Category Archives: Ski Descents

January in the Gore: Upper-Piney Creek and “Peak D”

With an unusually long period of relative stability persisting in the backcountry around Vail, Dave Bourassa and I decided to head out for a late-January tour in the upper-Piney Creek area. With no particular plan in mind we skinned up to the base of the Piney Bristle summit block, skied down into upper-Piney, climbed and skied a neat line off “Peak D” and then ascended back up to Dave’s sled at sunset. Read more…

Wrapping Things Up in the Emperor

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With the spring snowpack winding down and summer on the doorstep, it was time to make the annual pilgrimage to the north side of Torreys Peak. For about a decade now a group of us have ended our ski season here with a 3,000 ft corn run down either “The Emperor” or the Tuning Fork (or even both of them some years) capped off by a BBQ in the sun. It’s become somewhat of a tradition of sorts, and one that doesn’t seem to be in danger of falling by the wayside anytime soon. Keep Reading…

Castle Peak East Face Ski

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Last Friday a group of us climbed Castle Peak (14,265 ft) and skied its east face route, a classic Elk Range line and one that I’d been looking at for several years. The day went off without a hitch as a recent storm had deposited a good amount of snow high on the face, which settled nicely and made for a great corn run down into Castle Creek. This snow year has been a bit of an odd duck with tons of snow falling east of the divide but much of the rest of the state remaining below average. Read more…

Angel of Shavano Spring Ski

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Backcountry ski days have been real hard to come by for me this spring. I got plenty of resort days in this winter, but for whatever reason, getting up and down mountains just hasn’t happened for me this spring. I’ll mostly blame the Grand Canyon R2R2R training, which ate up a lot of weekends. I’ll also blame the general trials and exertions of a mid-30’s dude with two kids. Days out ain’t as easy to come by as they used to be. Keep Reading…