Up top, not much to see here, either. Route: South Slopes Team: Ted, Chris Davenport Even though I had already skied Mount Sherman once in 2004, I still welcomed Chris’s invitation to do something different and get out of Aspen for the day. We could talk up some more exciting trips for spring and maybe somewhere down the road he would return the favor and come along with me when...
A January ski descent of Quandary peak with Chris Davenport and Horton the Quandary Dog.
The Yawner Gullies from San Luis Pass. Route: Yawner Gullies (SW) Team: Ted, Sean Shean After the shakeup on Wetterhorn, Sean insisted he was alright with an attempt at San Luis Peak the next morning. The mellow peak would make for a good day. We camped at the Equity Mine Trailhead, at the snow closure. Respecting Sean’s request to not repeat yesterdays predictable avalanche situation, we left early. The ski...
Route: Silver Creek Cirque Team: Ted (solo) After a warmup on Quandary a few days earlier, I started a push to get some peaks skied without having to recruit partners too heavily. I generally don’t like solo days but sometimes you just have to go out on your own or risk using your available days waiting on others. I knew Sean was available in a couple of weeks so I...
Route: Cristo Couloir Team: Ted, Sean Shean Spring is here. The lifts just closed and without any big, far away adventure planned, I was hoping to get a short list of 14ers skied before the snow melted. If it’s anything like last spring (14 peaks skied) then I’d be psyched. Let’s start out with a Quandary East Ridge/Cristo Couloir warm-up. Technically dull and with great road access it’s a classic...
The ski line and route (dots). It’s a straightforward one. Route: East Face Team: Christy, Ted Moving south from Columbia, Princeton would be next. I was unaware at the time how good the coverage was this spring in the Sawatch Range. Princeton, in particular, wouldn’t hold this much skiable snow for a few years. We figured it would be a good one because of the easy access on the Mt....
Route: South Face from Horn Fork Basin Pretty good timing for soft snow. Team: Ted, Christy Feeling motivated after a textbook spring ski of Mount Elbert, Christy and I headed to the North Cottonwood Creek trailhead, for Harvard and Columbia. In order to nail these two descents in one spring day we thought it best to make a high camp so we packed in all our stuff and set up...
Once on the summit plateau, unwelcome weather arrived. Route: West Face Team: Christy, Ted In a week we were headed to Europe to ski the Haute Route, the classic ski trip connecting the towns of Chamonix and Zermatt. So in an effort to prep for the tour, we decided to head to Lake City for a weekend trip. We made our way there Friday afternoon, staying in a Lake City...
Route: South Face to Chihuahua Gulch Team: Ted, Christy After skiing the northeast side of Grays Peak, Christy and I made our way back up to the Grays/Torreys saddle, and then to the summit of Torreys. It was pretty nice up there, Christy was especially pleased to be there as this was our first double-summit ski day. Christy tele’s down the broad southern face of Torreys Peak. After some creative...
The line down the south facing Cristo Couloir. I didn’t come home with any other photos from the day. Route: Cristo Couloir Team: Ted, Jared Ettlinger Late April— snow is everywhere but the lifts are closed. It doesn’t always make sense to me, for example, why Aspen Highlands’ maximum base depth is often reached on or near the mountains closing day. There’s still so much skiing to be had when...
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