SO TIRED, SO SORE, but such a nice day I have to go out and play in the sun! Within the last 3 days i have hiked 18 miles and skied over 9,000 vert feet, the body is starting to feel it. With no plans I took off to Montezuma. I wanted to go up St. Johns road but i got really confused on the parking. Not wanting to push it I decided on going up Pure creek instead. I start off on the road just cruising and could feel how sore my body really was. I knew there where some awesome lines off of Morgan peak and Tip Top peak so I had to go look. There are lots of options to be had off of Mt Morgan and Tip Top. It was cool to see that a lot of the shoots had been skied but most of the tracks were all blown in. I now have a better feeling for the area and think that a short morning or afternoon ski could be had here. After an hour of skinning on the road I had to go play, even though i was dead. I told myself i would go up threw the trees only for 30 mins and turn around. I got 1/4 of the way up into the north facing trees on Mt Morgan and had some awesome turns down. I new I only had a little space to ski so I made the smallest turns i could and made them count! PURE CREEK I WILL BE BACK FOR LOTS MORE!!!!!! |
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Planned on getting up at 5:30 and being at the trail head at 7, but when you wake up and its -13 degrees outside it doesn't sound fun! I turned my phone off and fell back asleep, woke back up at 7 and still -2. I slowly got out of bed, had a bowl of cereal and coffee, got in the truck and drove to Breck. I picked Mt Helen for several reasons, one was that it is east facing but never steeper then 30 degrees. The avi problems are mainly on east facing slopes, so I have stayed away from them all year! With that in mind i wanted to find out what the snow was really like on east facing slopes but in a safe zone. I also pick Helen because it has some great views of other gnarly lines for this spring. I left at 9:15 and it was 7 degrees. I made quick work to treeline but then i bonked! I don't know why but the wind has always scared me and being by myself i was not really feeling it. I stopped hydrated, ate and pulled out my inclinometer to measured the slope. There is something to be said about this little guy! You spend hundreds of dollars on avi gear but for some reasons not a lot of people will pay 20$ for this little tool! Being above treeline i never hit a slope over 25 degrees, perfect for a solo mission. Also as you can see form the picture the top 300 yards of the peak is mostly rock hahah. It was a easy call for me to keep going and know that i was safe.I think i had to worry more about hitting rocks and not ruining my skis then an avalanche. Got to the top, got some great views, to cold and windy to sign the summit log but that's not why i came. I got back to treeline and that's where all the fun began. I skied an awesome gully that was 28 degrees with a nice 4-6 inches of fresh, made the trip worth it! If you ski Mt Helen the best skiing is in the trees! There was not enough snow for me to dig around in and find out what the snow is like on that aspect thought. This means i wasn't able to find out what the snow is really like on this aspect but i can tell you that if you don't have a inclinometer there pretty sweet and worth it!
Well today was a solo test day for my knee, I wanted to ski something hard but nice and short. I had no idea where to go until i was driving home and I saw tracks down Wichita. I had to decide on that or the NW passage on Atlantic. I promised to ski the NW passage with some friends so I found myself driving to Frisco at 7:30. I started hiking at 8, and should have done a little more research on this line. I guess you can skin up the back side pretty easy, it's just steep and takes a while. I decided to go straight up the son of a bitch. I zig-zaged up the front side trees on looker's left side. Then at the choke point in the middle of the face where the lower and upper couloirs split I threw the skis on my back and started to kick steps. Straight up I went and next thing you know hour and half later I was standing on top. Lots of people think this is a dangerous way to hike but with the avi levels down in the green, no post holing or whooping / shooting cracks I felt safe enough to go for it. At the top I geared up and dropped in. It was still nice and early in the day so not much had warmed up and I had some nice mixed pow with hard corn. I got to the bottom and was happy my knee was feeling good and I made it! All in all maybe if you hike the back side it is easier and more fun but in all honesty I think there are better lines / skiing to be had with easier hikes.
We went to bed tired from the last few days of climbing and hiking but i was up at 7 oclock ready to go. Called herny and told him about this line miranda had seen last year just outside of loveland ski resort. He was in, so we got in the truck and drove to the Herman gulch trail head. We took off at 8:45 and we were both tired and had no idea what was in store for us. We skinned the summer trail to the bottom of the shoot. We where confident with the snow so once again we skinned up the side of the shoot to treeline. We stopped at treeline and bundled up, we new it was going to be windy and we would be exposed for the next hour. I have found out that the short easy looking hikes are always the hardest and longest feeling hikes. This was the first trip where i honestly messed up. When we left treeline i put my head down and started to go. Next thing you know i was up top and Henry was no where to be seen. I knew nothing bad had happened to him but we had just gotten separated while hiking. I know this is like the biggest jobob / asshole move ever and when Henry got to the top he let me have it!!!! I had never seen him so mad! We regrouped and skied the face one by one! First ski above treeline all season and it was well worth the wait! We timed it perfect and had some great turns. We got back to the bottom and found out we had just skied 2,500 vert, hiked / skied 4 miles in 2 and half hours. WE WERE SPENT AND READY FOR SOME R&R TIME!!!!!!!!!!!
After having a great day in the K shoot yesterday Henry and i decided to go out and ski the Y. We met at 8 and started to skin at 8:15. With the snow packing being like yesterday (hard like spring) we voted to spread out 150 ft apart and go straight up the y. Even if an avi would have happened we both would have gotten taken out, so the spacing didn't even matter but its the thought that counts. When we got to the split we decided to go to the lookers right side of the Y. Also at this point Henry was telling me how he is gonna become a skinning yoga instructor, so he worked on a few moves to loosen up. It took us about 1hr 45mins to get to treeline. The top part skied great at a nice 47 degree pitch. After about 40 turns it mellowed out to 35ish degrees for a long ways. It was such a fun open line i was able to just rip some big fun acres like i was doing a gs course in the back country. Henry and i leap forged down the shoot getting into safe zones and clearing each other until we got to the flat bottom part that is about 25 degrees. We exited the shoot, skied the summer trail back to the cars and where back at home before 11. Woke up today around 5 tossing and turning. After a little while i decided i should go do something, i wanted to go ski so that's what i was going to do. Woke up, made a cup of coffee, checked CAIC, drove to the bottom of "SKY" shoots, booted up and was off on the trail at 8:25. I took off on the summer trail till i was at the bottom of the K. I was planning on skinning up the trees like i did for gasoline allay, but i started straight up the straight part of the K. I made this call because there was a good freeze thaw ice layer on top of the snow pack that i was not penetrating. So straight up i went just like spring time. Bottom part is narrow and over grown but a mellow 25 degrees, half way up it gets about 35 degrees, then the top its around 40 degrees, i made it to the top in just under 2 hours. The top part of the shoot was very wind blown so i went into the trees. THE TREES WHERE STEEP AND DEEP 55 degrees and some nice fluffy north facing cold smoke! I dropped back into the shoot and had AWESOME spring corn skiing!
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AuthorConor McDonald Archives
May 2015
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