Route: Southwest Couloir

Team: Ted, Christy, Joey Giampaolo

This ski adventure had been on our list for a while. We started by climbing South Maroon via the East (Y) Couloir to the summit, skied the backside down to Fravert Basin, and then made our way back around to Maroon Lake.

There are several options for getting back to the north side of the Bells. In our case, from high in Fravert Basin, we skinned up and over the col to the north, which put us in Upper Snowmass Creek, a.k.a. Lost Remuda. Then, we booted up the back of the Gunsight Notch and down climbed the other side back, skiing below the North Face of North Maroon Peak to the Minneha Trail and back to the car.

An easier option might have been to climb up to a point on the ridge between South Maroon and Belleview.

It was a long day in bad snow. If we learned one thing that can be passed along to anyone reading this for route beta, it’s that the Maroon Lake side of the Gunsight Notch is corniced and very steep at the top. It isn’t skiable without a downclimb, and a rope would be handy. I opted to go first and downclimb and it was very precarious. But like all Type II fun, in hindsight, it’s a cool circumnavigation of the Bells on skis.