Summer Skiing
Summer Pilgrimage Photo by Photographer Kevin Krill
Even though it has been snowing on and off for weeks my thoughts have been on spring and spring skiing. Even though everyone is talking about biking and the desert, I’m trying to focus on skiing the peaks of Crested Butte this spring and summer. Our snowpack is deep from a good snowfall this winter and will provide for some good skiing despite the “gray” layer that arrived instead of the “red dust layer” of past winters.
The winter of 2007-08 was the biggest winter we’d had in over a decade. The snow started to fall in December near the end of the month and it didn’t stop for more than a day until mid February. The town of Crested Butte was buried. Around Valentine’s Day I looked around and was actually scared about how my house and pathways resembled the canyons of Utah and Arizona.
In January 2008 I turned 40 years old. Ten years earlier I had gotten a tattoo honoring my love for the snow and skiing and living in it. So after one of the best powder skiing seasons ever at CBMR, where lines that are off limits in leaner seasons were skiing like groomers, I decided to continue skiing every month for the rest of my 40th year on the planet.
This tour was my “July Ski”. After an insane weekend of reveling in a Crested Butte July 4th celebration, my buddy Gerhard and I headed up to the Daisy Pass trailhead to be in position for a summit and ski of Cascade Mountain on the 6th. We drove up in my Tacoma just in time for a sunset and a beer under numerous ‘cascade’-ing waterfalls. We bivouacked and woke up to hot coffee and spring birds only to wait for the gang who was most likely scrambling in town to gather, get in line at the coffee/burrito and then make the four wheel drive to us.
In July at 11,000 feet there is a mixture of terrain exposed to the Death Star; namely the Sun. From the trucks with your skis strapped to your backpack you start out on the 100+ year old mining road that has mostly become a river. To avoid the water and cut off large sections of flatter road you can cut straight up the slope that is usually covered in Glacier Lilies; miniature Easter Lilies that pop out of the ground and bloom within days of the snow retreating. This is one of life’s treats; hiking through the wildflowers to ski the high peaks on a warm summer July day.
The Glacier Lilies mean that the snowline is near and all of a sudden you are on solid but dirty and lumpy snow. Initially the going is easier and you are freer to make your own route up the steepening slopes. This is where the rubber meets the road or the crampons meet the cornice. While the approach can be a brutal slog over acres of frozen ocean, the ridge walk and summit can really be the icing on the cake. Depending on the steepness of the summit ridge and the slope you plan to ski the adventure can vary from the longest and smoothest groomed run of your life to “Oh God, don’t let me die here” and “Why am I doing this?”
But; if you can hit the conditions right, when the frozen slope warms up just enough to become a giant pitch of soft, slow and soupy snow that sucks your skis to the slope and allows you to kick back and enjoy the views. To ski perfect corn takes many days of NOT skiing perfect corn. It takes some luck, a little if no wind and being at the top before everything turns to mush. It takes a night previous to be at least into the 20’s to freeze solid the mush from the day before. So far we had all these things going for us.
The day turned out awesome with a large group summiting and skiing off the peak. On the way down we had to negotiate the waterfalls and broken snowfields but managed to ski further down than would be expected looking at the snow conditions. At one of the water falls across the road we stopped to sip on the St Pauli Girls that Wick stashed in the freezing water on the way up.
Kevin is a freelance photographer and writer/contributor for the Mountain Weekly News living in Crested Butte, Colorado. His photography talents focus on Fine Art Landscape Prints, Mountain Lifestyle and Action Sports in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. His work has been published in many fine national and regional magazines, calendars, catalogs, ads and posters. He offers many photographic services including private outings, product shoots and location scouting.
To view more of Kevin’s photos, please visit: http://www.crestedbuttephotography.com
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