Climbing Road Trip - Part I

Ava and I just finished the first part of our summer road trip. The next phase will entail me teaching a Backcountry Rock Climbing Course in the Wyoming's Wind River Range while Ava heads to southern Colorado to work on a farm for a month. After that, we plan to resume our summer climbing road trip.

Phase I consisted of a day of climbing in the Flatirons of Boulder, Colorado, two days of climbing in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), and two days of climbing at Wild Iris, about 30 minutes southwest of Lander, Wyoming. To kick things off, and since we didn't have a car as mine was still in the shop, we started with the Direct East Face of the First Flatiron. This is a 7 to 10 pitch classic moderate line in the Boulder area, with the added benefit of being able to walk to it from Keith's place in South Boulder. At a grade of 5.6, it wasn't particularly challenging but provided a great warm up since I hadn't climbed in a while. The weather was beautiful and we made it from house to house in just under 8 hours.

After getting Quatra back (that's what I'm calling my car these days), we made our way to RMNP to climb a couple of classic lines that I never managed to climb when I lived in Colorado. We got an early start on our first day and made our way from the Glacier Gorge Trailhead to the base of Sharkstooth. We spent the next several hours climbing the Northeast Ridge of Sharkstooth, a beautiful Grade II, 5.6 alpine rock climb. It was great fun, and in addition to being a wonderful climb in itself, also served as a great warm up for the following day's objective, the South Face of Petit Grepon.

Our first view of the Sharkstooth early on our first day

Looking up from the base of the climb

Ava climbing the ledge systems fit for marmots

The inset a couple pitches up the Northeast Ridge

Ava eating (typical) after climbing the Sharkstooth

We spent the night at Sky Lake, which is dramatically situated at the base of the climb we intended to do the next day.

The South Face of Le Petit Grepon (fun to say with an outrageous French accent) is a super classic (read "super crowded") climb on an intensely impressive feature.  At Grade III, 5.8, the climbing difficulty was pushing my mental and physical limits.  Knowing this in advance, we decided to begin the climb, and see how things went.  We could have easily bailed at pretty much any point if we decided we were in over our heads.

Petit Grepon from the base

The climb started out easy with two long 5.4 pitches, followed by a 5.7+ pitch which sets the tone for the rest of the climb.  Moving in to the awkward 5.7 portion of this pitch, I needed to remove my pack, which I clipped to a piece of gear and made Ava bring up when she followed.  Without the pack, I moved steadily to the next anchor.  Ava seemed to do just fine carrying both of our packs, so I "let" her continue doing this for the next few pitches.  The fourth pitch was the crux 5.8 pitch which had some steep, pumpy moves followed by about 8 feet of finger crack leading to easier ground.  I had to sit on a piece of gear just before reaching the finger crack, and in doing this noticed a fantastic foot hold that I hadn't seen before.  Using this helped me easily pass the section I had been struggling on, only to reach the dubious finger crack.  I moved quickly as my arms were already tired.  The fact that I was able to clip two stuck cams on my way up and avoid placing my own gear greatly increased my speed.  Before I knew it, I was through the crux and confident I could finish the climb.  The fifth pitch proved to be the most mentally demanding, primarily due to route finding difficulties.  Sufficient wandering eventually brought me to an adequate but less than ideal anchor.  At this point I was wishing the route was over, but the slightly easier and very fun and exposed climbing over the final two pitches left me wanting more when I reached the top.

Ava at one of our less ledgy belays

A party in front of us finishing the climb

Ava and me on top of Petit Grepon

We joined ropes with two other guys at the top to do a series of double rope rappels to reach the ground near our starting point.  Five rappels brought us to the ground, which we were quite happy to be standing on once again.  After breaking camp, we hiked back to the car, arriving shortly after dark.  This turned out to be the best two-day climbing trip I have ever been on!

We spent the next day driving to Lander, where we spent the night before driving to Wild Iris to sport climb for the next two days.  Wild Iris is a limestone crag in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.  There are quite a few climbs here, but most are beyond either of our ability levels.  In two days we were able to climb most of the routes within our range.  Highlights included Ava leading a couple of 5.9's, which she had never done before, and I put up a 5.10a, which matches the hardest sport climbs I have ever led.

