Route: Box Creek Cirque

Team: Christy, Ted, Dirk Bockelmann

With a perfect weather forecast for the next few days, Christy and I went directly from Mt. Bierstadt to Mt. Elbert. We met with Dirk Bockelmann at the Mt. Elbert trailhead near the Lakeview Campground outside Twin Lakes. Some comfy car camping with a big fire made for an easy night and a quick start the following morning. We were up and out of camp around dawn and made our way up the summer trail, first with skis racked on our packs, until snowline, where we skinned on frozen snow to the summit.

Mount Elbert tends to drag on in any season, probably because it has the most vertical from the treeline to the summit, and those few extra hundred vertical feet are noticeable. We arrived at a windy summit about three and a half hours after leaving camp, quickly transitioned, and headed down the ridge to the top of the Box Creek Cirque. Protected from the winds, the snow in the couloirs had softened considerably. It looked like our timing was just right. After reaching the lake below, we contoured over the ridge to our east and skied perfect spring-softened corn down to the end of the snow, finishing on foot. This day was as smooth and straightforward as these ski trips get.

Dirk had to return to Aspen, the long way around on I-70, as Independence Pass was closed. Christy and I drove south to the North Cottonwood Creek trailhead and quickly headed into Horn Fork Basin that afternoon to camp and try for Harvard and Columbia the next day.