Before Eszter and I even moved to Crested Butte we would stay at the Gothic huts with our Front Range friends. This weekend was a bit of a reunion for me. Two good friends that I went to high school with in Maryland, and some good friends from our Front Range years.
Myself, Liam and "Dewey"
It has not snowed for two weeks, but there is nothing wrong with with a little spring skiing.
Liam and I got into the mountains together back in the day. In the late 90's we went on backpacking trips to the Adirondacks of NY, Wind Rivers of Wyoming, and the Blue Ridge of Virgina. We always found adventure weather it bushwhacking or going to bars when we were 17 in Montreal after comming out of the woods of upstate NY.
Liam goes from 0-12,000 feet and carves some turns on Gothic Mountain .
We set off for a weekend at the Maroon Hut.
Dewey leads it out to Gothic
The spoon can be seen in the light on the lookers left of Gothic Peak that we skied that morning. Liam and I skied the East Face seen below in the shade a few years ago, but its looking a bit bony this year.
While most backcountry skiers access terrain by snowmobiles in this Valley, Gothic remains secluded from snowmobile traffic. A three mile tour in that's mostly downhill, gives excellent access to the Elk mountains with the solitude of Wilderness.
Not a bad place to be
In the morning several of us set off for Bellview
A variety of forms of transportation.
My old roommate Isaac in a new home
The line that we wanted to ski turned out to be about a foot deep of rotten snow with a frozen surface, So we chose some ramps that held some nice spring corn. The snowpack is the thinnest I have ever seen it, but even if this is the worst winter of Crested Butte in the past 30 years I think its still pretty damn awesome.
Dewey dwarfed by Baldy
The next morning we headed out as a storm headed in. Looks like winter will return for a few days.
Great to catch up with friends that I have not seen a while. My life life trajectory sometimes seems to be heading at a vector, and sometimes seems to do circles. I am grateful for the wonderful people that I have intersected with along the way. Maybe we'll keep the Gothic hut as an annual tradition!
Cheers,
Chris
Chris- Another fantastic trip in Millerland. Thanks for making it possible for us sea-levelers to get into some high wilderness and enjoy the amazing landscape that you make your stomping ground. You do it all man- quartermaster, backcountry guide, photographer, sherpa (expert beer-sled dragger), pizza-maker, driver, beer expert, and all around mountain god.
Without you I'd never know the beauty of backcountry skiing, it just wouldn't be possible for me. I owe you my man.
Here's to many new adventures and here's to your life trajectory keeping you in the mountains where you are clearly at home.
Posted by: Naplis_merlin | March 20, 2012 at 07:37 AM