OTHER Trip Report 06/06/2011

Report Type	Full
Peak(s)	Deming Peak - 12906
Date Posted	06/06/2011
Date Climbed	06/05/2011
Author	lordhelmut

The Deming Drop
Deming Peak and the Gores Mountain : Deming Peak (12,906 ft) Route : South Face (ascent), "Deming Drop" (descent - per Stan Wagon's Gore Skiing page) Climbers/Skiers : Myself, Ben (Benners), Rick (Mtnfiend) and Mike C Roundtrip Mileage and Vertical : Approximately 11-12 miles, 5000-5300 vertical from Meadow Creek TH in Frisco After a full season of badgering Benners to venture out of the mindset of skiing nothing but 14ers for the rest of his life, I was able to convince him, with a little help, to hit his 3rd 12er of the year on a line I had been borderline obsessing over for the last 2 years, but never got around to. The Buffalo Trailhead located at the top of Wildernest in Silverthorne, offers access to a couple popular, year round accessible ski lines, mainly on Red Peak and Buffalo Mountain. Just down the road in Frisco lies a somewhat elusive trailhead known as Meadow Creek, which isn't really a trailhead one would use to spend a weekend of ski mountaineering. There is one peak, though, worth venturing back there for. Deming Peak is that peak. Ben and I met up with Rick and Mike in Golden bright and early at 3am and made quick time to the trailhead, hitting the trail around 4:45am. Around 1 to 1.5 miles in, we hit snow, kind of, but enough to warrant throwing on the planks and skinning. morning over Summit County bridge crossing along meadow creek trail The trail, even when covered in snow, is relatively easy to follow and we popped out in the meadow below Eccles Pass with a stout view of the Tenmile. Tenmile Range And continued skinning up towards our goal, Deming, and its southern face. skinning towards South Face Deming Pk Eccles Pass After reaching the base of the face, we loaded up on some grub, some red bulls, some salt n' vinegar Pringles, and followed Ben's skin track up the face. Rick and Mike w/ Pk.1 in background We reached the ridge connecting Deming to Eccles and were treated with some pretty nice shots of the range. a really cool line East Thorne Minutes later we reached the summit and feasted like true primates. High fructose corn syrup congealed $1.49 Kroger fruits, processed pig dong, melted junior mints and a large handful of Sour Patch Kids, complimentary of my office's candy jar were enjoyed by all. What would the world do without food like this? Probably a lot, but after climbing all that way, we were indifferent and appreciative of its temporary nourishment. Mike and Silverthorne massif couple a guys with a nice view We couldn't help but notice the plethora of ski potential in this range from the summit of Deming. The Gores are kind of what ski mountaineering is all about. Rugged, remote and long approaches in rarely documented regions, kind of the tri-fecta of spending time in the high country. A thing of note regarding this peak. I noticed on the register a lot of entries with the last name "Deming". According to Joe Kramarsic's Gore book, John Deming, a miner, and his large family explored "every square inch of their backyard" back in the day and then beginning in 76', descendents have made an annual climb of the peak. There's a unique piece of Colorado peak climbing history to balance out the focus on skiing. For all you retro summit register fanatics, the Gores are a solid place to venture in to and seek these out. You don't have to worry about some reject droppin' trow and takin a #2 in the register tube either. Around 10am or so, we made our way over to the reclusive "Drop". Its surely an exciting entrance. The Drop First glance is intimidating, especially since you can't even see down the entire route. Lucky for us, mother nature had been splooging all over the central mountains, so coverage was not a problem. Ben and Rick dropped in first (same exact shot but a cool one, I thought atleast)..... Ben dropping in Rick dropping in The top probably reached an angle of 50-55 max for 30-40 feet then transitioned to a mellower slope. We all agreed on a consistent 40 degrees from just below the summit to the apron. Here are a few hero shots of us that give the online illusion that we are all really nasty skiers, but in reality, more or less a couple of average mountaineering joe's just out having a good time ripping up some turns in a seldom visited basin of Colorado's finest range (yep, I said it). opening up a bit Mike Ben Rick Not sure exactly how long this line goes for, but it feels like enough to warrant the effort to slog back there. I'm going to guess we had about 1300-1400 vertical feet of sheer bliss. Only bad news is when we reached the bottom, it was revealed that Ben's GoPro was defective. After a few choice words regarding the "made in china" mark, we gave up hope on fixing the damn thing and quickly made way for a weakness in the ridge between Eccles Pass and Deming's summit, as the day was growing old and the snow getting pretty soft. Ben and some choice words about cheap labor in China traversing over to our way out of this basin looking up the Drop Red/Buff Pass Instead of traversing to Red/Buffalo Pass, then traversing over to Eccles, we opted to just climb straight back up to the ridge and finish off the day with some low angle turns lower down on the Deming ridge. We zig zagged on skins most of the way back up and were forced to boot up the scree for the last 100 feet or so. Ben and I got up there first and aired out our feet to a fine vantage point, planning future ops in the region for all times of the year. Valhalla Snow Peak Then Mike and Rick popped up over the ridge, making for a classic shot nabbed by Ben... Mike and the Gores The ski down the SE Face of Deming was interesting. We all basically straightlined it out of fear of wet slides, since this face appeared to be peeling off like the layers of an onion. the mountain is melting We reached treeline with surprisingly minimal poling and were able to keep our momentum till the creek crossing, ending our day on a fine note. all classic days come to an end We got back to the hour 9.5 hours after setting off, dumped our heads in the creek and then feasted at the refined establishment better known as SmashBurger. Ammonia based beef filler turd burgers with the works, Orange soda, and parmesean, garlic fries were enjoyed by all. In the words of Bruce Dickens, I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more deeply inset ski lines in the Gores. Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

