Ski season is over in Colorado, for most of us at least. It wound up being sort of an odd spring with great coverage and ski conditions throughout May followed by a dramatic warmup in June. We went from something like 120% snowpack in the northern regions to an impressively rapid melt off, and all of a sudden spring ski season was over as quickly as it began.
May was the month this year, and though I stayed close to home I managed to get out for ten days in the month on skis, revisiting some old peaks and lines and exploring a few new ones. The getting was very good while it lasted. Here are the highlights in photos…
The first of several days on Buffalo – Ryan skiing pow in “Little Elvis” on May 8th.
Alex further down in the line as the snow kept coming down. Mayuary had officially arrived.
Elbert’s summit on May 10th with a solid crew that was about to head to Denali. Though our intended line was out, we found some decent skiing lower down on the northeast ridge.
Parker on approach to Deming Mountain the next day.
Heading down “The Drop”. It’d been since 2011 for me.
Alex nearing the summit of Buffalo again a few days later.
Dropping in on our intended line, the Caldera proper, from the summit ridge. Would it go?
The upper pitches are sneaky steep!
Lower down, still above the cliff band. Photo by Alex.
Below the cliffs now. The line barely went through the obvious narrow snow strip above. Photo by Alex.
Skiing out the lower bowl. Such a cool, relatively rare line to get in good, stable condition.
We skinned back up and dropped northeast into “Elvis’ Crotch” to finish off the day.
Rick and Anthony on the familiar approach to “Drift Peak”, May 18th.
Brian on the ski. Variable conditions.
Back on Buffalo the next day, Ryan dropping into another obscure line known locally as the “Witch’s Hat”.
Down lower with the hat feature towering high above. I managed to ski 4 new-to-me lines off Buff this year.
Next up, a solo day to ski Pacific Peak from Mayflower Gulch.
Another nice morning to be in the mountains.
Chalk pow on Pacific’s southwest face. A little grabby but otherwise good:
The next day, Ryan and Bloomy on approach into the east fork of Arkansas Creek.
Off the summit of Mt. Tweto and down the face direct skier’s left of the Crack Couloir. The line was respectably steep.
We decided to name it “the Cheek” due to it’s proximity to the Crack.
Summit of La Plata on Memorial Day with Brandon, Dylan and Ellie.
Still skiing chalk pow up high even this late in May.
And lastly a little footage from one final day in May, out solo again revisiting the V Couloir on Atlantic Peak:
Though the elongated season we were all hoping for didn’t materialize once the calendar hit June, the month of May was certainly a good one.
Cheers to summer 🙂
Looks like it was a merry month of May, Ben – or maybe the Month of ski Mountaineering Mayhem. The last video reminded me of some of the gaming videos my kids watch on YouTube. It just looked surreal.