San Juan Mountains

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I left my car camp at the base of Nellie Creek Road at about 3:30am and broke trail making my own tracks up into the Nellie Creek Basin below Uncompaghre. Stars were out and nothing beats a windless Colorado night in the Wilderness in the middle of winter! It started getting light around 6am and Uncompahgre came into view.

In 2014 I had also skied both Uncompaghre and Wetterhorn in one Day, and this day felt very much the same. For 2016 climbing both peaks was almost a carbon copy. It was a warm day and I actually moved a bit faster this time summiting Uncompaghre by 9am, but I took an hour on the summit this time since the day was so nice!

The West face was in condition once again, so I proceeded to ski down and head over to Wetterhorn.

(for more check out the Wetterhorn report below).

After pausing for Lunch in the basin below Wetterhorn’s east face, I knew I needed to forge ahead. The southeast ridge of Wetterhorn is tedious, and in soft snow can also be a real hassle as you have to boot up the steep sections and sometimes deal with trap-door snow and rocks that must be climbed in low 3rd class fashion.

The there is the summit pitch for a 150 feet above the Ship’s Prow.  This part of Wetterhorn is the few pieces of this entire adventure that isn’t skiable. No worries, I ascended the fun rock steps and found myself with a summit in Winter in Colorado that is small, spectacular and all to myself. 

Then it was finally time to descend so I down climbed the short section and clicked into my skis for the East Face. I made quick work of the face and was into the basin quickly headed back towards the Engineer Alpine Loop and down the snow covered road to my vehicle at Nellie Creek.

What a great day in the mountains, the San Juans always deliver!   

Sunshine is Colorado’s lowest 14er but it still had to be skied. In 2011 when I spent the night on top of Sunshine, Redcloud, and Handies in consecutive nights, I remember how I would probably want to someday climb all three peaks in the same day.

The ski project was an ideal opportunity to do that. It would be a long day- but with great weather, I knew it was possible. The key to success on this project now and moving forward is going to be knowing and performing days that have 3 or 4 peaks to link up and ski in the same day. (The day would eventually cover about 22 miles and 10,000’ vertical climbing!)

Roger and Anna met me at the trailhead at Mill Creek southwest of Lake City the night of the second and we hatched our plan. In the morning with temps in the 20s and stars out we got up and got moving by 5am. A short walk east on the Cinnamon Pass road to a meadow where we turned north and into the woods got us started in the dark. With the correct line through the woods we climbed up the extreme southeastern flanks of Sunshine.

By 6am in early approaching light a steep scramble up some talus and boulders got us to near timberline and the snowline. A little before 7am the sun came up and warmed us and we transitioned from our trekking boots to our ski boots. In another half hour we reached timberline and the east ridge of the peak came into full view. It really didn’t look too far away.

Nothing but blue skies and the occasional wind gust. At 8:30 or so we approached the upper ridge after zig zagging up a face to reach the shaper ridgeline. One more transition and it was a booter up the final east ridge pitch to the heavily corniced summit. We made the top around 9:15am and enjoyed stunning views.

The first summit was in the bag and from there we could see where we had to head to next, north to Redcloud. Clicking into my skis I dropped into the north face of Sunshine and we quickly followed the ridge towards the saddle to Redcloud.

Just before the saddle we took a break out of the wind on the leeward side of the ridge. (Story continues on the Redcloud section).

After leaving Sunshine behind, it was a very easy skin up to the top of Redcloud. While transitioning in the saddle between the two peaks Anna lost her skin bag in the wind! Oops! It blew out onto the cornice to our east. Roger and I cautioned her NOT to go out and get it. Got to be more careful next time! We moved on.

 We reached the top around 10:30 and pulled skins. The wind was steady at about 20mph. From the top of Redcloud it was a long way down and west towards Handies but we figured it would be really fun skiing the northeast face of Redcloud to then circle back down and west down the Silver Creek drainage to the summer trailhead along the closed and snowed in Cinnamon pass road.

