The North on Pacific

On May 31st Jordan and I set out to ski the North Couloir on Pacific Peak.  We had a pleasant early morning skin up Humbug creek, and were soon on a bench looking up at the saddle between Crystal and Pacific Peak.

Solitude in Humbug Creek

Early morning light

We skinned up to the ridge through some early morning snow squalls and before we knew it, were standing on the summit!

Some idiot, (couldn't be me), set a very hyphy skin track straight up the face... Jordan rallies up like a pro

Our first good look at the couloir

Getting on the ridge between Crystal and Pacific

Jordan on the lower summit of Pacific with the gorgeous Climax Mine tailings ponds in the background.

Peering over the drop into the couloir I was scared.  We waited for a break in the weather and I dropped in.

One of my legs was shaking...

Some days I'm really on top of my game.  This was not one of those days.  I made a ski cut, and then couldn't handle the choke.  I had to side step for a good 50 feet through the choke.  The snow as heavy, and my skis kept getting stuck on the sides.  Then on my first turn I nearly went over the handlebars.  Eventually I remembered how to ski, but my decent was not graceful.

Jordan came on down, but unfortunately on his first turn the heel of his binding released.  He had locked the toe, but was quite rattled.  He ended up having to side slip down to a point where if his binding released again it would not have as high of consequences.

Dropping in

Navigating the choke

"Ah shit! My binding!"

Happy he survived the binding malfunction.

The line was awesome, but some days I ski better than others.  Next time, I'll do better.

From the bottom... Looking stormy again.

Anyways, we had a delightful summer snow slog out over the saddle between Crystal and Pacific, and then a quick meadow skip back to the car.  A hard line, but truly spectacular.  I would ski this again anytime.

Ski Adventures in May

Consistent snow in May kept temperatures lower which meant a lot of stuff could be skied later in the day that is normal in May.  Jordan and I headed up and skied Sniktau followed by a fun line on Coon Hill.  Two fun, classic front range lines.

Using cars to shuttle Sniktau is an easy way to get a lot of vertical skied in a relatively short amount of time.

The summit of Sniktau is maybe an hour or so of skinning from the top of Loveland Pass.

Torreys, which we skied the week before, is very socked in and snowy early in the morning.

Jordan and I made quick work of the skin, and were soon standing on top of Sniktau.  We dug a quick pit to check out the snow pack as things were still sliding quite a bit especially on the north side.  The top layers on the south had not consolidated with the winter snowpack, but wasn't very cohesive and certainly wasn't showing any signs propagating.  We dropped into the couloir in very flat light.

Jordan!

The bottom of the couloir had some really fun turns!

We raced down Grizzly Gulch which was noticeably devoid of any grizzlies... Got in some fine follow the leader, small pillows into rotten snow, and some stream skiing.  Jordan naturally informed me he was an X Stream skier, so opted for a drier route...

Still early in the day, we headed for Coon Hill.

Jordon working his way towards the ridge on Coon Hill.

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We got to the summit much later than would normally be safe in the spring, but temperatures were pretty cold all day.  Storms had been moving through all day.

The ridge at Loveland from the other side.

Storms moving across the divide, and particularly Mt. Hagar.

We made quick work of the ski down, and headed out after a fun day!

The next day, Memorial Day, I went for a ski with Erik.  We decided on Hagar.  We rallied up Dry Gulch, and soon could see where Hagar was supposed to be.  There seemed to be a storm just sitting on Hagar and the Citadel.  We still had a ways to go, so thought it might blow off by the time we were ready to ski... We were wrong.

Dry Gulch

The wind increased as we approached the ridge, and was blowing at gale force on the ridge.  It was like January.  We quickly threw on more clothes and struggled up in the fierce wind.

Erik dons his armor on the ridge.

