not because I don’t enjoy it- I still do. And summer snow can be really fun. But hiking for miles and miles just to reach the snow starts to lose a lot of allure for me. Brittany, on the other hand, will keep going until the snow gets really bad. With this in mind, we chose something with virtually no approach- Sundance Mountain.
When it comes to summer skiing, it can be really nice to ski somewhere with great access and high elevation, like Independence Pass, Mount Evans, and Trail Ridge road. Strangely, I’d only skied Trail Ridge once, back in college, while Brittany hadn’t even been on that road before. In classic summer skiing style, we had a big posse of 6 skiers and snowboarders. Summer skiing should be a party! The 5 minute approach was comical- “No really, there’s snow back there!”
I was probably a little bit more excited than normal to ski since I had a brand new pair of Blizzard ZeroG 108’s. Thanks Kelly at The Alpineer for the summertime mount!
The top half of the run was brutal, with the flat terrain severely runnelled and suncupped and surprisingly icy. The straight part of every turn was a death-rattling experience, but it wasn’t too bad going across the hill. At least we could party ski:
Thankfully the skiing got much better when the slope rolled over into the 40 degree range. The bang for the buck on this one was high. Brittany:
Frank:
The only bummer about the great access of Sundance Mountain is that one must go back up what they’ve come down. Part of our group had soft snowboard boots and no crampons or ice axe. Sundance is steeper than one might expect, and there have been accidents given its ease of access and benign reputation. So, we decided the safe thing to do was have them ski down to Fall River road while others climbed back out and picked them up. We had a pretty sweet view of Long’s along the way:
Sundance Mountain is a great ski if, like me, you lack the motivation to walk for miles for your summertime turns. Oh, and it was a fun way for Brittany and I to spend our 5 year anniversary 🙂
Seriously, thanks Alpineer!
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You may be aware of this, but there is a super fun couloir directly east more near the true summit of Sundance. Surprisingly steep with a fun entrance! You can hike out on rock for those snowboarders…Love the CB hiking guide, thanks!