Amy and I planned to go climb her first winter 14er on Sunday, but Valentine’s Day spilled over and we never made it. This turned out to be a good thing, as the weather was reportedly cloudy on Saturday (though forecast to be sunny), and it turned out to be sunny on Sunday (despite the forecast calling for clouds and snow).

I crawled out of bed at 4:45 yesterday morning not entirely psyched to be up that early, but not too bothered since bedtime came at 8:45 the night before. I dressed, ate, filled up some cups and a thermos with coffee, threw my stuff in the car, and it was off to Amy’s. There, Amy dressed and got stuff together, I ate more, carried her stuff to the car, and we hit the road around 6:30. Right at 8am, we pulled into the parking area for the trailhead. “Was I supposed to bring my poles?” “…seriously?”

Amy looking like a runway model.

As we were getting ready, the legendary Horton the Quandary Dog ran across the street to greet us. He waited impatiently for us to start going by attacking trees.

8:15 and we’re off, with one pole a piece.

Snowshoeing and skinning up with only one pole turned out to be pretty reasonable, despite my expectations.
This photo was taken at our first of several rest breaks. Horton had stuck with us so far, rarely venturing more than a few feet away. I was astonished. He again got impatient as we rested, so he attacked some more trees. I found the carnage from this incident still covering the entire trail on our way out.
A couple snickers later (as well as Horton demanding some food) and we were back to the races.
Amy and Horton, out for a hike on a beautiful February day.
I was having gear issues here, and Amy took advantage of the opportunity to put some distance between us. This may have been where I strapped my skis to my back and started booting it, but I’m not sure. Skiing back through here was not an option, as the wind stripped all the snow in the foreground of this picture by the time we got back down.
This is the best scenic I took of the day, in my mind. Polarizers are amazing for getting deep blue skies like this. The trail follows the ridgeline all the way up. Here’s Amy, pointing out the rest of the way up. We were both getting pretty tired here, and the sails on our backs certainly weren’t helping us through the strong winds, but we kept moving as best we could.
There were many moments when it looked like we weren’t going to make it. A couple other people who caught up to us dropped out and turned around due to exhaustion. Amy eventually started counting out 25 steps at a time between breaks. I decided to go with her, as I was moving pretty slowly at this point as well. The number moved up to 30 steps before long.

Nearing the top, she asked out many more times she’d have to take 30 steps. “Five” was the answer. “Five” turned out to be roughly half of reality, and roughly 300 steps later, we made it.

The way down was exhausting, and we both just wanted to be out of there. No extreme radgnar skiing photos, as it was bulletproof sastrugi most of the way down. I’m sure Horton wanted to go home ASAP so he could down a huge bowl of food, but he stuck with us the entire time. I’m amazed that he took such a liking to us, and never went off with anyone else who passed us or who we passed.
It was a huge relief to finally see the car again after seven and a half hours on the mountain. When we got back and were unpacking, Horton stopped briefly to say goodbye, and walked back home. As I was packing my stuff into the car, I noticed something that would’ve been great to have up top in the cold: a full thermos of coffee, still warm.

It’s been a while since I’ve really gotten out there. Pretty high avy danger this year, going out of town, and miscellaneous projects all put a damper on it. This is nothing like some of the other peaks in CO getting hit (Capital, Pyramid), but I would die if I tried those. Wanted something with some challenge but semi-close and not something that would require a 12+ hour day, so I woke up at 3am and got ready to go.

When I don’t do this for a while, I start to forget why I do it. I was asking myself that last night when I went to bed, when I got up at three in the morning, and on the entire drive there. It took me a while to figure it out, even with views like this all around.

When the road is melted out, you can go straight from where you park to the 2,500′ couloir and start climbing. When it’s snowed in, you get to go an extra two miles on foot. That’s when I saw the first good view of what I’d be doing today.

It’s the farthest left strip of snow going top to bottom. The summit is in back.

45 minutes after I started or so, I was at the end of the road. Just in time for sunrise.

It was pretty cold this morning. 6 degrees and strong winds. Fortunately, the wind would die down through the morning.

I jumped behind some trees for a windbreak, and switched over from skis to crampons. There was a pretty decent view of the route from here.

A couple minutes in and you could see it all.

There’s a party of five non-ski mountaineers visible in that picture. Right behind me were two more skiers. After a while, we all ended up bunched together. For anyone interested, there’s a hell of a bootpack in place now.

When I go up in to the mountains, I tend to get a song stuck in my head for most of the hike. Usually, it’s some crap I heard on the radio on the way in. Today, it was Jingle Bells, probably because of the amazing amount of snow still around. I was climbing the couloir, Jingle Bells just constantly going off in my head. Almost ridiculous.

A couple hours of that and you get to the top. I made it there just before 10:30.

I hung out for a while to let the sun soften the snow. As cold as it was last night, and with the wind still going lightly, it took a while. I finally had to just up and go, because I was getting pretty cold. It was a tough ski out, with extremely variable snow, and me with skis that aren’t very good for it. Going down the road was worse, frozen solid and with big soft skis that were collecting ungodly amounts of sticky, wet snow. Finally made it back right at noon, for a 6-hour car-to-car time. Not too bad.

Originally written 4/21/07

Got back at it again this weekend to go after a line I’ve wanted to do all winter. I packed all my gear up Thursday night, and dropped off the dog with the parents. Friday after work I headed straight up, parked, and started the slog to the summer trailhead around 5:15pm.

All that stuff must’ve weighed 40lb. Finally made it there about 7, and it was still light. I was glad to not have to set up my tent by headlamp. Threw everything together in a few minutes, and had a home for the night:

Now, my sleeping bag is rated for 15F, and it didn’t get out of the 20s last night on top of Copper, yet I was pretty f’n cold. I also was treated to a wonderful smell reminiscent of Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef when I opened it up in the morning.

Hit the trail about 6:30am, with solid skintrack to follow:

Came around Kelso and saw the first view of Torreys.

Not much later, trying to be artsy while taking a break:

A few hours later, a storm was blowing in and I was less than 100′ off the summit. I was beat though, so I sat down and enjoyed a bag of fish (Sweet + Spicy Tuna) and a clifshot. Finally made it up, to some pretty solid winds coming in.

Proof I was there:

Then I was on my way. The ever-popular Dav Shot:

On the way down I beatered it pretty bad, somehow ended up with my hand punched about a foot and a half in to the snow. Now sure how exactly, but I’m glad because it stopped me from sliding a fair ways. Of interest to anyone planning to head up there in the near future, the snow was solid and stable all the way down, at least about half way down.

My tracks at the end of it: