Crazy how it's May 3rd here in Colorado and winter looks like it hasn't peaked yet. It's pretty much been snowing nonstop since early February and the huge amount of wetter snow we've been getting is only caking to rocks I've yet seen this late in the season before. As we were passing through Bakerville yesterday, the north side of Kelso and the Emperor Route were completely plastered by snow with no rocks visible.
So following last Monday's pioneering of a new zone in Rocky Mountain National Park with YC, we opted for a break from the park in search of something with a shorter approach/out. Joined by Fritz, we continued on having an amazing season and scored rare blower snow down the 2,600' south-facing Cristo Couloir off Quandary Peak just south of Breckenridge.
With temps expected to be below 20* up high, we had a leisure start and left the trailhead at 845am for the 3,400' climb towards the 14,265 summit. On the way up, we were greeted by mostly blue skies, awesome views all around, and a nice wind hovering near 0mph ... the whole entire time. What I liked most about the ascent was that it was completely straight up: no switchbacks and no hidden knolls that you couldn't see past from afar. Only taking a short break at the false summit before the final climb, we reached the summit in 2.5 hours while moving at a brisk pace.
Token photo of a tree at the trailhead:
Fritz and YC up the stairway to heaven near 14,000':
North Star Mountain in the foreground, Lincoln in the back middle, then Cameron and Democrat on the far right:
Summit stoke:
Now for the powder ...
YC bringing plenty of speed down the Cristo with mid-winter blower snow in the top half:
Fritz finding great snow in the gut:
And further downhill:
Near the bottom, we found some stuff to play with. YC showing how it's done:
Token pow shot about Blue Lakes:
Skiing back to the car never sucks:
How you celebrate a May powder day:
