Route: Southwest Couloir

Team: Ted, Christy, Joey Giampaolo

This had been on our list for a while. Climb South Maroon via the East (Y) Couloir to the summit, ski the backside down to Fravert Basin, and then make our way back around to Maroon Lake. In our case we skinned up and over the col to the north, which put us in Upper Snowmass Creek, a.k.a. Lost Remuda, and then we booted up the back of the Gunsight Notch and down climbed the other side back to the Minnehaha Trail.

It was a long day on bad snow. If we learned one thing to pass along, it’s that the Maroon Lake side of the Gunsight Notch is corniced, and isn’t really skiable without a downclimb, which was pretty precarious. All-in-all it’s a really cool circumnavigation of the Bells on skis.