Grizzly Peak Ski - 5.4.2012

After spending Thursday packing my truck in CB, I met Grete and Brennan around midnight in Keytsone with the plan of skiing Loveland Pass's Grizzly Peak the next day. Last time I skied Grizzly, we followed the ridgeline from the top of Loveland Pass, although this involves less vertical, it involves LOTS more horizontal in the wind.

Given the forecast for high winds, we decided to ascend Grizzly from the upper parking lot at Arapahoe Basin with the goal of skiing Grizzly's northeast couloir. At first the route was quite frustrating: breakable snow, open streams, willows, and steep dirt banks. But after a 30 minutes we were making quick progress across hard spring snow.

The snow quickly became steeper as we approached Grizzly, leading to some very efficient climbing.

Two hours after leaving the parking lot we were above Grizzly's northwest saddle, in the middle of strong and steady winds.

30 minutes of bootpacking up loosing talus brought us to the summit and beautiful views in every direction. Hagar and Citadel:

Still on the wish list:

With very strong winds at the summit, we ate a quick snack and headed east down the ridgeline towards the top of the line. 

10 minutes of scrambling down the ridgeline brought us to snow which continued essentially to the top of the couloir.

After a quick inspection we found that the top of the couloir was bare, requiring an exposed entrance over the cliffs to the skier's right of the couloir:

Two months ago Andrew suffered a concussion, this was his first time on skis since then, after a moment to collect his thoughts he was ready to drop.

Ethan getting ready to ski for the second time in 15 months:

Unfazed. 

I brought up the rear; reminded that there are few things as fun as focused skiing: everything seems to go silent as the world closes in around you. After the entrance ramp we dropped into the tight granite walls of the couloir proper. Andew:

Ethan:

That was fun!

A short apron brought us to our lunch destination

and the chance to cover our skins with pine needles!

With the sun high overhead we began the skin up Grizzly Gulch back towards Loveland Pass.

I'm always amazed how the rugged terrain of Grizzly Gulch contrasts to the smooth rolls of Loveland Pass.

Still good turns to be had on Grizzly's north face:

After 2 hours of sweltering skinning we were happily perched on top of Cupid with 2000 feet of southwest facing turns down Dave's Wave in front of us.

Brennan enjoys unique turns on the wave:

The snow was...well...thin lower down, but with a little rock, bush, log, and stream skiing we made it to within a three hundred yards of the car.

What a day! This is definitely not the fastest or most efficient way of skiing the Grizzly Couloir, but at the same time, skiing the Grizzly Couloir from Grizzly Gulch makes for a very easy day. We definitely got our exercise! Then again, its an aesthetic and steep line that is worth skiing at least once! That being said, the north face of Grizzly holds a plethora of a steep, unique 1500 vertical foot lines. When I ski these I will probably access them from A-Basin and exit via Dave's Wave.

Dave's Wave Ski - 5.6.2009

Looking back, this is a day that I will always remember, not so much for the skiing, but for the serious scare Jeff had. It all started off normally enough, I was in finals of my senior year of undergrad, and Jeff and I both wanted to get out for the morning. We started off on the north side of the pass with a car lap and found 6 inches of soft May powder. We hitched back up to the pass summit and immediately started the mellow hike east towards Cupid's almost indistinguishable summit.

The Route

The hike is a quick one as you can stay on grass most of the way, then click in and traverse south to the saddle before a short walk across a little more grass towards the top of Dave's Wave. As we were greeted by strong winds as we followed the ridge south. This is a fun introductory Loveland Pass line because you get high enough to get great looks at many of the areas prominent lines including the Mine Dumps, Golden Bear, Hagar, the Citadel, Bethel, Sniktau, Torreys, Grays, Grizzley, and Marjorie.

Jeffry, Loveland Basin, Hagar, Trelease, The Citadel, Pettingell...

