Its been a while since i have been on a proper ski trip. Longer than i would like. I guess lately most longer trips have involved boats and whitewater, i think i was just stuck in that cycle last year. Mike managed to lift me out of it this year after the prospects of an AK trip fell through. Instead we set sights on the San Juan range, somewhere i have long thought about skiing (especially last year when andrew and i floated the upper Dolores starting in Rico). A late season storm shifted plans a bit and pushed back timelines but we found ourselves setting out on the 28th with sights set first on the Telluride area.
San Juoaqin Chute
An asthetic line for sure. Its not often that you get a laser straight and deeply incut chute but when you do its bound to be a classic. Set in the backcountry and accessed most easily from telluride, i am sure this one gets skied somewhat often, especially with how visible it is from the resort, but nonetheless it was quite the outing. After a 4 am wake up we drove up to mountain village at Tellurise (not a whole lot of good options for late night/early morning parking...) and set out around 5:30. The 4k or so gain up telluride went quickly (although the snow levels were a bit higher than we had hoped). We made our way to "See Forever" and followed that to the top of the resort, then out the backcountry gate. A quick descent navigating some cliffs left us in the basin to thewest of the Chute where we transitioned back to skinning. We opted to skin around the back of the chute rather than boot straight up to minimize hazard. In short order we were on top of the chute where there is a rap station (not sure what this is for? maybe for ski patrol rescues...). Dropping in, mike did a quick ski cut and found stable powder! The chute proper is ~1k vert long, straight, and at the choke only maybe 15 feet wide, definitely a classic! From here we took a gradual bench to reassend (the sun came out and things got HOT FAST) and went back down more or less the way we came up, done by a bit after noon, too easy! We went into town for a bite to eat before moving south out towards Lizard head pass.
Mt Wilson +Box Car
Another 4 am wake up. Luckily we had snow consistently from the trailhead, which, given the early melt and snow conditions at Telluride, seemed like a bit of a blessing. We botched the approach a bit (following some previous ski tracks) and rather than traversing, added a few hundred feet of vert on both ends of our trip, maybe it was more direct, maybe not... EIther way, a bit after sunrise we were nearin the basin draining the east and northeast sides of Mt Wilson. It was beautiful and clear and we were hoping that the fresh snow would have corned a bit from the sun the day prior. Ultimately the ascent was fast, albiet hot in the sun. We opted to skin around the boxcar chute which descends skiers right of the east bowl through some large cliff bands. At around 10:30 we made the final short 100 ft ascent to the peak proper (its been a while since i have been on a peak like that, it was definitely a treat!) and downclimbed back to our gear (the top most part of the peak was not skiable). A quick ski through some heavy powder on the upper east face led to the chute entrance. After a bit of trepidation about the conditions in the couloir and how narrow the top was, Mike dropped in and quickly found that we were good to go! The snow was soft (if a bit heavy and wet, trending towards wetslide potential) so we pitched things out trying to get through safely and efficiently. Another gem! Its a shame that the couloir doesnt have more like the very bottom where it is deeply inset inbetween the cliffs, but the position was stellar! At the base we reversed course and followed our tracks out, managing to avoid the need to take skis off, although i am sure the snow broke up a day or two after our ascent.
One of mikes friends who joined us for the ski went back to Glenwood and we set off for ouray and the other side of the range. We checked into a cabin and called for a rest day on wednesday before resuming skiing (largely based on some potential for weather that we didnt want to be out in).
Mt Potosi North Chute
Little did we know, the road was open almost to yankeeboy basin. On the drive up we were met with a dusting-2 inches of snow around the 9k mark. At the mine/road to yankee boy split we decided to call it and walk from there due to unknown road conditions and a desire to not get stuck/waste time messing with the truck. The ascent up the almost uncleared road (just a dusting of snow and ice) went quickly and at twilight we were looking up the base of the southwest face. The southern exposure of Potosi is full of a patchwork of cliffs, i had looked into going up the southeast face to the col with the north chute to prevent the need for a reascent, but having now been up there i think that route would likely have som etechnical scrambling and would likely be slower. The south facing shot we ascended was about 2k vert of fall like through a rocky choke, it looked like a decent ski line (and had some tracks from some one skiing it not too long ago). In the choke proper there was ice fall after ice fall, kinda makes me wish i would have brought my tools! most of the ice was pretty rotten at this point though but seems like it could be a cool place to get away from the crowds and climb (with some obvious avalanche hazard). At the coffepot col, we could finally see the line and it was in great shape! The easterly aspects were heating up though, so we quickly descended (one at a time due to slab potential) to the base of the chute and transitioned back to booting.
