Breakin' Vacation

 Some people go on vacation to relax and unwind, maybe sit on the beach. Generally, that's not my thing. Having a desk job, I usually want to get out, explore, run, ski, ride, climb and avoid getting too busted up. With a 10 day planned vacation in Marble that included some forestry work, lumberjacking, and exploring new Mnt Bike routes, it was a breakin' vacation.

Exploring a little known Mnt Bike route in the area, dubbed PBM loop for Puma Bear Moose sightings along the way. 7 hours, not a human. Oregon California fires made for smoky skies.

Bear (L) and Mountain Lion (R) prints on the more traveled section.

The trail can be overgrown, faint to non-existent.

And sometimes the trail is magical.

22/23 Ski Journal

 10/29/22 Above Ashcroft to Lindley Hut-ish

Pav, Wendy Boland and Zia

Strava Silliness

10/30/22 Marble Lead King Road to top of Sheep Mt

Pav, Zia and Todd

Strava silliness

Extreme Social Distancing on Sawtooth Mt

In these days of social distancing, shaming people who get out, run, ski and crowd trailheads, we have adopted social distancing practices that meet even the most extreme requirements. Nine hrs and ?? miles, we saw one person.

Sawtooth Mountain is a 12,300ft (3,730m) peak on the Continental Divide west of Boulder, CO.  The trailhead isn't widely know exempt to some local nordic skiers and Holubar kitted durable old-timers and those looking for extended hours to get to skiable slopes.

Posting this as a stand-alone blog to avoid the fracas of FB.

Breaking out of tree line with Sawtooth looming large ahead.

Slowly, slowly churning up the final 1000ft (333m) to the summit.  One post hole at a time.

Question. Which would you choose?  Post holing up to your thighs or teetering and wobbling on snow covered scree?

Battling 60-100mph winds across the summit.  Nothing like ski sails on your back.

Let's see, 7 hrs to the top, 2 hrs to the trailhead.  Love that ski mountaineering.

Skiing down from the summit, high winds and intermittent clouds make for great lighting.

Shuffling back out.  Clouds and great lighting make it look big, Alaska big.

La Meije: Blame it on Skis and a Glossy Magazine

I've been staring at my K2 Coomback Skis for a while.  There are cool graphics showing gondolas, French words, elevations etc. etc.  Sample picture here:

Lovely fat backcountry K2 skis with whippet Dynafit Manaslus clacking along some high CO alpine lake in Winter.

One day riding the lifts solo at Aspen Highlands I hooked up with a French couple who spied my skis.  "Wow, fantastique, have you skied La Grave? or climbed La Meije?"  Uh, no, but tell me about it.  I heard great stories about steep skiing, glaciers, crevasses and so on.  Sounded great, put it on the bucket list.

Fast forward a a bit and I'm reading through my latest copy of Alpinist magazine, Autumn 2017, Vol 59 featuring La Meije.  Wow, what a mountain, what a history.  The start of the Silver Age of mountaineering in the Alps (you'll need to read the excellent articles from Erin Smart, to understand).  This was followed up with Vol. 60 with more history and route info.   I'm hooked, this project got moved way up on the bucket list.

Fast forward a bit more and my Partner and I start talking about a trip to Europa to see her family in Czech and I bring up the idea of doing La Meije before the dumpling, strudel and schnitzel gorging begins.  "Great idea!" was the response.

Now I have climbed many mountains, some of the biggest and coldest in the world, ski CO backcountry probably 50 times a year, and consider myself a savvy mountaineer.  Typically, I do a bunch of research on routes, approaches, exits, weather patterns, trip reports and so on.  With La Meije, there is next to nothing to be found.  In fact my partner was in the American Alpine Club Library in Golden and was told there was only one book in French from 1959 and it was only recently checked out by a women writing an article on the mountain.  The most that could be found online was some fairly well done youtube vids from French TV and a few weekend warrior-type climbing videos, hardly the detailed information needed to plan well.  We made the decision to go with a guide.  Someone who knew the mountain and should the shit hit the fan, could navigate us off the peak down perhaps non-standard routes without getting cliffed-out or worse.  It turns, out, that woman who wrote the Alpinist articles on the peak (Erin Smart) still lives in a La Grave and would be open to guide us.  Cool!  Nice peak and someone with intimate history of the peak and surrounding area.  The basic plan is to climb / traverse the peak from South to North, staying at a Refuge at either end of the traverse.  The Promontoire Refuge on the South side and the Refuge de l'Aigle on the North Side.

The trip is planned for late August and plane tickets are booked. We decided to fly to Prague, CZ and make the two day drive down through Germany, Austria, Lichtenstein, Switzerland and finally France.  Why not? A little road trip to see Europe from street level rather that from 30,000ft up (might think twice about this one, subject of another possible post).

We enjoyed seeing some of the classic Tour de France mountain stage names of the Alps, Alpe d Huez, Col du Galibier, Briancon, but we ready to finally be in La Grave.  Pretty spectacular!

Room with a view! La Meije and the Tabouchet Glacier.

Erin advised us of some last minute mountain dynamics.  Due to a very hot, dry summer in the Alps, a house sized rock had moved on the upper edge of Glacier Carre, exposing all doing the traverse from the South from the base of the route to the Glacier Carre crossing to a very dangerous condition.  Effectively, that portion of the mountain was closed and a traditional Traverse was not possible.  After some discussion, the new plan was to do the Reverse Traverse, effectively starting on the North side, crossing the peaks, then returning back North to Refuge de l'Aigle.  It was farther, a bit harder and actually what the original 1880s mountaineers used to tackle the peak for the first time.  Actually sounded like a better plan!

