Frank and I were looking to ski something in the Crested Butte area. Admittedly, after skiing here for so many years, sometimes it’s hard to find things to ski that keep us interested. But, I suggested Mount Richmond – a peak that I had never skied, and Frank had an idea for a different line on it which would be new to him as well – it seemed like a great option. Mount Richmond lies the shadows of nearby Augusta Mountain and Mineral Point. Seemingly unassuming from afar, Mount Richmond, actually has some fun steep backcountry ski descents!

Being late in the season, we were able to drive up Slate River Road to the river crossing where we then continued on foot. Large avalanche paths that came down in March make great snow bridges for crossing the river again at Poverty Gulch. By then, we were able to start skinning up through Baxter Basin. I love this place.

Frank skinning with Mount Richmond in the distance on the left.

As we neared the upper slopes of Richmond, Frank and I had a few discussions. For various reasons, we decided to have a “his and her choose their own adventure” style of ski. Frank wanted to ski the “Martini Glass” and I was wanting to ski more from the summit. So, we made a plan to stay in radio contact and go our separate ways and reconvene at the bottom of the Martini Glass. Frank climbing with South Maroon looming in the distance.

Me climbing toward the summit of Mount Richmond.

At the top of my line, I radioed Frank who was waiting for me to transition and ski. What a beautiful day in the mountains!

And then I dropped in.

I skied to the bottom of the Martini Glass and radioed to Frank who was getting to drop into his line.

Me skiing the Martini Glass apron.

Looking back at Mount Richmond. My line on the left, Frank’s Martini glass on the right, both relatively east facing aspects.

A better look at the Martini Glass.

And another shot of Mount Richmond.

Another great day of skiing, and we even got to enjoy waterfalls like this on the way out!

The post Mount Richmond Ski (20 June 2019) appeared first on 14erskiers.com.

It’s been awhile since I made turns on Afley. It was time to go back. Frank and I were joined by our friends Mark and Geo.

Because of the plethora of snow this season, the Kebler Pass road was largely not plowed even on Memorial Day weekend. So we used snowmobiles until we hit the Wilderness boundary.

A ski traverse brings you to the bottom of the route and it’s all bootpacking to the summit of Afley Peak from there.

As seems typical for the season, the line took longer to warm than we expected, but when we finally dropped in, it was perfect pre-corn. Mark and I ready to go!

Geo.

Mark dropping in.

Geo.

Me.

Frank.

At the bottom of Afley Peak, we make our traverse and skin back up to our sled parked at Scarp Ridge. A great day of skiing, all in a good days’ work!

The post Afley Antics (26 May 2019) appeared first on 14erskiers.com.

So it was last weekend when Brittany and I set off to ski something off of “no name” ridge, the long ridge extending East of the Copper Creek drainage above the East river (easily seen from the ski area). With a few inches of snow over the previous 2 days, we hoped to ski powder in the sheltered North facing El Nacho couloir, or if we really got lucky, a West facing line that we’ve been wanting to ski might go, too.

Getting to this area in late spring is a bit of a slog. Heading directly towards no name requires a cold crossing of the East river, or heading all the way to the Gothic townsite to get over the bridge. Sadly, Gothic road has been closed to snowmobiles since the late 90’s, aka the good old days. So slogging we went, eventually crossing the East river just before the bridge thanks to a massive slide that came off Gothic’s East face. The nice thing was that even low-elevation South facing terrain was still holding snow:

Ascending this area has always seemed tricky thanks to convoluted terrain and thick forests, but this time we just headed downvalley and had great access to the bottom of the “big bowl” and a straightforward ascent from there. Remnants of this bowl sliding were still visible as well:

We ascended what we’ll call “Pavillard ridge”, a shallow ridge that is just a hair less steep than the surrounding terrain. Jean Pavillard and a group of aspiring guides were descending the ridge 10 years ago when a massive slide took out nearly all of the terrain surrounding them- a highly visible lesson in slope angles and terrain management for everyone in the Crested Butte area to see.

We reached the top and determined that the West facing terrain unsurprisingly formed a crust the day before, so we decided to ski El Nacho into Queen basin. the last time I skied it, it was after the ’96-’97 season on skinny skis with my friend Bart, who has been ski patrolling up in Big Sky for the past 20 years or so. But first, scenics. Gothic and Owen:

Southwest face of Whiterock, and the White Widow couloir, two routes in our guidebook:

Pyramid, and Maroon on the far left:

Time to ski, heading to the couloir.

The first turns in the couloir were pretty good:

Then we discovered that the couloir slid, and we were actually going to be dealing with plenty of debris. Brittany:

Frank:

Most of the skiing in the couloir was difficult and energy-intensive, requiring plenty of momentum to keep the flow. The apron, on the other hand, was perfection:

On our way out, we ran into some of the guys from Cold Smoke Splitboards, who had skied White Mountain and the White Widow couloir. Pretty awesome to see outher people getting after it, slog and all… While we didn’t quite find the conditions that we were looking for, it was still a great tour and trip down memory lane in my case. The following day we decided to try something decidedly easier- the Grand Couloir on Aetna. More on that later…

The post TR: El Nacho Couloir 5.11.19 appeared first on 14erskiers.com.

Since the inception of CB3P, I’ve always thought to myself, “I should really do that race someday.” But, it always happens at a time when I’d rather just be backckountry skiing. And, I was also pretty terrified of the “paddle” portion as I have little river experience. But, after I was finally assured that the river section was indeed not too hard, especially if using a duckie, I decided that this year was the year I needed to do it. I even put it in writing, stating I wanted to do it on my 2019 Bucket List. See, that’s the thing. Sometimes just putting a goal in writing makes me want to achieve it even more.

So, there I found myself at the CB3P pre-race meeting at the Brick Oven on Saturday April 27th, with a crowd of people huddled around Tiffany Simpson, the race coordinator. Imagine putting together a race that involves skiing at the ski area, biking on a public road, and boating down a public river – the permits and red tape involved in all of this must be horrific. But, she’s got it down to a tee. She informed us of the rules and about some small course changes.

But she saved the warning that was to be most heeded for last. “The Gunnison River is running at the highest CFS that we’ve ever had in this race before…. Be careful. No one will be stationed to help you until the whitewater park.” And she continued, “The feature in the whitewater park is especially tricky right now. People are going to swim (laughing). I’ve sent scouts down and they tell me that you have to paddle extra hard to get through it. Now, if you swim, we’ll have people there to help. Listen to what they say.” And then I found myself wondering if doing this race was a good idea. I had been assured that the river portion was easy. But, this did not sound easy. I went to bed anxious, dreaming of whitewater. I hoped that my years of growing up sailing and swimming, and my overall intuition about water, would just get me through this segment.

In the morning, my heart dropped as I took my first gaze out the window. A rain/snow mix was falling from the sky and temperatures were hovering at 36. Skiing in that weather would be more or less okay. But, biking or boating in it sounded like sheer misery. I packed a few more extra clothes and gloves in my transition bags and dressed for the ski segment with an extra layer. I was still fighting a terrible cold, and needed to make sure to stay warm.

I was expecting more people to stay home. Yet, I found myself amazed at all the people who gathered around the starting line of the CB3P in this horrible weather, many even in costume – Crested Buttians don’t need much reason to wear a costume. Oh yeah, that’s right, I’d almost forgot – We mountain people can be downright hard core. And here I was surrounded by the hardest most core of them all.

We placed our skis on the snow and gathered back on the pavement for the Le Mans start.

I mustered a smile. Yes, I was about to skin and ski in a bike helmet. But, a helmet was required on all three sections of the race. Saving time at transitions was key. So, I, along with most other solo racers, decided to start and finish with my bike helmet, eliminating the need to change headgear.

The buzzer sounded at 10 am sharp and we were off.

And the skinning commenced. People passed me on the skin. For all the backcountry skiing I do, I am not a fast skinner. I can just go forever without stopping. I was hoping some of this would work out for me in the end. I held my own, though I certainly got passed. But, I was far from last, and for that I was thankful.

The event photographer snapped this shot of me a good chunk of the way up.

And not much later, I saw her – Stevie Kremer. I call her the fastest woman on earth – because she pretty much is. There she was, pushing and pulling and skiing her way down the slope as fast as she could, ahead of all the boys and everyone else, very much in first place.

And then the down train kept coming, but I was still going up. We skinned until the patrol shack just below High Lift. There, I pulled my skins and threw my jacket on. The “down” is supposed to be the easy part of the race. But the new wet snow made it otherwise. The surface was sticky, wanting to rip my legs apart, and made it difficult to glide when it should have been easy.

When I arrived at the base of the ski area, I was relieved. Even though it was pouring rain, I was looking more forward to biking in that crap weather than skiing in all that slop. I barely changed clothes. I was mostly warm and mostly dry. A change of socks, a shirt, and gloves and I was on my way for the biking section.

As they say, the bike to Gunnison is “downhill”. Well, yeah, true. But, you get your share of winds which make it not-so-downhill. But, I was feeling strong, which surprised me since I had only ridden my bike twice since November. And the 36-degree rain was making me cold. So, I pedaled hard, trying to stay warm, and passed at least 5 riders – none of whom I could even see when I first started out on my bike. My lower back started to ache, so I got up out of the saddle, and pedaled even harder. It wasn’t going to go away until I was done riding. So, I might as well just ride faster.