Windy as usual

Marjorie

The Tuning Forks of Torreys & Grays

Yep, still want to ski this

Grizzly's north face

The south bowl of Sniktau

Dave's Wave is a very unique and fun line because it is essentially a cornice that runs down a mountain. It can be skied safely in most snow conditions by skiing near the root of the cornice and not dropping into the gully on the skier's left of the wave, which is a classic terrain trap. But, if avalanche danger is low, its even more fun because you can air in and out of the wave an uncountable number of times as you descend.

Top of The Wave

Daves Wave + Arapahoe Basin

Jeff and I stayed on top of the cornice for the first 500 vertical feet of the line before dropping into the adjacent gully. As usual for Front Range alpine snow, we found heavily wind affected sastrugi on the upper part. In retrospect immediately dropping into the gully probably would have provided some better snow. Soon we were low enough that the wind was not so strong and we skied smooth corn down to treeline.

Jeff w/ the top of the wave in background

Jeff

Suddenly we had the opposite problem of wind effect, now the snow was getting too warm and it was STICKY. Even on my alpine skis I was having a hard time. Jeff was doing an amazing job of ripping it up on his tele skis.

Jeff 

The farther we dropped, the worse the sticky snow got. I was skiing a little in front of Jeff when I heard a loud thump. Surprised, I turned around to see where the noise came from. I was immediately concerned that Jeff was no where to be seen. Knowing that he had only been a bit behind me, I was beginning to panic. I took off my skis as started running uphill. After going about 10 meters I saw something about 50 meters up the hill that looked like an animal moving behind a tree, after a second I realized that it was Jeff. I ran up to Jeff as fast as I could, an found him jammed head first into the tree, unconscious, and convulsing. It was immediately clear that Jeff had gotten hung up in the tree and had fallen headfirst into the tree.

At this point several minutes had already passed since the accident had occurred and Jeff was still unconscious, seizing, and snowing no signs of improvement. As Jeff was still breathing and had a strong pulse my biggest concern was a possible spine injury or a further injury from his severe convulsions. I removed his skis and poles, checked his spine and head as best I could, then tried to provide some minimal stabilization while I waited for the convulsions to end. Obviously its hard to tell how long something like this actually lasts, but based on all the things that occurred after the accident I think the convulsions lasted between 5 and 10 minutes. The scariest moment was when Jeff suddenly stopped convulsing, closed his eyes, and went completely limp. Thank god, after about 30 seconds he started to regain consciousness.

However, we weren't out yet. I waited a bit for Jeff to come to enough that he could respond to me. Then I was able to do a more thorough examination of his neck, back, and head. Remarkably he was experiencing no spine pain, but just the classic signs of a severe concussion. After sitting for a while we carefully skied down to the ski patrol shack at Arapahoe Basin and from there to the hospital. Remarkably Jeff survived a direct impact with a large old growth tree with just a severe concussion.

This day was a learning experience for me. First off, what would I have done if Jeff had a spine injury? With as severe of a concussion as Jeff had, it was an hour before he could remember anything I told him seconds before. Even with our close proximity to Arapahoe Basin I had no cell phone, leaving him by himself with a back injury that he couldn't remember to go for help would have been far from ideal.

Its virtually impossible to prevent freak accidents like these, but I think there are things that you can do to help   minimize the damage if they do occur. Many of these things I need to work on myself, hopefully by writing them down it will remind me to do it!  1) Encourage everyone in your group to take at least a basic wilderness first aid class 2) Carry a first aid kit that would actually be useful for a serious injury. 3) Make sure somebody knows when you are going and when you should be back by. 4) Personally, I'm done telemarkinging in the BC. I would just rather have my full skiing ability available for all snow and avalanche conditions. 5) Carry a personal locator beacon. This day was a scary, but relatively low consequence reminder, that even for short, easy, and seemingly harmless pass laps its worth taking easy upfront precautions .

Grizzly Peak Hourglass Couloir - 5.13.2009

On May 13th 2009, Josh Nunnamaker, Jean Parks, and I set out to ski Grizzly Peak near Loveland Pass. Grizzly peak is one of the many high points on the long ridge that runs from Mt. Sniktau, to Torreys, to Grays,  and then wraps around Stevens Gulch to Mount Edwards.  Despite its close proximity to Loveland Pass and Grays and Torreys, its north face is not very visible, hiding several awesome lines located there. The north face proper holds several chutes and couliors that thread through the windswept face and its large cliff bands. I got the idea of skiing Grizzly when Ethan Vimont, Mike Mcmahon, Lindsay Records and I saw it from Sniktau a few days earlier.