On the ascent, the snow felt mostly stable and largely powdery. There were a few spots with some weird layers that we pitched out from safe zones, but nothing screamed danger and around 10:15 we had made it to the summit! For such a craggy peak, Potosi has a strangely flat and broad summit. After a quick transition i lead the pitch back to the col with the north chute. Mike sent it from there down into the chute and had some amazing powder turns. You cant beat 50 degree powder turns high in the alpine on a bluebird day! To get back out, we had to reascend to coffepot col which was now both looking warm and like it was starting to get wind loaded. I set off to start breaking the skinner while mike transitioned so we could pitch out the last climb and hop between safe zones. Once again, we were granted passage. Rather than descend back down what we came up (which was still looking very icy and unappealing) we continued up to the coffee pot rock to try and descend a bit further up canyon on a more open slope that might have warmed a bit. From coffee pot rock, there is still a maze of cliffs but we did manage to find a way down, finding a mixed bag of breakable crust, stiff sun crust, and finally, a bit of corn; this was a bit more of what i had expected to ski in colorado rather than powder, but the views were stellar! Before long we had made it back to yankeeboy (and the obvious turnaround that had been plowed out that we could have driven to). We had hoped to potentially do a line on stony mountain as well, but decided to call it due to the warming we were seeing. As it turns out, not parking up high worked to our advantage because we came across a sedan that was stuck on the road up... The guy was planning on taking his low clearance 2wd sedan up a 4x4 road and starting a snow climb at well past noon, solo (closer to 1pm at this point). Red flags all around. I spent some time coaching on how to get the car unstuck (it was wedged in on the nose and the drive tires had almost no load) while mike got his truck to extract. Once getting him unstuck we suggested that it might be a bit late for alpine objectives with avy hazard but i think the message fell on deaf ears. Oh well, we did what we could. From here we left the Ouray zone behind to head down to Silverton and meet up with some others in the hopes of doing a traverse.
Mt Snowden Naked Lady
After grabing a bite in town in silverton (at seemingly the only place open, which was also actively under construction...) we drove around to look at conditions. This part of the range had considerably less snow down low and our hopes of doing the Turk-Sultan traverse were quickly quashed. Looking around, a few other potentials came and went, until we eventually settled on Mt snowden and a north facing bowl just to the north of it as a potential set of objectives.
As with every other day, we started off at 4am, leaving our campsite to drive just past molas pass where we would start. The treck through the woods to the base went quickly- probably one of the easiest aproaches we had done yet in CO. The couloir itself looked a bit chopped up. Upon entering while booting up we did find an old booter but quickly learned the skiing wouldnt be quite as good as what we had on previous days. Nonetheless, the boot up the chute went quickly. About 3/4 of the way up there was a rock band that was only barely passable in the snow. We decided it was probably best to just downclimb back below that band due to snow conditions but wanted to hit the peak anyway. Outside of the chute, we found a small rock step on the trip to the top that wasnt overly difficult but had some exposure. It was cool to be able to look around each day and see the lines we had tagged on previous days, and this was no exception. From the top of Snowden we could pick out a few of the other peaks we had summited, even though a fair distance lays between each of our objectives. After a few minutes we turned around and downclimbed back below the rock band (downclimbing always seems to be the least secure) and skied the chute. It wasnt great skiing but the views were great! Once outside the chute we found a still bulletproof crust and opted to boot the short way back up to the north facing bowl we had been eyeing. From afar it looked like it went from the top, but from up close it seems we were a few days late and there was just enough exposed rock to not make it worth it. We donwlcimbed a bit to transition where things opened up. For whatever reason, the face was still holding excellent creamy snow! The upper bowl was definitely the highlight for the day. The traverse back out was a bit long but worth it to have gotten in a bit more powder. Back at the lake we had more or less started from, we saw another lone skier. Once again it was nearing 1pm and the skier was hoping to get on the Naked Lady... We communicated the conditions, and also that it was pretty late in the day to be starting up something like that, but once again... deaf ears. Hopefully he made it out.
Chattanooga Zone
Looking for something that would offer a shorter approach to facilitate the drive home, we were debating between going back to yankeeboy and skiing Stoney Mt or trying a new zone. Ultimately we settled on a new zone- the Chattanooga area which was definitely the right choice. Kind of like a longer Emmas area in the wasatch, the Chattanooga zone is roadside and has a ton of ~35-50 degree lines between 1 and 2k long that drop straight back to the car. We did two laps, finding a bit of corn and some still frozen icy death sheet on the first lap. Good times were had all around! We bailed for the drive home right as weather started to move in. All in all it was a great and successful trip! Definitely a lot to ski in the San Juans and i am sure i will be back! Thanks to mike for getting the ball rolling on this one!