Frank waved as he passed me on the road in the car. He was moving ahead to grab some photos and greet me at the next transition. He got this photo of our friend Daniel dressed in costume.

And not too much longer he got these of me.

By the time I saw Frank again a few miles down the road, I passed two more riders. Coming in hot into the North Bridge put in for the Gunnison River.

I changed shoes, downed some Honey Stinger Chews, grabbed my borrowed duckie, and into the river I went. Emma and Emma (a team, as opposed to individual competitors like myself) were right behind. Emma had been the only one to pass me on the bike portion, flying by me in her hot pink tights.

I got in the duckie without hesitation, and somehow made it look like I knew what I was doing, even though I’d never even taken a duckie down a stretch of river before.

The river was swelling. The current was fast, and constant paddling was needed to keep the boat on the correct course. I looked behind and smiled at Daniel. He was now cruising by me on a kayak. “I have no idea what I’m doing here,” I yelled, cracking up. “Well, you seem to be doing just fine.” And off he went. I didn’t see him until the finish line.

I looked behind and Emma and Emma were still there. I rested my paddle for a bit to fiddle with something and that was a mistake. The next thing I knew, my paddle was floating just up the river from me. No, no, no! I thought to myself. I can’t do anything without a paddle. So, I frantically splashed around with my hands and arms to slow the boat to let the paddle catch up with me. Success.

But wait, what’s this? A weird current had me, and it was trying to swoop me into a sharp turn in the river on my port side. Paddle harder, paddle harder. The river tried to swoop me to my left, right into a low hanging tree. But, I narrowly escaped. I looked behind, and saw Emma and Emma paddling hard too. They were getting sucked into the same left bank. A turn in the river blocked my view. And then the were gone. I kept looking back. I never saw them again until the end of the race. But, indeed, they did end up getting stuck on that low hanging tree.

The rest of the river was lonely. Except for a few random people on shore, I didn’t see anyone – at least, not until the very end. I was told I’d know when I was coming up on the whitewater park. And that sometime shortly after the first feature I’d have to exit the river to the right and cross the finish line on shore. But, I heard it before I saw it – the roar of the whitewater. And I thought to myself, “Hey, it doesn’t look as bad as I thought.”

Meanwhile, Frank had been there waiting for me, watching scores of people flip their boats on this very same feature. Like this paddle boarder…. about to eat it….

And our friend Alex…. Notice her, her boat, and her paddle, and the kayaker trying to help her….

Frank pretty much thought I was doomed. And I did too – Until I saw the feature that is. Then, I knew I had it…. Ready, set, go!

I didn’t swim. And it was a lot longer paddle than I thought to get to the exit for the finish line. But, I crossed it, still all in one piece, wet as a rat, and still smiling – greeted by a proud husband on the other side.

Somehow, I managed to do alright, despite never having done this race before or having had taken a duckie down a river, or even paddled this section of river before. In fact, I did well enough to earn the top podium spot for the Women’s Solo “Fun” category.

What’s more, I finished 8th out of 13 solo women, and 19th out of 37 total solo competitors – smack in middle, with a respectful time of 3 hours, 27 minute, and 27 seconds.

Would I do the CB3P again? Heck yeah. But, hopefully in better weather Then again, what else would I be doing on a rainy/snowy cold day in April? I Might as well join a bunch of other crazy people for a crazy race!

The post Crested Butte Pole Pedal Paddle Race (28 April 2019) appeared first on 14erskiers.com.

• It’s the snowpack. This has been an interesting year in the backcountry. Unlike last year, we’re actually getting some snow. But that snow has also come, throughout the year, in fits and spurts. Those dry spells mean plenty of weak layers. This year has been cold (or is it just normal?)- cold weather drives the faceting process. This year has been windy as well. Add it all up, and you’re left with a complicated snowpack. The Crested Butte Avalanche Center has done an amazing job putting out weekly summaries, under the observations tab. Here is the current one.
• The signs are everywhere. The second half of January resulted in nearly 2 weeks of Crested Butte Avalanche Center forecasts with a rating of at least considerable. Even if you weren’t paying attention to the forecasts, the signs were everywhere and in plain view from highway 135 as well as the ski area- new slides every day. Slides were occurring at different elevations. Slides were happening on different aspects. “Outsmarting” the snowpack by skiing a sunny southern aspect simply wasn’t an option. Routes that are generally considered “safe”, such as Red Lady Glades, were also seeing slides.

  

• The signs were unusual. The Crested Butte Ski Patrol had some big slides. They had remote releases. We had winds out of unusual directions, and for longer than usual time periods. The local catskiing operation had a post control slide. A guided level 2 course in Silverton suffered a fatal accident. Add it all up and you have “spooky conditions”, without a doubt.
• Persistent Slabs. Sure, some days the main avalanche problem may have been wind slabs, or storm slabs- but underlying it all is a persistent slab problem. Persistent slabs break bigger and more unexpectedly than other types of avalanche problems. Now that the danger has dropped to “moderate”, it doesn’t matter that much, since it’s still a “scary moderate” in our view.
• The sleds were down for the count. Brittany’s new (to her) snowmobile died in early January. In the Crested Butte area, snowmobiles are an essential tool for getting into the favored snowfall zones of Irwin and Paradise Divide. These areas, with deeper, stronger snowpacks, weren’t experiencing the quite the same touchy conditions as areas closer to town. Not having a snowmobile limited our choices for backcountry skiing.
• Who cares, the ski area is fun. The ski area has been skiing so well! The daily winds were buffing out the steeps, leaving smooth chalky conditions even on the days when it wasn’t snowing. We live in Crested Butte because the skiing here is entertaining, even after 25 years. Sure, we could have poked around and found some low angle powder conditions, but we’d rather ski fun steep slopes, personally.

Is it time yet? Probably- the snowpack is finally getting a little bit of a break, and the snowmobiles are back in action. Of course, with the OR show fast approaching and more storms on the way, we may very well find ourselves skiing the ski area again next week. And that’s ok- the mountains were talking to us, and that’s what we were hearing. We’re sure many people got out and had some amazing days in the past few weeks.

The post Thoughts on NOT Skiing in the Backcountry. appeared first on 14erskiers.com.

As I write this, we are between storms. Yesterday we woke up to a handful of inches of powder and the snow continued all day long. This afternoon, another burst will bring moisture that will last through Friday. The snow this season has been a welcome change compared to the dry winter of last. Most skiers will say last ski season was downright depressing in our neck of the woods. Admittedly, the season was pretty dire. But, it also had it’s moments.

February, 2018 gave us a marked change in weather where moisture finally began coming to Crested Butte. Most people had given up on ski season by then. But, I didn’t. That’s when the North Face Lift opened. And that’s when I skied my first worthy powder for the year.

For some reason, I never posted the pictures. But, with all the powder stoke and excitement surrounding the past and upcoming storms, it seems appropriate to post them now. Here’s some powder stoke from two different skis the Crested Butte backcountry last February. And it was good

Me.

Frank.

Dan, our friend visiting from Steamboat.

Powder is good for the soul. Bring it on!

The post TBT: Powder Stoke appeared first on 14erskiers.com.

While these foods are comfort foods to me as much as they provide fuel for my adventures, sometimes I don’t have time to stop to munch on a string cheese, or enough saliva to actually swallow a PB & J while I’m exercising at my hardest. That’s when the quick energy needs to come in and I now have a new favorite – Maple Boost Energy Gel by Vermont Sticky.

Why has Maple Boost Energy Gel become my new favorite? There’s a whole lot of reasons:

1) Natural sugar, provided by the maple syrup, is fabulous energy because it is low on the glycemic index, yet is easy for your body to digest. Maple syrup has naturally occurring minerals and 65 antioxidants.

2) Maple Boost Energy Gel is organic.

3) It is delicious. Vermont Sticky currently offers five different flavors – Maple and sea salt, chocolate, espresso, raspberry, and key lime. Each has added sea salt to boost electrolytes.

4) No more wasteful wrappers. Many energy gels come in small one-use packets. Not only are these wasteful, but they often end up all over our trails. Maple Energy Boost comes in a 5 oz refillable flask. 32 ounce containers of Maple Energy Boost are sold separately for refill use. If you return the 32 oz containers to Vermont Sticky, these can be used for refill too!

5) Supporting a local, family owned business. Vermont Sticky is the brainchild of long-time Crested Butte local Krista Powers. Krista grew up making maple syrup with her father and grandfather on their farm in Vermont and is now returning to her maple tree roots. She returns to Vermont to harvest sap and cook it into syrup. In the past, most of the syrup her family generated was sold to companies who would mix it with other maple syrups and then distribute it under other labels. After Krista created Vermont Sticky, more of the syrup has been saved to sell under her label – as syrup, Maple Energy Boost, maple sugar, and Maple Tree Juice Mix.

To hear more about Krista’s Vermont Sticky business, check out Frank’s recent podcast interview with her (click the photo).

The Maple Energy Boost is now a staple food in the backcountry for me. Not only does it taste great, but it provides quick energy without the sugar crash. I’ve been finding I now have less need to carry energy bars and other food because the energy boost can carry me through my energy needs for an extended period of time. This is definitely a product that every endurance athlete should try!

The post Review: Vermont Sticky – Maple Boost Energy Gel appeared first on 14erskiers.com.