Skiing the Gore Range, March 2005

The idea is that we were going to ski into a hut near Aspen. Due to a planning error discovered the morning before our departure (the hut was reserved for February 4-6, not March 4-6), our scheme was derailed. Rather than stay home for a perfectly good weekend, we decided to ski across the Gore Range instead. This was a roughly 15-mile trip from Vail to Silverthorne. We spent three days in the area, using the middle day as a base camp to explore the area. The igloo-type quinzee kept us reasonably warm for the two nights. We skiied in along Gore Creek; the ski out took us over Red Mountain Pass (?) and back through the Willow Creek drainage to Silverthorne. The last day was a bit of an epic due to some misnavigations and other issues. Snow and weather were great.

It looks like not too many people ski this route: one Colorado backcountry book lists short routes on both ends of our trip, but the pass itself is not mentioned.

Themes for the trip: Sintered; Cream-based liqueur.

Run Slideshow (medium-sized images) -- recommended

Run Slideshow (big images)

Return to Photo index