Category Archives: Backcountry Skiing

Horn Peak East Face: One Less for the Bucket List

      9 Comments on Horn Peak East Face: One Less for the Bucket List

I call this a bucket list item for a number of reasons. First, the Sangres see a snowpack like this once maybe every 5 years or so. Second, of all the grand peaks in the Sangres, from the town of Westcliffe, Horn Peak kind of steals the show, and the East Face is its showcase. There’s nothing really special about the route itself – it’s basically a long version of Crystal’s East Face or a less interesting version of Red’s Southeast face. Keep reading…

Mt. Parnassus North Face Ski

      2 Comments on Mt. Parnassus North Face Ski

With weekend weather windows continuing to close down and push any thought of skiing bigger lines further and further into May, we decided to check out the north faces of Englemann Peak and Mt. Parnassus from Woods Creek on back to back weekends. When the weather sucks, go ski some low-hanging fruit and hope for the best. That was our mantra, and we wound up getting two decent days of skiing out of it while managing to avoid getting struck by lightning. Keep reading…

Mt. Adams East Face Ski

      8 Comments on Mt. Adams East Face Ski

Mt. Adams (13,931 ft) is a high 13er that resides just north of Kit Carson Mountain in the Sangre de Cristo range. It’s a neat, pyramid shaped peak with a few different faces rising out of different drainages up to a singular summit point. Being one of my favorites of all the “Centennial” 13ers, I was excited about the idea of revisiting Adams on skis. Ricardo and Bloomy were equally interested and agreed to a midweek adventure, which came to fruition this past Thursday. Keep reading…

Loveland Pass 13er Tour: Grizz D and “Cupid”

      4 Comments on Loveland Pass 13er Tour: Grizz D and “Cupid”

So far this spring, weather windows on weekends have been difficult to come by. El Nino has been and continues to be generous and we definitely need the moisture, but it’d be nice to have some sun once in awhile too. One such day where we did actually get some weekend sun, a few of us headed on up to Loveland Pass for what turned out to be a nice tour along the Continental Divide. Out across the long, undulating ridge we went to the summmit of Grizzly D, down the north face, up the east side of “Cupid”, and then down Dave’s Wave to the Arapaho Basin Ski Area. Keep reading…