Peak 6, Summit County CO (BC)

After spending a great 8 days of riding with my brother that consisted of a little bit of everything; warm sunny days, cold days, deep powder and some funky nights.. a nice string of warm weather allowed the snowpack in Summit tobonded up nicely.  CAIC (http://avalanche.state.co.us/pub_bc_avo.php?zone_id=2) gave a go for all aspects today.

Yesterday there were 10-15  tracks coming down peak 6 of the Ten Mile Range.  We've been wanting to hit it all year, but just haven't had the right days off for conditions to permit.  

This morning Jess grabbed her Atomic Century 166's with Marker Barron touring bindings, and I grabbed my 172 Prior Spearhead split with Spark R&D bindings, strapped the beacons on and headed to Breck.  We took the peak 7 Independence chair up to the T-bar, and over to the Imperial Express.  After an easy traverse over to Whales Tale on peak 7 you can access the terrain easily with the new backcountry gate above treeline.  

There is a short traverse North toward peak 6 until it's time to make the choice of a short but sweet 10 turn run, to a skin up for the good stuff, or take off the planks and walk to ridge up to the peak of 6.  We decided to just walk the ridge.  Winds were hollowling up there.  I have wind estimate experience but it almost knocked me down 4+ times, I would want to call it a sustained 30-40 mph .  It brought Jess to the ground once or twice.  

After about 20 minutes we reached the peak of 6.



Right below the ridge where that photo was taken was "tracked out", probably 5 people had taken the line due to the easy cornice drop. We took a peak south from where we had came and there was a nice untracked chute calling out our names.



 With a 4ft cornice drop it was doable so we strapped up and skiied down to our entry point.



I dropped first, this is why we are out here.  Stable snow (which is rarely the case for CO), steep lines, and fresh tracks.



Such fun line, now it was Jess' turn.





The snow was soft and abundant.  Nothing fresh just a lot of really nice windblown powder.  Lots of great lines to still be had over there.

It didn't take much convincing to skin up and take another lap.



We skied down to a shelting of trees and slapped the skins on, grabbed a granola bar and headed up the ridge of peak 5.5 to our same drop point.



The ridge was very hard pack which made the skin a bit frustrating w/o crampons

At this time the sun was far enough behind the ridge so that our lines were in the shade.  Vision was a bit of a factor for me, but Jess had no problems and tagged another nice line.  No photos of the 2nd run.

What a great feeling to be able to do this kind of thing with the lady you love.  Winds were a bit ferocious, but luckily the warm temps canceled out any real negatives.  The skin up required a long sleeve thermal, with a t shirt on top covered only by a summer shell.

     

Wow Chris really a nice report.

It's interesting contrast that I need snow on my days off, and you need stability.

Tell the story of the long distance shots of Jess...