Unnamed Peak in Star Basin TR 5-27-07

[leroy jenkins]

Cast of Characters: Leroy Jenkins and Adimmen.

The Line:

Elevation: Roughly 13,100 We entered top right and worked out way into the slightly diagonal chute facing a bit more to the left than everything else. The above photo was taken on the 24th, after a few days of cold temps and some fresh snowfall, from a nearby high point.




Star Basin is at the top of the Ashcroft valley. There are tons of lines up there, many of which are very aesthetic and appealing. However, I don’t think it gets skied all that often because the access is just enough of a pain to deter a lot of people.

This face is clearly visible for most of the drive up the Ashcroft road. I find myself staring at it all the time. One line in particular has always stood out to me, the slightly diagonal chute in the middle of the face. It’s definitely the sort of line you can still see when you close you eyes in August.

The access isn’t all that great, so I had written it off, but after I pointed it out to Adimmen, it seemed to captivate him in the same way it had me. We looked at some maps, and some pictures I’d taken from a nearby mini peak, and decided that we were up for a slog. The plan was to skin around into the basin behind our ridge, then boot up the back side, since that would make the actual bootpack much shorter. We woke up early Sunday, and headed out.

Castle looking good in the morning light.


Soon, we got into the basin.

Some very fun looking (if a bit short) lines.



Closer look at the hidden chute from the picture above.


The snow was very supportable, and with both of us being on trekkers, we opted to start booting early.

Yours truly, working my way up to the final steep section.


We got to the top of our line at about 10:30, but ended up waiting around for almost an hour since things took much longer to soften up than we had expected.

Adimmen in front of some very fun looking lines.


Hmm, where was our line again?


Adimmen thinks that maybe its over this way.


Yea, he’s found it.


But where’d he go?


Ahh, there he is. (Yea, I know I’m supposed to tilt the camera to make it look MORE steep, not less.)


The snow was a bit odd, but manageable. There seemed to be an odd layer (probably the snow we got last week) that turned into breakable crust in a few spots up top, and sloughed off pretty dramatically lower down. The snow underneath, however, was plenty stable, and just soft enough to really be able to hold an edge on. The apron of course, was pure corn harvesting.

Adimmen shreddifying the entrance to the chute.



Me, in the gut of the chute.


Me, starting to open it up a bit near the apron.


Well that was fun


A cool little gully we found lower down.


After about an hour or so of bushwhackering, we ended up at a 10th Mountain Division hut. I didn’t bother to see which one, you can look it up if you want but I’m too lazy. I know it’s not Tagert.

No one seemed to be around, so we dropped the packs and chilled on their benches for a while. I’m not sure if he was delirious after the bitch of a bushwhack, or if he really just felt he needed more exercise, but Adimmen decided that he felt like chopping wood.


The people staying at the hut showed up and ruined our fun. They told us only they were allowed to chop wood. Discouraged, we headed back to the car.

We were both pretty relieved to drop our packs. As you can tell, they aren’t quite lightweight peak bagging setups.


Twas a fun day. I’m glad I finally ticked that off my list, wasn’t too sure when that was going to happen, and it was great to meet you Adimmen.

By the way, Adimmen is looking for someone to ski the E face of Castle. I backed out because tight spaces scare me and I’m a rather large vagina that would rather just go ski something open really fast.

[Alpine Dreams]

Good stuff, thanks for sharing.

[TS Quint]

Nice TR! Decided to leave the new skis at home 'eh?

[adimmen]

It was a fun day indeed and it is the Lindley hut.

[stuckathuntermtn]

THAT'S in MT?! please say yes. I am so there

[leroy jenkins]

Nice TR! Decided to leave the new skis at home 'eh?

Yea, the squads have no bussiness on anything except the apron of that line, they aren't really fun to ski until you get up till 35mph or so. Don't get me wrong, I would have liked to have pointed it into that chute and made like three turns through it, but the snow wasn't exactly conducive to that.

THAT'S in MT?! please say yes. I am so there

It is in couloirado. I'm back in Asssspen for the spring.

Don't worry though, Mt has some good looking lines as well. Do I remember some thread saying you're moving to Bozeman or was that someone else?

[gimpy]

fuck yeah!!! that 1st pic is mighty inspiring. thanx

[stuckathuntermtn]

@leroy: no, that was me

[IridePow]

Nice line!


But yeah...... a slightly lighter setup would not hurt.

[MakersTeleMark]

Sweet line. It was good to meet and ski with you and Adimmen this weekend.

[mtnbikerskierchick]

Great TR Leroy Jenkins! Great so see you're able to get some fantastic lines in while you're home!!!!!! Welcome back to CO BTW!!!!!

What a bummer that the hut folks didn't appreciate you chopping wood for them! What's up with that????!!!

The E face of Castle really isn't that "constricting". I only remember one chute that was kind of tight. The rest of it was fairly open, really. Its a fun ski. You should join him next weekend.

[Buster Highmen]

Very nice.

[leroy jenkins]

Great TR Leroy Jenkins! Great so see you're able to get some fantastic lines in while you're home!!!!!! Welcome back to CO BTW!!!!!

What a bummer that the hut folks didn't appreciate you chopping wood for them! What's up with that????!!!

The E face of Castle really isn't that "constricting". I only remember one chute that was kind of tight. The rest of it was fairly open, really. Its a fun ski. You should join him next weekend.

Actually the people at the hut were very appreiciative, I was just being sarcastic. Turns out they sat on the porch and watched us ski our line. I think they were from texas or something. They had a million questions and thought we were strange.

And yea, I am pretty sure I will just sack up and ski castle. It does look pretty intimidating from a ways away, and I am sort of new to this whole skiing peaks thing, but after taking another look at your TR from last year I'm thinking it just looks fun. Not really all that much work considering how big the reward is either.

[Pow4Brains]

Schweet TR Leroy. The lines up there are so figgin' pretty!

[fonixmunkee]

Awesome TR and very awesome pictures. Nice setups, but as you said, probably not the lightest...?

[buckethead]

damn nice TR!

awesome shots ! i can almost feel the coolness coming off the corn on a hot day...

thanks for the stokage!!

[Tunco]

Thanks for sharing, looked like a good time was had by all.

[SnowHot]

I was settling into my summer, fully engulfed in mt biking and golf, then I had to open this TR!
Mmmmmmm..........Snooooowwww!

[skifishbum]

Strong work mag
&
DBT<3 the founding fathers cock
BElly up Mr. Parrot