#40 Crestone Needle (14,197′) – Thursday May 5. CINCO DE MAYO!
#41 Crestone Peak (14,294′) – Friday May 6.
I wrapped up an incredible week, skiing 5 peaks in 6 days. The Sangres were definitely the highlight of this week’s adventure. I took advantage of the stable weather and got to ski some amazing and nicely filled in (and steep!) south facing lines on the Crestones on back to back days. Originally my plan was to try and get both Crestones in the same day, but the warmest days of the year so far here in Colorado had other ideas.
Summit of Crestone Needle – May 5, 2016. Great view over to Crestone Peak and Kit Carson, all in amazing snow and ski conditions.
Even though I summitted and skied Crestone Needle before 9am- by the time I traversed over and looked at the bottom of the south “Red” Couloir on the Crestone Peak on Thursday – my gut and the conditions showed me it was way too soft to go up. No worries – as I retraced my steps back to South Colony, spent another night at my ‘car camp’ and made quick work of the Peak the next morning very early by utilizing my own established boot pack and got up and down before the next storm system arrived!
Storm rolling in from the south as I skied down the south “Red” Couloir on Crestone Peak – a delightful line.
For more on both of these trips- please visit the pages for these peaks on the drop down menu for Skiing the 14ers. (Still playing catch up since this was such a big week – put photos should be up soon!). Now that May is here in full force, with a few days of rest I will be ready to get back out there to take advantage of conditions that have all my remaining peaks coated in good snow, and certainly skiable. While there is much work to be done- it is certainly possible to finish all the peaks by early June to wrap up this project. Ahhh…but I’ll keep telling myself to stay patient, stay hungry, and certainly stay humble. The mountains make the decisions and I will keep on keeping on. Just a side note- It’s been very nice of a handful of skiers here in Colorado to reach out to me with words of encouragement. I want to let any of my awesome ski-mountaineer friends or acquaintances that want to ski with me to please get in touch. Having some more great ski partners for this home stretch will be critical to my success and I am so grateful.
See you on the next summit!
Dr. Jon