The route

We began our day at the Loveland Pass summit parking lot and quickly gained the ridge line to the east, this is where we realized just how windy it was going to be all day. Fortunately I brought a face mask, so I was for the most part spared from the torment. We then followed the ridge line south towards Grizzly's northwest shoulder. This ridge line makes for some interesting travel because of its rolling nature. I opted for a combination of skiing, skating, and hiking which worked quite well. The ridge does have some very large overhanging cornices, so it is appropriate to stay far back from the edge on the way. As we passed Cupid and the top of Dave's Wave we got our first view of Grizzly's north face, and the Hourglass Couloir, located a couple hundred yards left(east) of the summit.

The objective, Grays and Torreys visible to the east

The climb from the saddle below Grizzly to its summit was more difficult than I expected because the peak is covered in small loose talus, so each step forward involves at least a half step back. I avoided walking on the  overhanging cornice because I was concerned about its stability. When I reached the top I briefly enjoyed the views, then promptly laid down to wait for Josh and Jean as far out the wind as possible

The backside of Shit for Brains

By the time Jean and Josh arrived we were all ready to get out of the wind and start skiing. Finding the entrance was a little tricky as everything look pretty similar, and we knew there some large cliffs below us.

Looking down the Hourglass

Dropping in I expected the snow to soften up once we were out of the wind, but we never really got out of the wind. Despite the consistent winds, the snow was generally smooth, fun wind buff. The first couple dozen steep exposed turns were really fun as we were funneled into the Hourglass.

Josh drops in

Josh makes some exposed turns

Josh through the crux

The line stayed steep (mid 40s) through the constriction and opened up into a fast and open apron.

Josh enjoys the apron

Looking back up at the line

After enjoying our line and the apron we found an enormous boulder that offered some protection from the wind, took a break to eat a snack, reviewed our line and checked out several future lines. In particular I'm really excited about a dogleg couloir located farther east along the ridge past the summit of Grizzly that offers a challenge entrance, exposed turns, and a tight choke.

An interesting line on Grizzly and Torreys' Tuning Forks

Spring 2012??

After finishing our lunch we prepared the skin back out of Grizzly Gulch towards our planned Loveland Pass reentry point at Dave's Wave. This is when we learned that Josh had opted against bringing skins or snowshoes along. I felt so bad for him having to bootpack back out through a foot of heavy spring concrete that I even volunteered to carry his skis for him. About half way out we passed under face below. For Loveland skiers it's basically the equivalent of Wild Child stacked on top of Super Bowl (ie 1500 vertical feet of fast open turns, with a big cornice and a couple LARGE cliffs). I would love nothing more to ski this on a stable spring pow day.

A face I would LOVE to ski

Jean ponders a split board, Grizzly behind

When exiting Grizzly Gulch to Loveland Pass there are 2 saddles that you can take, it is important to take the northern saddle, which has a completely safe exit point free of a cornice, as opposed to the southern saddle which is guarded by a huge overhanging cornice. We reached the top of Dave's Wave rather late in the afternoon, but fortunately the roaring winds had kept the snow surface just firm enough to ski some great corn all the way down to upper Abasin parking lot.

Me harvesting corn in Dave's Wave

I would highly suggest this adventure to someone looking for a relatively easy day near Loveland pass. The Hourglass Couloir has awesome relatively steep and exposed skiing, and Dave's Wave provides an easy exit with another 2000 vert of turns. Because Dave's Wave faces west it also gets soft a bit later, just in time for some early afternoon corn turns. However, because of the amount of time spent on already windy ridge lines, I would recomend against doing this on a windy day. Plus, I am always a fan of a good car assist: parking at the top of Loveland Pass and hitchhiking back up at the end of the day gains you an extra 1000 vertical feet of skiing.