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Breckenridge Bailiwick

Posted: Thu May 30, 2019 1:16 pm
by skykilo
After a full season of begging people to come ski the southern Rockies with me, Eric finally took pity on my sad ski-sick soul. I rented us a nice condo in Breckenridge, figuring between potential lift riding, backcountry access and not too distant rock climbing, some fun would come to fruition.

It was better than expected. Based on a tip from Frank, we first skied Quandary Couloir on Quandary. All it took was a nine mile drive from town and a 3,300 ft skin to the summit. Then we dropped into nearly 2000 ft of couloir with chalky alpine pow and some corn.

From the bottom the line looks like this.
breck, quandary
Eric is skiing up there if you look closely.

We were pleasantly surprised.
breck, q-ski0

The snow stayed enjoyable the whole way.
breck, q-ski1

After a strong, celebratory late-morning pint at the trailhead, we eventually got grub at Modis in Breckenridge.
breck, ramen

We made plans for the next day that were slightly too Cascadian, but came to our good senses before any brisk approaches. Evolving instincts eventually drew our attention to the north face of Drift Peak.
breck, drift-peak
There were some tracks faintly visible from the previous day. We basically skied the sun-shade line down the face into the gully directly below it. The face had some alpine refill pow on it. It rolls from the top, giving the upper face an airy, levitated feeling. Measured 1300 ft averaging 40 degrees on a map. This was a ridiculously fun ski.

We're talking about a 3,000 ft ski directly from the road.
breck, drift-approach

It was easy enough to skin to the west ridge then boot to the summit.
breck, drift-boot

One summit selfie allowed in a multi-day trip report.
breck, summit-selfie

No limits on ski shots.
breck, drift-ski0

Pure, unadulterated fun.
breck, drift-ski1

We ate some delicious fare at Tennessee Pass Cafe in Leadville, which is just 20 minutes down the road. They taste great but beware the repercussions of brussel sprouts.

On deck in Breck
breck, breckdeck
It's impressive how good the ski area still looks.

For our final day the weather didn't look great. So we bailed to New Mexico and climbed at Tres Piedras.
breck, top-cgd
Techweenie is always so fun!

Huge thanks to Alisson for enabling fun ski sorties! And thanks to Eric for the visit. Back to work.

Re: Breckenridge Bailiwick

Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2019 3:08 am
by E_$
Solid fun, solid report. An excellent guided/curated tour, and hosted with unexampled generosity. It was great to see you and the family.

Here's a pic of another powdery late-May turn, couldn't get it to embed, so linky maybe?
((edited by Sky))
breck, drift-sprayer

Re: Breckenridge Bailiwick

Posted: Sun Jun 02, 2019 4:28 am
by ryanl
Damn that looks nice! Well done

Re: Breckenridge Bailiwick

Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2019 3:11 am
by huevón
#HippiePow 🕶

Re: Breckenridge Bailiwick

Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2019 3:57 pm
by skykilo
Edited Eric's post. Not sure whether I will ski again this year. Maybe I will make a run to Leadville next weekend! At any rate, if this was the ski season's ultimate outing, it was fitting.

However, anybody want to ski Mt Hood around the solstice? That could work.

Re: Breckenridge Bailiwick

Posted: Thu May 14, 2020 7:16 pm
by vanoc
Test. Hood was good at the end of SCCM 2019.