The first day starts pretty casual at 10am with a gathering at the Eidelweiss Hotel (highly recommend), a little stop at a bakery for sandwiches and a short drive to the trailhead.  The first objective is to get to the Refuge de l'Aigle at 11,300 ft (3,440 m) from the valley floor at ~5,000 ft (1,500m), glad to be going light!  (For those who have done European mountain refuges, they know the beauty of the refuges, carry a day pack, sleep in beds with blankets and eat great local food.)

The grind, about 6,000ft vertical of uphill. Photo - Benj Riberye

Yep, more up!  Photo - Erin Smart

A little via ferrata to mark the end of the rock section prior to stepping onto the Tabouchet Glacier.  Heard it was good skiing come Winter! Photo - Benj Riberye

Panorama from the Refuge de l'Aigle.

As expected the summit day started before sunrise.  The plan was to climb La Meije Centrale or Doigt de Dieu, then drop down and climb Le Meije Oriental then return to Refuge de l'Aigle.

Pre-dawn tie-in, and we're off!

Perspective on the peaks as the nearly full moon sets.

Nearing the top of the Tebouchet Glacier as the sun warms thing up. Photo -Erin Smart

Approaching the Tebouchet Glacier bergschrund and steep snow climb into mixed en route to La Meije Centrale.

The fun above the Tabouchet bergschrund, little snow on top of old black ice.  Make it count!

Times like these provide focus and perspective.  Refuge down below. Photo - Benj Riberye

Super fun Alpine climbing.  Just be mindful of the plethora of loose rock! Photo - Erin Smart

Lei Meije Centrale Summit.  Amazing weather, so far.  Now onto La Meije Oriental. Photo - Erin Smart

Could be more reasons to return, Summer or Winter!

Lot's of Rapping!  Trick is to find the anchors!  Not exactly well documented!

And another Rap bites the dust.  Getting down over the 'schrund to head over to Le Meije Oriental.

Rope games with snow horns.  Just another great shot of the Refuge.

La Meije Oriental summit.  Looking back at Le Meije Central, wow, we were just over there!

And another Rap while the sun continues to warm things up.  Time to head to the refuge! 

Enjoying sunset wisps on Le Meije from the Refuge.  Tomorrow, the stomp down to the valley floor.

What a great send-off the morning of our exit!  Might have to come back and play another day!

 One couldn't ask for a better climbing day.  Great weather, fast conditions and great company.  We were able to accomplish both peaks in a little under six hours.  Frankly, felt like a short day.  Some days your good, some days your lucky.  Don't ask questions, just relish the journey!

Mt Toll Ski Outing

4/12/17
Mt Toll is one of the sharp peaks on the Continental Divide west of Brainard Lake near Ward CO.  Classic spring ski descent.  More details can be seen at the Front Range SkiMo page here - http://www.frontrangeskimo.com/toll/ I've done this one several times, always a good long day.

Sometimes I write these up as much as a reminder for me for future outings.  Things that went well, things that could have been done better.  I started at the Winter closure at 7am.  Usually I bring a mountain bike to use on the paved road to the trailhead.  Sometimes, there's a little hike-bike this time of year.  This year, the bike was a total waste of time.  So much snow.  Friends had skied here 4 weeks ago and said, don't bring a bike.  I thought, 4 weeks, should have had some good melt-out by now.  Good melting, but not enough.  The mt bike was abandoned after 1/2 mile.  A fatty would have been better on the frozen snow,  but all that snow would super soft by the afternoon. This will make for a longer outing I guess.

Tools for the day.

Buried Visitor Center at Brainard Lake Summer Parking Lot, Mt Toll is triangular peak left of center, 12,979ft

Giving into a long approach skin, one has time to think, listen and observe. The Winter transition is underway.  Song birds are flitting around.  Woodpeckers are doing their work. Streams are just starting to open up.

One of the interesting things about this ski, is you can always see Mt Toll.  Gradually, it comes closer and closer till the final headwall.  So, close, right? Still another hour to the top.

Mt Toll, ski line is left shoulder.

The Divide was socked in under a storm for a few days a few days back.  What's the snowpack looking like?  Below treeline, pretty spring-like, above tree-line more and more Wintery.  The final push up the summit grade, was very winterlike with knee-deep post holing.  Moving to the rocky saddle and ridge was much faster.  Think it needs a few more weeks of freeze / thaw to consolidate.

Once on top, the views are fantastic, the wind dies and it's very pleasant.

The jagged West side of the Divide behind Pawnee Peak. Big lines abound.

Westward panorama.

Time for the descent.  Not sure how stable the snowpack was, I chose to keep far skiers right near the rock.  Should anything go, I felt I had a safe exit.  Jump turning in winter snow with a skin of wet snow on top was work.  Down at the lower slopes, the snow transition to hero corn snow and the glide to treeline was fabulous.

Wiggle is near rocks.

Below treeline the snow got heavier and wetter.  Skiing through the tree shadows was a precarious balancing act as the snow in the sun was extremely wet and slow while the snow in the shadows was not as wet and faster.  It was a game of push me pull me back to the road. The final ski out the road was relatively quick, picked up the Mt Bike and pushed / rode it out the last half mile.  Always enjoy the looks and questions on hikes seeing this person coming out with all this stuff.

Over-all, 7 hours over 14 miles, ~3k vertical feet.