After the steep finish to the ridge the exposure stayed high. We gained this upper section at the saddle in the center of the photo, it’s a burly finish and a committing ski. Route: West Face Team: Ted, Al Beyer “I’m an architect, I like to think outside the box.” That was Al’s reasoning as to why we should try to ski Capitol Peak from the west, knowing that to...
Route: North Face Couloir Christy getting in the way of another scenic shot Team: Christy, Ted A few days after skiing both Castle and Conundrum peaks with Adrian, Christy and I headed up. Today was a weekend day though, and it was crowded. Nowadays, with all the near “real-time” trip reports you can find online, everyone and their mothers were up looking for some early season glory. It was a...
Neal skis the June snow. Route: North Face Team: Ted, Neal Beidleman Our day on South Maroon last week was a great day by all accounts. At its conclusion, over beers at the car while looking back up towards the Bells we agreed North Maroon Peak still looked good. Neal was motivated by the idea of being able to ski all six Elk Range 14ers in one season– a feat...
And through the Garbage Chute. Route: East Face to Bell Cord Couloir Team: Ted, Neal Beidleman I drove to the Maroon Creek parking lot alone. Neal Beidleman was experiencing an alarm clock fail. At a certain point in the spring after so many days up high, you know with near certainty what the conditions will be. I was so sure of South Maroon Peak I felt OK going for this...
Christy, with the East Face of Siberia Peak behind. Route: West Face Team: Ted, Christy, Dirk Bockelmann Take two. I skied “on” Snowmass Mountain back in 2002, but couldn’t claim it as a summit descent. So after Pikes Peak last week, I rallied Dirk and Christy for what has become our annual Memorial Day Weekend 14er ski trip and we headed over to Marble. A new side of the mountain...
Chris, in the big middle section of the Landry Route. Route: East Face Team: Ted, Chris Davenport, Neal Beidleman The advanced planning was minimal, consisting of a couple of organizational calls from Chris, laced with tones of muted optimism. The recon was even more limited. We had a few aerial shots of the route, a line that had only been skied once before back in 1978. The hazards were widely...
My first ski descent of the North Face of North Maroon Peak back in 2005.
It’s amazing what a good day you have up in Montezuma Basin in October. Since Dirk and I were headed out on a climbing trip to Ecuador in a week or so we wanted some time up high. A bluebird day with easy skiing snow greeted us.
An October ski descent of Castle Peak’s North Couloir.