Chris Davenport skiing the North Face of North Maroon Peak.

From Tagert Hut we approached the East Face and climbed up the couloir to the lookers right, which put us on the ridge and on the summer route which we followed to the summit.

Joey on the final approach to the summit.

On the summit, the weather was in-and-out, we had some sun and visibility for the ski down.

Andy Docken skis the East Face. The snow was OK, new powder on an old crust. It was what you might call “mountain snow,” not great but not bad.

Kim Levin skis below the upper face. The Central Couloir that splits the East Face can be seen behind to the top left.

Jess Humphrey drops into one of the lower couloirs that lead off the face. You can see some of the others in the group waiting below, a long way down.

Just back from Norway, it was feeling hot, like summer was right around the corner. Sean, Christy, and I went up to ski Electric Peak, a summit we had been on in the summer plenty but had never skied.

A straightforward one, we could skin all the way to the summit.

Christy skis the Bicentennial (CO top 200) for her first time.

The snow was good on north aspects, hot powder.

And down into the basin above American Lake.

As a bonus we the regained the ridge of nearby Leahy Peak and skied that one too.

Sean in one of Leahy’s north couloirs. There are quite a few north facing routes off this unranked summit, all of which offer good skiing.

Jon and Chris make their way up the couloir that is just to the lookers-right of the North Face. It connects with the west side of the mountain and offers pretty easy access to the summit.

The final steps to the summit.

Once through the pinch of the cliff band know as the Punk Rock Band, the skiing was really good.

This was my fifth time skiing this line. Every trip requires a bit of poking around to find the right route through the cliff bands. If you go the right way there’s a pretty smooth line all the way down.

Jon and Chris come through one of the crux sections. Later in the spring you have to scoot across this part on bare rock. We had it easy today.

Looking back up at the line from below. After skiing off the summit you make your way through the Punk Rock Band at the far left, and then ski fall-line and zig-zag a bit until you reach easier terrain by the Gunsight Notch.

This was a new one for me. I’ve skied Castle Peak ten different times before this day, but never by the mountain’s south side. Here Max Taam heads up to the North Couloir which was the route we used to reach the summit.

Max in the North Couloir. Conundrum Peak can be seen behind.

Starting down the South Face. It was early and the snow was still quite frozen.

Pete assessing the line. There are several ways off the summit and down the South Face but some of them close out above cliffs. Pete had done some recon on the line and found a pretty smooth way down into Cumberland Basin below.

Pete in one of the narrower sections.

Looking back up at Max exiting the narrow couloir. We were out of the tricky terrain at this point and we transitioned to boots and crampons. We were able to climb up to the ridge behind us that splits the East and South faces and ski a couloir back down towards Ashcroft.

A photo of Pete in the couloir that was just to the east of the East Face lines that took us back down to the huts, Castle Creek, and the truck.

Mount Aetna, a Bicentennial, has been on our list to ski for years. Located in the Southern Sawatch by Monarch Pass, its main ski line is known as the Grand Couloir, a fitting name for such an aesthetic ski line. Here Christy skins up the ridge to the side of the GC.

It’s about a 3000 foot fall-line descent right from the summit. And if you time it right, you may find it like we did, in corn conditions the whole way down.

Mount Aetna and the Grand Couloir from afar. Winds always scour the right flank of the couloir dry so it maintains this rather odd look of only being half filled with snow. It’s such a big feature there’s plenty of room on the snowy side for skiing.

Just a quick pre-work lap up on Independence Pass one morning. We headed to West Geissler and caught corn snow on east aspects around 7:45 am.

It’s pretty up there, and more importantly, it’s a really special thing to be able to do before heading to work.

Not bad for June.