Ski Southeast Messageboard

Players: myself with a TGR crew of Montanaskier, Mrs. Montanaskier, MakersTeleMark, Sarah (possible maggot?)



Line skied: North face of Mt. Democrat (14,152 ft)



We headed up bright and early this morning to drop the cars off at Montgomery Res- thanks to the Stan for the assistance. You won't see him in the pics because he summited with us but chose to ski the south face. We hiked up from Kite Lake to the summit of Democrat just over 14,000 feet, reaching the top at around 8:30 (I was a little behind the rest of the crew due to my low-lander status since the rest of the crew is from Vail). We waited 20-30 minutes for the snow to soften up and then went to it. After a couple minutes of downclimbing, we reached the snow and found our line to go all the way to the base of the valley. We're guessing ~2,000 vert.... of absolutely perfect summer snow. The coverage up here is unreal. And yes, these pictures were taken today, June 28th.



Leaving from Denver, it was an early morning to make sure we summited in time:





We even beat the sun to the trailhead:





Summit view down towards Fremont Pass and the mines near Leadville:





Downclimbing...





The top was a little icy with a nice no-fall zone, so we played it safe and side-stepped the first 20-30 feet.





3...2...1.... dropping:





Sarah shows Makers how its done:





Ah yes, skiing in Colorado.... in June:





Makers drops a knee in the name of world peace and lower gas prices:





I think Montanaskier likes it:





MS shows us how to hold your pole directly parallel with the slope:





Katie (Mrs. MS) shows her husband that chicks can rip too:





It was a big line for this time of year:





Makers thinks he probably should have stayed home to watch QVC this morning:





Gaining a little speed:





Down on the apron, getting a little soft:





Sarah says "North Face.... owned."





The beginning of the long way home:





Our line was looker's right of the chutes- the others didn't go all the way:





A closer look at our line, the thin red line:





Hopefully I'll get some pics from Montanaskier and Makers of me skiing, since there should probably be evidence of that too.



Day 52 of this season was damn good.

where was Gnar............

Way to get after it....epic season fo sho.

jbc28 wrote:
Way to get after it....epic season fo sho.



Very sweet, indeed. What was the hike time up vs. ride time down?

14k feet?! Hot dang! Thats a long ways up. what was the temp up top?

This has got to be a record for the latest (Northern hemisphere) skiing TR on SkiNC.



Way to get after it KD... i think its safe to safe that we are all jeolous.



[mini-hijack]You wouldn't happen to know a realistic drive time from Denver International to Ouray, would ya? Sneffels is looking good for a climb, but it seems to be a pretty good car ride down there.[/mini hi-jack]

Here's one more... picture by Matt, of me.

And to answer questions....



We did this as a "shuttle" of sorts... we left a car at one trailhead and then drove to another. Because of that, the hiking and skiing (and then hiking out) was kind of odd. The climb to the summit was about 2.5 hrs. We then waited for the snow to soften up for about 30 minutes- I'm guessing it was around 45 on the summit maybe? With stopping and hanging out while skiing, it took us about an hour to ski down... about 2,000+ vertical. Then we had to hike back to the other car, which took about 2 hrs.



Zeus- from DIA to Ouray, I'm guessing its about 5 hrs. From my house to T-Ride its 6, and Ouray is a bit closer. If you need more details let me know. Also something to think about here- I found some information about a mountain called Storm King Peak. Its not a 14'er (its over 13k though), but its much more of an adventure to climb it, and the views and the beauty of it probably surpass Sneffels. Its down in that same area.

Nice

awesome KD! Even more awesome the girls went and ripped it too!