We probably talked about skiing Hilliard and Keefe peaks for over 15 years. Every time we discussed skiing these two reclusive peaks in the Elk Mountains, we opted to put off the effort until another time. It never seemed like there was an easy way to do them.

Located far along Highlands Ridge– the north-south ridgeline connecting Aspen Highlands ski area with Triangle Pass– Hilliard and Keefe peaks (and other named peaks like Hunter) are just plain hard to reach.

You can access it from deep in the Conundrum Creek Valley or the East Maroon Valley, and some would say those efforts should be done as overnights. Other skiers approach from Montezuma Basin, climbing up and over the Castle-Conundrum saddle and descending to the Conundrum Hot Springs, where you can camp and attempt Hilliard and Keefe.

After years of deliberating the options, we decided to make a one-day attempt via the Conundrum Creek Valley. In the spring of 2023, there was a lot of snow in the Elk Mountains, and we figured we could skin the whole valley on continuous snow for seven miles toward the hot springs and then begin our ascent of Hilliard.

It was a very early start, around 3:30 am, and we skinned the valley, sticking close to the route the summer trail follows for a few hours until it was time to leave the valley floor and start towards the summit.

There was a bit of route finding up ramps and gullies to treeline, and then we entered a high, east-facing basin. It steepened as we neared the ridge, and we had to decide how to approach the summit. We ultimately decided to gain the ridge to the northeast of the summit and hike from there.

After a long approach, we were finally on top of Hilliard Peak, 13,409 ft. It was a joy to finally reach this summit, named after a prolific mountaineer who died on North Maroon Peak in 1970. You can read more about Ed Hilliard here. The Fowler-Hilliard Hut of the 10th Mtn Hut System is also named after Ed Hilliard.

We took in the expansive, remote views, then skied an east-facing line back down to the basin and enjoyed pretty awesome corn snow down to around 12,000 feet. At that point, we began to contour around a ridge that allowed us to approach Keefe Peak.

The sun was getting high, and the temperature was rising, so we moved quickly and efficiently up the east face/south ridge of Keefe. We could skin quite close to the summit, and after a short section of booting, we were on top of our second peak of the day- Keefe Peak, 13,516 ft.

We didn’t waste any time transitioning to skis. The snow was getting hot, and we wanted to get off the steep slopes and down to the valley ASAP. Despite sloppy snow lower down, we found the skiing fun, and before long, we were retracing our route back to the trailhead.