In 5 days of climbing, we managed to climb conglomerate (Flatirons), gneiss and granite (RMNP), and limestone (Wild Iris) in a Colorado/Wyoming tour.  I now feel good and ready to teach my backcountry rock course.

Denali Teaser

Dane and I have been off the mountain for almost three weeks now, and I've yet to find time to write and appropriately wordy post.  I'll be leaving on a NOLS course in a few days and I'm pretty sure I won't have time before then, so here's the super brief summary.

Dane and I both made it to the top, albeit on separate days.  We managed to climb our intended route, the Upper West Rib on our tenth day on the mountain.  We didn't ski off the summit, but we did do a lot of skiing above 14,000 feet, including skiing Rescue Gully from it's top at 17,200 feet.  We spent 16 days on the mountain all together and had amazingly beautiful weather pretty much the entire time.  We never had to endure a multi-day storm that Denali is so famous for, which made us feel like we missed out on part of the experience.  I promise a detailed trip account in the future.

Climbing the ridge from 16,200' to 17,200' on our way to ski Rescue Gully

Dane leading one of the neater sections of the Upper West Rib ~16,500'

Systems Check

With only a few days left before we leave for Denali, Dane and I thought it would be a good idea to do an overnight trip to check out the various systems we plan to bring on Denali (stoves, tent, camp shoes, clothing layers, etc.).  We chose to do this trip in the Indian Peaks Wilderness, an area where I have been many times, but entered from the west (something I've never done) with the ultimate destination of Lone Eagle Peak.

Lone Eagle Peak

The weather apparently did not understand what we were trying to accomplish as it snained (a combination of snow and rain) on us pretty much the whole time.  This warm and wet weather couldn't have been more opposite from what we expect to encounter on Denali.  Nonetheless, we had fun and accomplished what we wanted to.  The system I am most excited about: camp shoes/booties.  From inside to outside this system consists of: warm socks, down booties, 1/3 inch foam footbed, and overboots.  I think my feet will be warm and happy when I'm not in my ski boots.

Cherokee Peak

As for the trip itself, we hiked about 4 miles with skies on our backs due to lack of snow, then skied another 5ish miles before setting up camp near the base of Cherokee Peak.  The next day we hiked up a little further to the base of Lone Eagle Peak where we got some amazing views for a few minutes before the mountain disappeared in heavy snow.  The return trip to the car was uneventful and good practice for skiing with a heavy pack.

Dane crossing one of the several bridges on the way up the trail

I was super impressed with the ruggedness of the west side of the Indian Peaks Wilderness, which I found dramatically different than the east side.  The rock formations are reminiscent of those I've seen in the Winds and Tetons of Wyoming; rising abruptly and seeming to hover directly above you.

Dane and I have both been up Quandary Peak many times.  Most or all of these trips have been with skis in the springtime, but we've always ridden the same line (northeast bowls) down.  Yesterday we finally got to ski  the Cristo Couloir off the south side of the summit.  With 4 inches of fresh snow and a nonexistent wind, we thought we'd have perfect conditions for a safe powder descent of this famous line.

As it turned out, the surface which all the snow fell on was hard and crusty.  This made both the layer of fresh snow prone to sliding on the old surface and the skiing less enjoyable.  I suppose we should have expected this, but we were trying to be optimistic.  We skied the upper part very cautiously as we were concerned that our sluff would accumulate and become difficult to manage - which ultimately never happened.  There were a few sections in the middle where things felt more stable and we were able to let 'em rip.

Because it was snowing and a partial white out, none of the pictures turned out (see exhibit 1).  However, we took a few videos that aren't half bad.

Exhibit 1

Me skiing the middle section of the Cristo Couloir

Dane Boarding lower down in the Cristo

We're heading out for a 3-day trip to the Indian Peaks Wilderness today to test out some of our gear and systems for Denali.  We anticipate this will go well, and hope that it does, because we fly up to Anchorage in 5 days.

