Wolverine Basin Ski - 3.28.2012

With continued fears of overheating snowmobiles on icy roads, on Wednesday Josh, Sydney and I decided to avoid our sleds and ski Mount Emmons. I've had some fun days with Josh and Adam lately on Red Lady, so, of course, I was excited to check out a different basin on the north side of the peak.

After dropping off a car at the Slate River trailhead we headed to the Kebler Pass trailhead to begin our skin. However, things are getting a bit thin down, so we actually started with a short bootpack before reaching snow.


Josh and I have had fun trimming a little bit off the skin each time we do Red Lady, this time we made it to the top in 2:15. Good views as usual; it looks like a couple lines off the west side of Gothic still go but its certainly getting thin there too:


After a few windy minutes enjoying the views on the summit we headed north to the top of Wolverine Basin. Oddly, the basin has a strange, almost imperceptible, twist making it very hard to see down from the top, and tempting to get a little too far out on the cornice for a peek. Our line:


Despite the warm temperatures, the north facing terrain still takes a while to warm up. We were a bit early to the top, tried to wait it out, but eventually we were all impatient to ski. Josh dropped first:


And, as usual, came shooting out the bottom:


I dropped next, and after a few firm turns, found softer snow on the solar wall of the chute. Sydney brought up the rear:

 

 

Looking back up at the upper basin, definitely some fun terrain there, our line on the lookers left:

After the upper basin we discussed our options for descending the remaining 2000 feet to Slate River. We skied Wrong Chute recently, but had found some rather scary, unsupportable snow there. Since none of us had skied Wolverine Basin before, we thought it would be more fun to ski it out. The rest of the run was mellow, but fun glades and benches. And on the plus side, because of the nighttime inversion, the snow remained supportable corn all the way to the bottom. The exit egress back to the trailhead was also much shorter than the Wrong Chute slog, which I appreciated. So did Josh:

So far this is my favorite area of Red Lady: its steeper than Redwell Basin and more interesting than Red Lady Bowl. A fun tour would be an upper Red Lady Bowl lap followed by Wolverine Basin out to Slate River.

Mt. Emmons Ski - 3.21.2012

Today Josh, Adam and I had a great tour on Mount Emmons, just west of town. We did a lap on Red Lady Bowl, skinned back up to the top and dropped west into Redwell Basin, then finished with a short skin to Wrong Chute.

To start the day, Josh and I dropped a car off at the Slate river trailhead before picking up Adam and heading to the Kebler trailhead. As always the views were amazing on the skin up Emmons; the requisite shot of the Castles:


Josh takes in Whiterock Mountain and Castle Peak:


Two and a half hours after leaving the car we were at the top. With a cold wind we were all ready to get going ASAP. Adam dropped first:




and cranked turns through the upper pitch of the bowl:


Josh followed:




At the bottom we skirted right out of the bowl and rejoined the skin track from the morning. Before long we were at the top of Redwell. We weren't the first people there:


A tight choke...


...lead to fast carveable pow. Adam:


Josh:


Adam:


looking back up:


then, one last short skin to Wrong Chute


which included more incredible views; the Peeler Lakes Basin with Mount Owen in the background:


Wolverine Basin:


before long we were skiing again, Adam:


At the bottom it felt like spring:


accompanied with more great views: Augusta, Mineral Point, and Purple Mountain:


What a day! This has been the year of late starts and short tours. It feels great to get in some vertical, ski in a new area, and find more lines to add to the wish list!

Red Lady Bowl Ski - 3.8.2012

Yesterday, seeing that the avalanche danger had finally fallen to moderate at and above treeline, and that the weather was absolutely incredible, Josh and I were excited to get out for a tour. The question remained: where to go? We considered returning to Snodgrass where we skied wednesday, skiing some of the steep trees of Axtell, or dropping into Redwell Basin. After 30 minutes of flip flopping we decided to avoid steep trees with significant deep instability, and settled on Red Lady.

Josh misunderstood the forecast and started out wearing a thermal top...


...which didn't last long


through the aspens we went:






and before long we were approaching treeline:

Just like Wednesday, its amazing just how much of a difference a few miles makes for the views. A lifetime of lines:


East Beckwith:


West Beckwith:


After an easy, albeit, sweltering two and a half hour skin we were at the top, with incredible 360 degree views. Capitol and Snowmass to the north:


Owen (definitely on the wish list):


Ruby chute (also on the wish list):


It was hard to head down with the perfectly still weather and the amazing views, eventually Josh decided it might be worth putting his jacket on:


Josh dropped first:


and made GS turns down the upper bowl


Not exactly sure what to expect in terms of snow quality, and remembering that Josh makes even the worse snow look good, I dropped in tentatively, and quickly realized I was skiing the smoothest, creamiest pow I've skied all year. What a treat!!!


After the upper bowl, we skied the rolling lower pitches together, finding more creamy pow which gradually transitioned to corn as we reached the bottom. The large natural slide from last week's avalanche cycle is visible on looker's right:




Josh cranked out one last pitch above the parking lot:


This is one of the most fun tours I've done in a while, everything was perfect: the weather, the views, and the snow. Even if you have a sled you should ski this: the views are incredible and the run is long. If possible, I'd avoid doing it on a weekend when the masses converge on it, even on a weekday we saw some extremely sketchy backcountry protocol.