Anthracites Ski - 12.31.2013

Since buying my ticket back to Colorado for the holidays, all I've been thinking about is touring in the snow zones of Crested Butte's backcountry. On Sunday, we headed south from the Front Range, and yesterday we got out for the tour that I've been dreaming of. An 11 km sled ride brought us to the Anthracite Wilderness Area west of town.

Skinning through the familiar and silent old growth forest brought back many fond memories as we approached our first run. Looking south from the top of the skin-track past the Playground and Ohio Creek. Maybe someday we'll have a nice little cabin back there...


The Athracites are affectionately referred to as the Anthracite Mountain Resort because of their popularity with the ski community here. But, a short detour off the standard skin-track, and we were standing on top of 400 vertical meters of untracked.

Photo: Jordan Scheremeta

We worked our way down, leap frogging from bench to bench. Jordan leaning it over:

2012-2013 Season Retrospect - Drought, Injury, Blower & Spines

August is here, and as usual, it brings with it the itch for winter. At the same time, I'm reminded of just how awesome last season was. Looking back, it was filled with:

new terrain,

big terrain,

broken sleds,

Photo: Nick Matisse

Pittsburg Ski - 3.3.2013

With the recent heat and wind adding to the persistent instabilities lurking in the snowpack, many of our first choices for today were quickly knocked off the list. Nick suggested heading north of Crested Butte up the Slate River valley to a zone I've never skied before. 30 minutes of jarring tandem sledding through huge crusty whoops did not increase my enthusiasm as we arrived at the base of the zone.

Warm weather and light snow greeted us as we headed up:

At the top we quickly realized that we were looking at an untracked zone filled with creamy settled powder; we started it out in proper fashion:

Photo: Nick Matisse

Nick:

Adam composed in the air...

...only to find a grabby wind crust in the landing:

Run two brought more drops:

Photo: Nick Matisse

Adam:

back to his usual stomping form:

Beat from the first two runs, we enjoyed the creamy snow and some fun pillows on our last run: 

Photo: Adam Buckwalter

Adam scopes lines for another day:

Today was one of those sleeper days - I went out not expecting to find good snow, but instead found creamy untracked snow with the zone to ourselves! 

Deeper - 1.20.2013

After a great line on Gothic the day before, we headed out Kebler Pass last Sunday in search of good snow.

A dry week and rotting snow meant we drove past many of the usual zones in our search for good snow. 12 miles down, 5 miles to go:


Needless to say, the hour long sled access was worth it:


Matt getting ready to drop in:


Nick:


Matt:


Hey Mike! there's a cliff over there, better check it out!

Photo: Nick Matisse


Photo: Nick Matisse

Yep, that was a flat landing:

Photo: Nick Matisse

Matt:

Photo: Nick Matisse

Matt enters the white room:


After a few laps, the sun disappeared behind the ridgeline, and we headed farther out for a little sledding. And...in true snowmobile fashion, Matt's starter immediately died.

Photo: Nick Matisse

Before limping back to the trailhead we made sure to check out the snow quality:

Photo: Nick Matisse

Mike:

Photo: Nick Matisse

Nick:


Nick:


too many peaks to name...


Marcellina Mountain:


Raggeds Wilderness:


A great day in a new zone! Can't wait to get back when the snow is a little deeper and more stable! Thanks to Nick for the great pics!

Gothic Mountain Ski - 1.19.2013

Rolling into Crested Butte at 10 this morning was admittedly a bit late to start for a tour. Fortunately, Brittany hadn't already headed out for a ski and suggested that we check out Gothic's south facing spoon. By 11, we were on the sled and headed up Washington Gulch towards the base of Gothic. The skin started in beautiful aspen glades which thinned as we climbed higher, the views getting better and better along the way.

Mount Owen with Coneys in the foreground:

Moonrise over The Spoon:

Higher up the skinning was a bit challenging for me with plenty of hard switchbacks up the steep flanks of Gothic. Brittany slaying the skin with the Town of Crested Butte and Whetstone Mountain behind.

Cinnamon and Treasury:

Purple Mountain:

Augusta and Mineral Point:

Mount Crested Butte and Snodgrass:

About 100 yards from the top of The Spoon, the snow suddenly went downhill becoming markedly unsupportable. Knowing that the shallow snow at the top of the line would hold similar potentially dangerous snow, we called it quits and prepared to head down. Sitting at 12,000 feet with no wind and beautiful mountains in every direction is about as close to heaven as I think you can get - I could have stayed there forever, but with the sun beating down on the south face it was time to head down.

Brittany powering through some wind crust up high:

transitioning into more consistent snow:

a lifetime of lines:

approaching the choke...

skiing the apron below the walls of The Spoon:

and wrapping it up with some meadow skipping!

Looking back at the line, what a beautiful day!

What a fun line! The steep skin itself was definitely exhilarating, followed by 2,000 vertical feet of continuous steep turns. Can't wait to get back on Gothic!

Schyulkill Ski - 1.1.2013

After two great days in the Steamboat backcountry, Rachel and I headed south to Crested Butte where we met up with our good friends Nick and Frank for a New Year's day tour on Schyulkill. Schyulkill, pronounced sku kel, is a dutch word supposedly meaning "hidden river"... I don't know if that's true, but its still a very unique and cool mountain that I was glad to get on for the first time.

A flat skin up the scenic Slate River valley brought us to the bottom of the climb. Schyulkill, Augusta, Mineral Point, and Purple Mountain:


After two hours of skinning through dark trees we climbed into the beautiful afternoon winter light.


Gothic to the northeast:


Red Lady's Redwell Basin to the south:


Nick and Frank scoping the plethora of amazing terrain towards Scarp Ridge:


Three hours after leaving the parking lot, we were on top of the ridge, experiencing the beautiful phenomena of blue skies and falling snow. To the west, the Ruby Range was still socked in by clouds.

As is far too common in Colorado, depth hoar continues to persist on northern aspects where early season snow has been rotting for the last two months. Fortunately, some southern aspects harbor little of this early season snow; cold weather and mild mid-winter sun has allowed good snow to last on these aspects. So, we dropped off the south side of Schyulkill towards Oh-be-joyful Creek.

Frank going over the edge of the bowling ball:


Moving from one open clearing to the next, we headed for the valley floor.

Photo: Nick Matisse

Rachel:


Nick:


Towards the bottom we ran into this neat ice fall:

Photo: Nick Matisse

Rachel:

Photo: Nick Matisse

This kind of south facing line often isn't an option in the winter. This was a beautiful day on an aspect that we don't often ski.

For me this was a big line: my mid-winter backcountry skiing is generally limited to terrain where the consequences of a slide are low, relying more on terrain selection than understanding of snowpack stability for line selection. Thanks to Frank for taking us out and to Nick for the great pictures! This was a Top 10 day!