We descended. Roger and I found a really fun shallow chute on the northeast side and skied it. This led into the standard trail valley and then we all cruised down a deep valley passing several avalanche chutes and reaching the Grizzly Gulch/ Silver Creek Trailhead by Noon.

The day was flawless and we took a short lunch break at the bathrooms at the trailhead. So far so good, two peaks down and one to go for the day. (Story Continues on the Handies Peak section).

So it was time for Handies – We put our skins back on while enjoying the hot sunshine after lunch and started up the Grizzly Gulch trail. I had to break trail up the basin, but following the wide trail corridor was easy. It was such a brilliant day and the snow in the woods was consolidated enough so we still weren’t sinking too bad.

Around two PM just below timberline I paused to take a break. Anna was coming up the trail and Roger followed. They reached me several minutes later and Anna admitted she was pretty wiped out. Anna decided to head back down to the bathrooms at the summer trailhead where we had lunch. She would wait there for our return then we would all go down the road together. Roger and I continued.

We were above the timber by 3 and making our way west into the massive eastern basin of Handies. Slowly but surely we overcame some of the corniced north ridge of Handies. Booting up to the summit ridge it was approaching 5pm. What an amazing day. A short skin later Roger and I reached the summit together.

How awesome was skiing all three peaks in the same day? Spectacular!

Dropping back down the north ridge cautiously we made some turns and once we dropped off the cornice and into the eastern basin we opened it up and skied some very fun turns in the basin and into the woods, meeting back up with Anna on the snowy summer road at 6pm.

Then we slogged out the road for two miles and hiked about another two down to our vehicles near the gate near Mill Creek. On to San Luis next!.

Roger and Anna headed home. I really didn’t want to go home, and I had one more day to kill, so I decided to rehydrate, rest, and see if I could go get San Luis done north of Creede. I ate some dinner and pushed my way over Slumgullion Pass to sleep for the night. I arrived several miles below the Equity mine pretty late, so I readied my gear and decided to sleep without an alarm.

Not a bad choice. It was a clear night and temps hovered in the twenties for the night, so I rested well. The sun was coming up and after a full 7 hours of sleep, I woke at 7am and got going by 8:30.

No wind and amazing morning of warmth with the sun coming up, so I enjoyed the slog up the valley and eventually past the equity mine. Nice frozen snow conditions, so I quickly made the pass up a drainage to the Colorado Trail, marked by large poles.

From the pass I could see San Luis, it was pretty far away, about 5 miles or so to be certain. Here is where I used my knowledge of climbing this peak many times to guide me along the correct path. I pulled my skins and skied down into a basin with tons of beetle kill trees and then emerged in a meadow. I next had to climb up and traverse over to the southern aspect of San Luis’ south ridge.

Fortunately there wasn’t too much in the way of avalanche danger on north facing slopes and the loading was minimal with the exception of two places on the way. In those situations I went fast and passed under dangerous zones very quickly.

The sun was out all day and there was very little wind. Such an enjoyable time all alone out there. Around 1pm or so I moved up the south ridge and made the summit. This was my 5th summit of San Luis in my Career, and the second from this direction. I had been up here in 1999, 2005, 2011, 2015 and now. Last time I was up here I joined my great friend Lynn Bailey on his 14er finisher last October. I might have just been the first person back up here since then.

San Luis is so isolated, and you could feel that from the top of this very much so. Fortunately when it was time to ski the south ridge had plenty of coverage, and I was able to ski the entire peak. On the way back I contoured my line out of this high long section, skinned back up through the beetle kill forest, and then skied the basin and the road back to my car at the trailhead by 4:30pm.

I had a ton of confidence after the huge day on the triple the day before, I covered 19 miles in about 8 hours and better yet, I didn’t have to come back to this corner of the San Juans again. What a great day!

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Links below show videos of the descents

1. Skiing Wilson Peak

2. Skiing El Diente

2. Skiing Mount Wilson

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