Route: West Ridge

Team: Ted (solo)

Some of the hardest days were the ones I expected to be the easiest.

I thought that skiing Mount Evans from Guanella Pass would be an easy day. It had snowed a few inches the night before, which made the approach/ski line, when viewed from the car, look fairly well covered. I skinned from the truck up the gradual slope west of Evans and Mt. Spalding. It wasn’t long before I realized the snow wasn’t too deep; it was quite thin, actually, and the rocks were barely covered. Failing to think ahead, I continued on, thrashing my skins on the rocks underneath. I clumsily made my way up the slope until I was no longer on a skiable surface but rather talus and scree, covered with a dusting of fresh snow. Not good.

At a certain point, I decided the snow was too thin, and I should put my skis on my backpack and walk to the summit. Slippery snow-covered scree in alpine ski boots (I didn’t have a proper AT setup) isn’t only slow and tedious but can also easily lead to a fall. It was so slow that by the time I returned from the summit, the sun had melted much of the new snow, and the slope I had ascended had been transformed into a proper scree field. I had to carry my skis down! What a nightmare. Except for a few stretches of rocky and barely skiable snow, I walked all the way back to the truck.

I did not ski continuously from the summit; my skins and skis were thrashed, and I had a headache from dehydration—it was a hellish day overall. I never expected such a fight from Mount Evans, and I began to learn my lesson on preparation. Through the years, I found that the days I planned on being easy often surprised me, and the days I psyched myself about an objective were the outings that came with the least trouble.

Despite reaching the summiting and skiing a short distance, I did not count this as a ski descent. I would return here in 2005 to ski from the summit on its East Side and to repeat that route in 2006 with Chris Davenport and in 2009 with Christy.