In the spring, the road to Gothic is still closed. And it becomes a guessing game and something on everyone's mind: When will the road open? We got some crazy dust events that brought in thick red dust from the Yuma, AZ area that helps met the snow much quicker as it lower the albedo of snow. The resort may be closed, but the skiing is still really good! And with safer avalanche conditions, steeper runs can be had, so I skied down from the top of several peaks. And of course there was still lots of powder to come. So while in Gothic, I was still backcountry skiing nearly ever day. And at the AOS, to get to the site, I'd still have to skin up. Through most of the spring I could skin up from our condo, but later in the spring I'd have to skin up from the Prospect parking area. Everyday after work, I'd then skin up paradise bowl or the headwall to for a few laps.
As the snow starts to melt around Gothic, water flows everywhere. We have a couple little streams going by the cabin, including one that is like a cascade out the window. Beautiful and nice to hear the rushing water.
5/24
The road to Gothic opened!
5/25
Elisha and I hosted a road opening party at our place where everyone got to drive to our place (instead of ski). It was a totcho bar and was a big success.
4/18
Skied up to Schofield pass. The Schofield pass sign was of course buried under snow
4/20
Finished my lego snowcat that Elisha had given me
4/21
Found that our resident Pine Marten had managed sneak into the Gothic dumpster
4/25
Really good powder day where I got laps in before and after work
4/26
Another really big powder day. I was off so I got to ski a couple laps on the peak behind Gothic
4/27
Powder day again, and I ended up doing laps up on closed CBMR (paradise bowl and headwall)
4/29
Brunch at the marmoteers' (marmot researchers who had just arrived) cabin.
4/30
Hiked up Copper Canyon a bit. Saw a couple beavers in the ponds that are starting to melt out
5/5
Skinned up and skied down a peak to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and Cinco de KK (Elisha's birthday)
Trip to Page, Arizona
5/9
Drove to Page, AZ over Lizardhead Pass and past the 4 corners. We're camping in a campsite inside the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, near the shores of Lake Powell. Our campsite has nice views of Lake Powell and the surrounding rock formations.
5/10
Drove into Utah and hiked the Wire Pass and Buckskin slot canyons (in the location near to the famous Wave...we tried for permits but couldn't get them). The slot canyons were really beautiful and quite narrow in places. We saw some desert superblooms from all the moisture of the winter. On our way home we stopped at this area called the Toadstools, which was really cool with these unique rock formations that looked like Toadstools
5/11
Hiked out to the exhilarating views of Horseshoe Bend created by the blue Colorado River thousands of feet below.
Took a tour of the infamous Upper Antelope Canyon. It's on Navajo Land, so you have to take a tour. It's tough to get a tour b/c it's so popular, we had booked very far in advance. But when I looked at the weather I panicked b/c the day we had picked was the one day it was supposed to be cloudy, and for this particular canyon you want it to be sunny (and between the months of April and September and between 11 and 1pm). This is because one of the remarkable things about this canyon is how the light rays come shining through in an ethereal lightbeam. Like a God-ray. But luckily I was able to finagle a way to get a tour at the right time for this day
And it was definitely worth it! The slot canyon was super amazing and stunning with the light rays coming down. Also there are sand-dunes above the slot canyon and in some places the sand is consantly sort of falling down, which causes the beams to light up extra. Our guide said that sometimes snakes fall from the "sky" (from the dunes) and onto people. The slot canyon didn't have the remote and empty feel that the slot canyons we had done just yesterday, but especially around Utah with my brother had, but the specific depth and type of sandstone, just makes this such a stunning canyon even without the light rays. Then add those light rays and it's so magical!
After the tour we drove to Lee's Ferry. This is the place that Mr. Lee set up a ferry system which allowed for the settlement of Northern Arizona--He was a Mormon, and it was mostly mormons that came through to settle Northern Arizona at that time. Now there is a fancy bridge to walk across and look at the canyon and Colorado River. We did a short hike along the muddy Paria River before coming back to the Colorado for a very chilly and quick dip. It was cool to tour the Lee's Ferry area as he had a little ranch and to this day, if you're there at the right time, you can pick fruit for free from his orchard.
Back at camp we had a nice sunset dinner over the lake from our campsite
5/12
We went to Antelope Point Marina to rent kayaks. Because the lake level is so low, they've constructed a steep path to get down to the floating marina and you must ride in an ATV to get down there. Once outfitted with our kayaks we paddled along the lake until we got to the mouth of Antelope Canyon (yep the same one we had visited the day before, but many miles lower. We paddled as far up the canyon as we could until we ran out of water. We then hiked 4 or so miles up the slot canyon until we reached a "dead end", a place where you would need ropes and rock climbing to scale a 30 or so foot cliff.
On the paddle back, we stopped at a place so that I could do a big cliff jump. Lake Powell is awesome for cliff jumping! We spent the evening at our campsite
5/13
In the morning we hiked through a small an very narrow slot canyon with a little water flowing through it (called Wahweap slot canyon I believe). It was right near our campsite and we had to walk along lake powell to get to it.
Before heading home we snuck into the nearby resorts pool (it was empty) for a quick dip and hot tub. On our way out we visited the massive Glen Canyon Dam and visitor center.
Then it was driving back home to Crested Butte. Once we hit Colorado (Cortez), it started raining pretty hard and was even snowing up Lizard Head. On the way we made it in time to stop in Ridgeway at Elisha's favorite taco join, Gnar Tacos
5/17
Big day!
I have been looking up at the beautiful East Face of Gothic for over a year now. It's a beautiful, cliffy face full of spires and colouirs. I've always wanted to ski it, but it's hard to find the right conditions: conditions where there is enough snow, but not avalanche danger. It's so steep, that it's definitely in major avalanche terrain during the winter. But spring is safer for avalanches. But often avalanches that have gone in early spring during the first warm-up take all the snow down with them.
Got up really early and skinned, hiked, crampon-ed up Gothic Mountain from the Washington Gulch side. The day before we had looked at photos and cameras that my project has to determine if there was a good route to ski down Gothic. Being late in the year and having had avalanches move snow off the mountain, not all routes were skiable down to the bottom. We had picked a route that we thought would be good, but we also brought ropes and harnesses in case there were any parts where we had to repel down a cliff.
The view from the top is of course gorgeous. I had climbed to the top in the summer before, but now all the peaks were white as far as you could see, and then of course you can look down at the Gothic town site. Once at the top, when we still had options to ski the milder west-face or a route to the north, we decided to give the East face a try. The top skiing was really great! Midway down we hit the choke where we had expected there might not be snow. And it was true. So we had about a 30 foot length of no snow with a couple cliff bands to repel. So we set up webbing and a rope and repelled down until the colouir had snow again. Then it was a long, steep, and narrow coulouir (complete with runnels) to ski down until reaching the base where the pitch becomes more moderate. Then it's an easy ski to Gothic road.
Interestingly as we were arriving to the road, a couple of graders were plowing Gothic road. This turned out to be a real boon for us as it they had plowed down to leave about 2 inches of icy snow at the bottom. This made it really easy to skate back out without having to put skins on.
As soon as we got back to the car, I dropped bro off and then I headed straight to Breckenridge to ski a couple of hours there on the lifts. After Breck closed, I drove to Beaver Creek to meet up with mom and dad and Wayne and Linda. Wayne and Linda had rented a nice place in Avon at the Sheraton and were celebrating their anniversary. It was lots of fun to see me and as per usual they poked lots of fun...of my beard, of my old car, of me being a gator, etc. We went out for a nice meal and then enjoyed champagne to celebrate at night.
5/18
I got up and headed back to Breck for some more skiing. It was good skiing with even a bit of fresh snow. But there were 2 lift holds during the day due to lightning, which was pretty interesting. After skiing, I headed back to Avon for hors d'oeuvres and some hot-tubbing before driving back to CB that night
5/24
The road to Gothic opens
5/25
Elisha and I hosted a road opening party at our place where people got to drive (instead of ski) to the party. It was a totcho bar (nacho bar except with tater tots)
5/26
Drove to Colorado Springs to celebrate Jake Hess' 40th birthday. Jake is one of my best friends from high school who now lives in Colorado Springs. He used to be a minister in Indiana, but now he teaches Spanish and Theology at a small private school. His wife Elya is a nurse for an organization that helps the refugees that come into Colorado Springs (mostly from Central America, Afghanistan, and Ukraine right now).
Jakey happens to have a birthday one day before me (we're the old guys in our class). To celebrate we first went to this old high school that has been converted into a food court. For example they have a cocktail bar in the old principals' office. We went on got empanadas in one room and then moved to the brewery area.
After dinner there we went to the Boot Barn where they just so luckily (and happily) had a dueling piano show going on (the only one of the month). I LOVE dueling piano shows. Elisha's friend Sarah also came along. It was a fun show, playing a lot of my favorites. We went home and had oreos to say goodbye to Jake's birthday and welcome my birthday
5/27 (my 40th birthday)
We got up early to climb Pike's Peak via the Barr route. It was cloudy in Colorado/Manitou springs as we started the hike, but we quickly climbed above the clouds. I was carrying my skis with plans to ski Pikes Peak, a 14er. We reached Barr Camp (about the halfway point in distance) in relatively good time. And during this part of the hike we had lots of time to talk and catch up. Shortly after Barr camp we ran into snow. At treeline the snow was pretty deep and it was going to be postholing the rest of the way. My plan was to hike to the top and then ski down and then have to hike back up. As Elya was feeling a bit tired and going slower, I split up with the group so that I could get everything I wanted done before the afternoon storms.
I put on my skins at the about tree-line and was able to skin on a direct route up to the summit. Because of the deep snow, the rest of the crew (they had gaiters and yak trax) weren't able to follow the real trail (it was buried and impossible to follow...I eventually found one of the mile markers further up the trail, but it was impossible for them to have gone that way as the snow was so deep. Instead they stuck to a more wind blown ridge where the snow wasn't so deep.
The last pitch of the bowl to the summit is steep so you don't see the visitor center (yes! there is a huge visitor center on the top of pike's peak as well as a road and a cogwheel train) until right as you crest the summit. Right as I reached the summit, a train went by and I think I was quite a surprise to the people on the train. Also the people on the visitor center observation deck were pretty surprised. I transitioned out of my skins and prepared to ski down. It was fun skiing! The top 500 feet was actually powder from the last storm, and I was able to ski 2000+ feet down. This meant of course that I had to skin back up those 2000 feet. I was sure they'd all beat me to the top, but I ended up getting up to the top before the 3 of them. Elisha actually arrived to the summit about 5 minutes after I did. She had broken off from Jake and Elya as they were worried that Elya might not make the train (Elya's dad had driven up so if they didn't make the 3:20pm train that we had booked they could ride down with him.
Elisha and I hustled into the visitor center to get in the long line to get fresh donuts. The donuts up there are famous b/c supposedly the high altitude and thin air makes them extra delicious. Might be true! Or was it the fact that I had just climbed over 9000 vertical feet up? (For reference, the hike up Long's Peak is about 5500 feet...Longs is much more technically challenging, but then again, this one had lots of post-holing snow and a fun night out dancing the night before). Anyways we each got 2 donuts as well as 2 for Jake and Elya. Jake showed up about 10 minutes before the train was to depart to see if he could convince the conductor to let us take the next train...it was possible, but no guarantee that there would be room. But then Elya made it to the top about 5 minutes before departure. So we all made it! And just as the snow started to fly. We enjoyed the train ride back down to Manitou Springs, very thankful we didn't have to hike the 13 miles back down
For dinner, Jake and Elya treated us to dinner at a yummy Himalayan place. A great way to celebrate a birthday and mountain climb. Afterwards everyone was pretty exhausted and we ate ice cream and then watched the new Peter Pan movie with Jake's kids Asa and Asher. They're both extremely smart. Little 6 year old Asher has every 14er memorized by look and climb difficulty and location and all that. Very impressive. Asher can solve a rubix cube in under a minute.
5/28
Started out 40 with a ski day at Arapahoe Basin. Another high school buddy, Phil, had some extra passes to A-basin, so he met us and gave us the tickets and we skied together. A-basin in the spring has a natural pond for pond skimming, so Phil and I tried it. It was the first time I've ever pond skimmed! I was successful, so I did it a 2nd time. Phil was not so lucky and crashed into the water, but luckily didn't go fully submerged like some others did.
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