Summited and skied our home mountain a few days ago. Myself and two boys just back from Europe. The young men were real troopers, doing the deed while still jet lagged and not acclimated. Nine hours car-to-car, 5,000 vertical feet, too many miles… But better than the best day at school, as the saying goes.
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| We found quite a bit of excellent skiing, though it required a few hours of slogging to connect everything. This is the easterly side of Bull Saddle, a lesser traveled area on the mountain. |
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| Mount Sopris, Colorado as it appears from the early spring trailhead (the central and right summit are actually the same height). LONG walk. I’d still use a snowmobile if possible. Next time. But slogs build character, right? If so, does that mean I should have ascended to the seventh plane of enlightenment by now? Perhaps slogs are over rated. |
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| Jason’s photographic interpretation of the approach march. We’re a couple hours in and the peak still dances in the distance like a mirage. |
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| I always feel better above timberline. Did Jason? We cut a tight set of switchbacks to avoid touching a possible slab on the last pitch to the lower East Summit. From there we continue to one of the twin main summits. |
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| Once past the lower East Summit you enjoy this view of the “YinYang” ridge. I’ve gotten a ton of great photos here so figured it was Jason’s turn and skied ahead to model my fine form. |
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| Near the main summit, after a short downclimb from the East Summit. As always, we’re practicing fanatical avalalanche avoidence so during the climb up we’ve used ridges to pass any steeper terrain where delayed action slabs might lurk. |
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| This is your pilot, we are now approaching 13,000 feet, feel the altitude yet? It’s 1:00 AM in France and we’ll be landing in two hours, enjoy your flight… |
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| We tried a new (for us) way off the summit by skiing the huge southerly slopes you can see from up the Crystal valley. Before dropping too low we then traversed to Bull Saddle, where terrain features and slope angles allow avalanche safe skiing off the ridge into the forest below. From there we slogged out a rather lengthy snowmobile trail (the Hay Park route) that took us back to our morning approach route. |
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| Our crew. Mountains make us feel good. Really. |
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.
