The Sangres in the spring time virtually guarantee a good time
Sangres by jason.killgore, on Flickr
and as I learned last april, you are practically guaranteed to find great snow
Untitled by jason.killgore, on Flickr
Apparently just after our trip last year, it snowed a ton and conditions were excellent. When we chose to cancel our cascades trip due to sketchy weather, we figured we may as well chose the most fickle range in CO as a back up. There was hope though:
Sangres by jason.killgore, on Flickr
So on friday night, we left town much later than hoped and made our way south to the Lake Como road. 8800' seemed like a good starting point for the next morning and guaranteed we'd be up early.
Sangres by jason.killgore, on Flickr
We made our way to the classy shack and dropped some camping gear, then continued on up towards the Little Bear. I expected something like this:
but instead, this would have to do:
Sangres by jason.killgore, on Flickr
Conditions were crap below the hourglass, but quite firm once you hit the runnels. Few inches of hard snow over harder ice.
Sangres by jason.killgore, on Flickr
Sangres by jason.killgore, on Flickr
The view up top didnt suck
20160521_100636 by jason.killgore, on Flickr
And gave some ideas for Sunday
13221378_10207872998597233_8621399655419437668_o by jason.killgore, on Flickr
Snow was breakable at the top, but quickly became edgable and rad.
Untitled by jason.killgore, on Flickr
Sangres by jason.killgore, on Flickr
Unfortunately it also revealed a fairly major problem with my right binding. Just a slight outward pressure and I could lift the heel free. Not ideal. The hourglass was still firm, so we settled in to a moat to let the sun work some magic and contemplate a binding fix.
Sangres by jason.killgore, on Flickr
The best option we had was to move the faulty ski to the left foot under the assumption that one hardly ever needs inward heel pressure, but often needs outward heel pressure. The still-firm hour glass was a rough test of this hypothesis, but once we got onto the sunny side of it, there was no reason not to ski it like we meant it.
Sangres by jason.killgore, on Flickr
In an effort to avoid the mank below the HG, we trended skiers left into more rugged terrain. Not great, but not horrible.
Sangres by jason.killgore, on Flickrickr
Sangres by jason.killgore, on Flickr
It is actually a pretty cool face. Surprised it is not more revered among skiers.
Sangres by jason.killgore, on Flickr
We skied down as far as the snow allowed, then found a nice sneaky couloir that led right back to the cross-over notch. Things were a bit warm on the notch cooler, but still plenty of fun.
Back at camp, the trees were producing a rather stinky fruit
Sangres by jason.killgore, on Flickr
After napping in the sun, drinking whisky and eating freeze dry, we made it well into the late hour of 7:00 PM and settled in for a nice 11 hr sleep. I passed on the not so appealing option of hiking back to the car to get a working pair of skis. This decision may have been questionable. The next morning dawned perfect with a very hard freeze, stiff SW winds and clear skies. It felt like we were getting way to late a start, but the previous days experience told us otherwise. The skinning was fast and beautiful, eventually becoming rather exciting on the firm and exposed S face of Ellingwood.
Sangres by jason.killgore, on Flickr
Sangres by jason.killgore, on Flickr
From the summit, the N Face on Blanca looked pretty darn good:
Sangres by jason.killgore, on Flickr
Things were still nowhere near softening, so we settled in for another bout of shivering in the sun. We also took some time to explore ski options west from the summit (the standard route is a ski traverse to the east to reach open south face). A couple of options provided dirty access to the beautiful dihedral line we eyed from LB the day before. Low and behold though, a bit further down the ridge was a perfect snow ledge that looked to connect cleanly. Psych was high and we waited an hour or so before saying "thaw-be-damned, lets go skiing".
Coverage was awesome straight from the summit and over to the ledge traverse. The traverse was a bit exposed, but the edges held fine and the whippet provided some added security. AG ultimately decided to boot this connection.
Sangres by jason.killgore, on Flickr
Sangres by jason.killgore, on Flickr
Once across, the line was beautiful and moderate
Sangres by jason.killgore, on Flickr
Untitled by jason.killgore, on Flickr
Sangres by jason.killgore, on Flickr
Bookmarks