Buffalo Mountain and The Citadel

Yesterday Dane, Ava and I skied the North Couloir on Buffalo Mountain.  This peak lies at the southern edge of the Gore Range and only a few miles from Dane's place.  The North Couloir is sustained at 35 to 40 degrees for about 2500 vertical feet.  The snow surface didn't warm up and soften quite like we had hoped, but it was great fun on a big line anyway.

Dane digging a snow pit at the top of the North Couloir on Buffalo Mountain

Dane midway down the North Couloir

This should have been a reasonably quick 3000 feet up and 3000 feet back down to the car, but we had some navigational difficulties on the way down, which added an extra few miles of bushwhacking.

Today Dane and I skied the Northeast Couloir off of The Citadel.  The Citadel is a unique peak in the Summit County region of Colorado because it miraculously escaped the scour of the glaciers during the more recent ice ages.  Consequently, it is much steeper and more jagged than most other mountains in the area.  We had a great tour where we went up the valley (Dry Gulch) on one side of the mountain and skied down the valley (Herman Gulch) on the other side where we had stashed a car.  We were pleasantly surprised by the fact that we were able to ski from the top as the guidebook we consulted made this seem unreasonable.

North Face of the Citadel (we skied the only continuous snow line from the summit)

Lower down we discovered this confined gully which held great snow!

Once again, conditions were a bit on the icy side up high but improved as we descended.  The leading edge of a big forecasted storm hit shortly after we got back to the car, so skiing in the near future might be more wintry than we've had for the past several days.

Colorado Update III

Ava and I skied the Northwest Couloir on Kelso Mountain on Friday while Dane stayed home to try and kick a cold (basically he called in sick for our training program).  We skied up the road to the summer trailhead for Grays and Torreys Peaks, then followed the trail to Grays Peak for a while before turning and skinning up the ridge of Kelso Mountain.  This was Ava's first day in CO, and she managed to ski up and down a peak that is over 13,000 feet tall.

Ava feeling the altitude near the top of Mt. Kelso "I did it! Let's take a rest."

On the way up we got a great view of Dead Dog Couloir on Torreys Peak.  This is on my list, and I hope I get a chance to ski it before Dane and I head to Denali.

Dead Dog Couloir on Torreys Peak (it's the obvious line coming down from just right of the summit)

The ski down was long (2,200 vertical feet) with a sustained pitch.  It was close to 40 degrees for one stretch near the top, then mellowed out for the remainder of the run.  There was a bit of wind slab near the top, but that quickly went away, yielding a bit of powder over spring corn for the majority of the ride down.  Overall, this was the nicest day we've had so far in both terms of weather and snowpack!

Northeast Couloir on Mt. Kelso

The next day Dane, Ava and I met up with Keith, Edyn, Graham, and Mark to attempt skiing Dragon Tail Couloir on Flattop Mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park.  This is a fairly famous line amongst backcountry skiers in Colorado due to its steepness and level of commitment.  The three of us arrived at the Bear Lake parking lot about 10 minutes early, and the other four were about 30 minutes late, so we had plenty of time to play hacky sack with ski boots on.

Ski Boot Hacky Sack

We eventually got our cumbersome group going and skinned our way up Flattop Mountain to the top of the couloir.  There were two people already there, deciding weather the conditions warranted a safe descent.  Keith hiked down into the couloir a ways and dug a pit, ultimately concluding that the top three inches might sluff off, but the snowpack below that was plenty solid.  After much deliberation amongst all potential participants, our entire group decided to drop in to the skier's left side of Dragon Tail (there's a right side that's apparently less steep but narrower).

Keith getting ready to drop in to Dragon Tail

Keith loves being the guinea pig, so we all let him drop in first.  The start of the line involved traversing the steepest part of the slope to the center of the couloir, directly below a looming cornice.  The steepness of this first part, combined with the fact that it happens to be above a 40 foot cliff makes it the most committing part of the descent.

