Route: Southeast Face

Team: Christy, Ted, Kim Havell, Karen Kingsley

The four of us had just skied the Crestone Needle and from Broken Hand Pass were looking over to Humboldt. We could see the straightforward route down, across Upper South Colony Lakes, and up the mountain’s standard summer route. The ski down would be thin at the top, as it always is, but to get two Sangre summits checked off in one day would be sweet. Plus, it would allow us to break camp a day early and try for a third peak before heading back to Aspen Sunday night.

And straightforward it was. We skied down from Broken Hand to Upper South Colony Lakes, which are around 12K, so it was only a 2,000 vertical foot climb up pretty easy terrain to the summit. The ski down the southeast was mellow, and some creative route finding once below treeline allowed us to ski right back to the tent at the snow-covered summer 4wd parking. We packed up, said goodbye to Karen and Kim, and headed out. We spent the night in Buena Vista and skied Mount Massive the following morning.