We made it to the sub-summit and could not even see the actual summit much less where we were going.  As I approached the edge of the ridge to see if I could see a line a huge crack went out under my feet... As we suspected.  Severe wind loading was going to make this a no go.  We backtracked down the ridge to a point where we see a short, mellow line near some rocks so we could see where we were going.  It was angled so as not to be wind loaded.  We picked our way down, and ended up skiing some awesome glades on the north side of the gulch.

It was still a fun day.

Torreys

After a fairly mediocre snow pack during most of the winter, we finally got winter in May, and it came with a vengeance.  Low pressure system after low pressure system moved across from the Great Basin and mixed with moisture from the south resulting in SNOW.

Conditions were prime...to die in an avalanche...

But also for some really spectacular spring skiing.  Many barren lines in the front range quickly filled in and were ready to ski...cautiously.

Much of the snowpack settled into a pretty normal springtime snowpack, but it was hard to say what the new snow was doing.  There was some potential big slides, and indeed there were quite a few slides reported on north facing aspects through much of May.

Jordan and I decided to have a go at the area around Grays and Torreys.  Access would be relatively simple with a dirt/snowmobile, and there is a plethora of lines in the area on all aspects with varying degrees of difficulty.  We decided to head up and check out the area and decide on a line based on conditions.

Naturally, all good days in the forest start with choking and eye stinging 2-stroke exhaust.

A short dirt mobile ride, lead to a snow mobile ride up into the beauty of Stephens Gulch.  This made the approach quick and easy.  We stopped just below the bench leading up to the saddle between Grays and Torreys to take a look at things.  The snow was still hard with some new snow on top.  We decided to skin up to the saddle and take a look at the east facing couloirs, and assess snow conditions as we went up.

Skinning up the bench

The east face of Torreys is the very obvious epitome of awesome at the head of the valley.

Jordan approaching the saddle with the group of couloirs known as "the incredibles" behind him.  Later in the day we skied the crooked one furthest to the right in the photo.

We hit the ridge feeling great about the snow, and quickly came to our first couloir prospect.  This one wasn't spectacular and would have been pretty hyphy anyways.  We would have to scoot over large cornice and then immediately drop an eight foot avalanche crown into the couloir.  We decided to keep going because we might actually have a chance to ski the east face!!

Quickly summiting we checked out the situation.  The snow was solid with several inches of storm snow on top.  It looked like we would have to deal with sloughs, but it seemed manageable.

Peering down the east face

We quickly decided on the east face, got ready, and I made a quick ski cut.  Whoosh!!! "That was a big slough!"  The snow underneath had not softened much at all so turns were not overly squishy.  What a spectacular line though!!  The sloughs were big enough to keep things interesting, but as long as we paid attention they weren't going to sweep us over the cliff at the bottom.  We skied cautiously, and made it to the steep gash in the cliff that is the way down.

Jordan expertly works his way down the top of the east face.

My first turn into the couloir through the cliff triggered a small slab.  I didn't realize what had happened and turned directly back into it.  Luckily it was small so it didn't knock me down.  We foolishly didn't take into account the slightly different aspect of this section.  It has a more northerly aspect, and clearly had developed more of a storm slab than the rest of the line.

Jordon gets busy in the line through the cliff.

We had some brief traversing/billy goating, and then we were in the apron and enjoying some creamy low angle turns.  What fun!  This line is consistently steep, and gives the impression of approaching the end of the earth as you approach the cliff.  It is probably better under perfect corn conditions, but this wasn't a bad snag with conditions as uncertain as they were.

Jordan the surveyor.

After wrecking hard after trying to shoot the little gap in this:

Jordan wisely picking his way around the obviously stupid gap on the right.

 

And kindly retrieving my ski

 

We had lunch and labored up one of the north facing incredibles off of Edwards.  The post holing was worth it though because we got to ski and good 4-6 inches of awesome storm snow on the way down while the snow began picking up again.

Jordan exiting the couloir

Spring powder!

The next storm moving in...

A great day!!