Keith committing to the first turn after the initial entry traverse

After the initial traverse, it mellows out to a nice 45-50 degree slope for several hundred vertical feet, the meat of the line.  The end of this stretch culminates with a choke, which is about 100 feet long and 1.5 ski lengths wide.  After the choke, you transition into the final half of the couloir which is a little flatter and much wider.

Ava and Keith below me in the bottom half of the couloir

Dragon Tail Couloir, with Keith skiing out the apron at the bottom

As if our group of seven wasn't enough, there was another group of five and a group of two (perhaps even more) all skiing Dragon Tail on this fine Saturday.  Some of them climbed part way up the couloir from the bottom, and some of them dropped into the right hand side from the top, while our group was the only one to drop into the left side from the top.  This is surely one of the neatest lines I've ever skied.

Wildlife Photography

Nothing of particular interest to note on the skiing scene, but yesterday we did make friends with a fox while skiing at the closed-for-the-season Breckenridge.  No, we did not feed the little beggar.

Colorado Update II

On Friday, Sean and I skied some most excellent powder on Woodland Mountain in the Indian Peaks Wilderness.  The pits we dug showed the depth of fresh snow to be between 1.5 and 2 feet deep, but for all practical purposes, it was bottomless.


Face shots on Woodland Mountain

Dane got back into town Friday night, so I "moved" up to Frisco where I'll be based for the next 2.5 weeks while we acclimate and condition for Denali.  Getting off on the right foot, we skied Quandary Peak (14,265') today.


Andy skiing the lower bowl on Quandary

The weather is still being quite funky.  It was cold and windy (good Denali training) on Quandary, and on the descent it changed from snowing to sunny and back about three times.

Colorado Update

I've now been in Colorado for about a week and a half.  The weather has been quite interesting thus far and has put a bit of a kibosh on my skiing plans.  With multiple feet of fresh snow and an inconsistent melt/freeze cycle, the snowpack is not setting up into the nice, stable spring snowpack that I was hoping for.  We're now looking at 2 days of warm weather followed by yet another storm cycle.

I have made it out a few days, and actually skied some nice powder just a couple days ago on a north facing aspect near tree line up by Loveland Pass.  Also had a beautiful day in the Indian Peaks Wilderness as demonstrated by the above photos.  We made it most of the way to the top of Pawnee Peak before the weather turned bad quickly and we hastily retreated.

Nonetheless, my goal of acclimating is going well with supplementary hikes and runs in the Flatirons.  Dane should be getting back from his course in the next couple days, and we'll probably head up to Summit County to begin the next phase of our acclimation plan (I've been staying in Boulder so far).  My altitude adjustment so far has made me quite glad that I decided to spend a month in Colorado before heading up to Denali.  I'm thoroughly convinced that this pre-acclimation process is going to make our time on the big mountain significantly more fun as well as increase our chances of successfully implementing our plans of skiing off the top!

Seattle Mountain Rescue / National Pond Skimming Championships

Last Thursday evening I attended a Seattle Mountain Rescue (SMR) monthly board meeting.  I had applied to join the search and rescue organization a couple months prior and was finally able to attend one of their meetings.  The purpose of my attendance was for the board to ask me some questions and see if they wanted me to become a part of their volunteer organization.  I apparently passed and I'm now part of SMR.  I won't be around Seattle much in the next 6 months or so, but after that I'm excited to become a more active SMR member!


The morning after the meeting with SMR I started driving to Colorado.  I arrived in Broomfield, CO two days later, just in time for a going away party for Tony and Lisa, who are leaving the Boulder area and heading for Utah.  I snuck out of the party around 10pm to drive up to Summit County.  The following morning I met up with Keith, Edyn, and Graham (KEG) for a day of shenanigans at Vail during their last ski day of the year.  We skied for a few hours in the morning before KEG got costumed up and headed out to compete in the National (World?) Pond Skimming Championships.


I had seen similar events in ski movies over the years, but it was something else to witness an event like this first hand.  Aside from a truly horrible announcer, the event was incredible in the best way.  Contestants picked up as much speed racing down the hill towards a jump that marked the beginning of a 100-foot-long pond.  Five of the 100ish participants made it across.  Most flailed and splashed miserably.