Skiing

Mt. Democrat – 6/16/07

~ Mike ~ Leave a comment

June 16, 2007
Mt. Democrat
14,286′

The lifts had stopped turning a few weeks before, but my friend Andrew and I weren’t done skiing. Word was that snow here was pretty solid, so we set off early in the morning to hit a 14er and do some skiing. I’d been here before, but Andrew hadn’t. This was his second 14er.

They don’t call it Kite Lake for nothing:

Andrew slogging up the rock pile:

The flat valley in the distance is where South Park, CO is. It’s gorgeous down there, but the wind really rips in the winter.

Me:

Eating a bag of fish on the summit:

Getting started:

Enjoying the corn:

Andrew ripping down a nice steep section:

Fun was had by all. The snow eventually ran out and we had a mile or so hike out over sharp rocks.

James Peak – 5/20/07

~ Mike ~ Leave a comment

Originally written 5/20/07

This week I had been planning to go do something reasonably epic with a guy from work, but he backed out so I stuck to something closer to home and shorter, James Peak via St. Mary’s Glacier. This would afford me the time to take a nap and look at houses before seeing the girlfriend. I woke my ass up at four in the morning, was on the road at quarter after five, and on the trail at quarter after six.

As usual, I famously lost the trail (never been there before) and ended up climbing a reasonably steep snowfield instead of the glacier. Got a nice view of Evans at 7am. Still looked to have a reasonable amount of snow.

As I got up over the hill I was climbing, I found a park some sledneckers had setup. Not at all what I was expecting.

Picture of where I wasn’t going, but looked to have some pretty sweet lines available:

Bancroft on the left, James on the right:

Above 12,000′ or so I started seeing these tiny little flowers. The flowers themselves were less than 1/4″ across.

After much elevation gain/loss and postholing through unconsolidated snow fields walking in my T2Xs (because I didn’t know where I was going and never bothered to see if my old skins would fit my new skis – they didn’t), I made it to the summit. An old married couple got there just as I did, and they said they’d tele’d James Peak every year for 25 years (except in 2002, they said there hadn’t been enough snow). The woman used T3s, and I think the guy had leather boots. I was amazed at how totally they killed it on the way down. I wish I’d thought to get pictures of them. Anyway, summit shots.

As I was getting ready to go, a guy who said he’d smoked a bowl before starting up showed up. We chatted for a few minutes. He was definately stoned. There was also a pit dug on the summit where it looked like someone had bivy’d for a night recently. Shot of my tracks + those of the old tele-rippers:

Mine are the big wide ones. The two people there are the married couple. Tons of fun on some great corn. I straightlined the bottom hundred feet or so to make it out across the flats, and got pretty damn far. On the way out, I found that the CMC was having some avalanche/glacier class. There had to be at least 50 people there. Here’s a small handful of them:

All in all, a great day. 4 hours 45 minutes car to car, a bit of sunburn, and some great corn. I might have one more day on skis next weekend, but after that it’s probably going to be time for dry adventures with boring descents. Oh well, such is life.

Dead Dog Couloir – Torreys Peak – 4/21/07

~ Mike ~ 1 Comment

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: