Well, things are a little crazy in this Coronavirus bizzaro world, for sure. We’ll be writing more about that later. But, for now, we are taking time to post throwbacks on a backlog of adventures we’ve had in the mountains. Last season was a great season. So much that we were too busy skiing to write much about it. Now, we have some time to write. So, here we go…

In late February / early March, one of the biggest avalanche cycles happened in Colorado that we have in recorded history. It was state-wide, avalanches causing havoc during the cycle and causing numerous access issues for the rest of the spring and into summer. Even as I was able to start hiking in the fall after my accident in July, we crossed avalanche paths that still had not been cleared. So, we patiently waited for the snowpack to settle. Perhaps I was overly conservative. But, I didn’t backcountry ski from when we returned from our ski trip to Germany and Austria on March 8th until March 26th.

When I did finally ski, I met up with my two adventure friends, Larry and Zach for a little Powder Factory action. And it was good….

The morning skin was icy and firm, and somewhat difficult at times.

But we made it to the ridge in quick time where wonderful mountain views greeted us.

Though the snow was firm on our ascent, the refrigeration effect of the north aspect kept the snow we intended to ski quite nice. Zach dropping in.

Larry.

And a couple of me near the bottom.

What can I say? It was a fun day in the Powder Factory

The post TBT: Powder Factory (26 March 2019) appeared first on 14erskiers.com.

The Gore Range. It’s somewhat a mystery. Some peaks have official names, some don’t. Others didn’t have a name so they became named after letters of the alphabet. Even more confusing, some peaks have two names – a regular name and an alphabet name. Of course, many of these names aren’t reflected on a typical USGS map. Only through research (and sharing), does one start to put the full puzzle together.

I am not sure how Rain Peak became something on my list to ski. But, it did. I knew for years that there was a north-facing couloir that left short of the peak east of it’s summit. After viewing it from another mission on Keller Mountain, I knew that it looked like a quality ski. (click to enlarge)

I was on a “Brittany boot-camp” training mission to help myself prepare for my upcoming ski of Mount Rainier, so a 12.6 mile (4400’vert) slog through the Gore didn’t phase me. Of course, I didn’t know that the trail leaving from Willow Creek Trailhead would have so many downed trees that would slow our progress significantly. Nevertheless, I managed to drag Frank along with me that day, on a mission he swore would be one of his last in the Gore.

Somehow, all of Frank’s photos for this mission were lost. Otherwise, I’d probably have pictures to show of the horribleness of the trail that day. Nevertheless, we pushed on, and eventually made to the ridge of Rain and above treeline.

Looking back at our skin track.

We caught some great views of Red Peak and it’s corresponding eastern ridge.

A close up of Red Peak and the Big Bad Wolf.

A look at What Big Eyes you have.

Finally, we reached the top of our north facing ski line on Rain Peak, which we had previously mapped out using CalTopo and Google Earth and imported our planned routes on to Gaia. We wanted to make sure we were going down the right couloir as not every one of them off this ridge goes cleanly. Frank dropping in to chalky goodness.

Keep in mind, 2018 was one to go down for record low snowfall. But, here we were, skiing fantastic north facing chalk in early May. The Gore Range did better than many other ranges that season.

Part way down, the line split, only to meet back together later on. Frank took the skiers left route.

I went the skier’s right route.

Looking up the South Rock Creek drainage.

Once we reached the South Rock Creek, we skied down the valley a ways before ascending our way back up and traversed over the ridge.

The slog out might have been worse than the slog in. Downed trees made it difficult to keep our skis on. But, we made it through another Gore Range epic and all was good!

The post TBT: Rain Peak (6 May 2018) appeared first on 14erskiers.com.

It was a whirlwind journey from Crested Butte. I escaped the closing-day apres-ski tradition to hit the road at a reasonable time to try to get close to the trailhead and catch some zzz’s. But, I tossed and turned, and only slept an hour at best. I met my friend Larry at the trailhead – who was just as eager as I after having also stood beneath Powell when we skied Peak C along with me in 2016. He graciously brought down his snowmobile from Steamboat so we could use it on the 8-mile road. We met in the dark hours of the morning, loaded up the snowmobile, and we were off. Of course, frozen spring conditions led to the snowmobile overheating a few times. But, we cooled it off when needed, and made our way to Piney Lake as dawn was breaking.

The skate across the valley went fast. But, things slowed as we began skinning in the trees. Steep and frozen, the skin was more of the “death-grip” kind – slow, treacherous, and energy-sucking.

We were both relieved when we exited the trees and found ourselves at the beautiful basin beneath Mount Powell. Larry, with Mount Powell, and Kneeknocker Pass to the right.

Part way up the pass, we switched from skinning to booting.

East Corner Peak presents some interesting lines in itself.

The wind blasted us on the pass, but we made it, and caught a nice glimpse of the south side of Powell.