The Deming Drop

Mountain : Deming Peak (12,906 ft)

Route : South Face (ascent), "Deming Drop" (descent - per Stan Wagon's Gore Skiing page)

Climbers/Skiers : Myself, Ben (Benners), Rick (Mtnfiend) and Mike C

Roundtrip Mileage and Vertical : Approximately 11-12 miles, 5000-5300 vertical from Meadow Creek TH in Frisco

After a full season of badgering Benners to venture out of the mindset of skiing nothing but 14ers for the rest of his life, I was able to convince him, with a little help, to hit his 3rd 12er of the year on a line I had been borderline obsessing over for the last 2 years, but never got around to. The Buffalo Trailhead located at the top of Wildernest in Silverthorne, offers access to a couple popular, year round accessible ski lines, mainly on Red Peak and Buffalo Mountain. Just down the road in Frisco lies a somewhat elusive trailhead known as Meadow Creek, which isn't really a trailhead one would use to spend a weekend of ski mountaineering. There is one peak, though, worth venturing back there for. Deming Peak is that peak.

Ben and I met up with Rick and Mike in Golden bright and early at 3am and made quick time to the trailhead, hitting the trail around 4:45am. Around 1 to 1.5 miles in, we hit snow, kind of, but enough to warrant throwing on the planks and skinning.

bridge crossing along meadow creek trail

The trail, even when covered in snow, is relatively easy to follow and we popped out in the meadow below Eccles Pass with a stout view of the Tenmile.

And continued skinning up towards our goal, Deming, and its southern face.

After reaching the base of the face, we loaded up on some grub, some red bulls, some salt n' vinegar Pringles, and followed Ben's skin track up the face.

We reached the ridge connecting Deming to Eccles and were treated with some pretty nice shots of the range.

Minutes later we reached the summit and feasted like true primates. High fructose corn syrup congealed $1.49 Kroger fruits, processed pig dong, melted junior mints and a large handful of Sour Patch Kids, complimentary of my office's candy jar were enjoyed by all. What would the world do without food like this? Probably a lot, but after climbing all that way, we were indifferent and appreciative of its temporary nourishment.

We couldn't help but notice the plethora of ski potential in this range from the summit of Deming. The Gores are kind of what ski mountaineering is all about. Rugged, remote and long approaches in rarely documented regions, kind of the tri-fecta of spending time in the high country. A thing of note regarding this peak. I noticed on the register a lot of entries with the last name "Deming". According to Joe Kramarsic's Gore book, John Deming, a miner, and his large family explored "every square inch of their backyard" back in the day and then beginning in 76', descendents have made an annual climb of the peak. There's a unique piece of Colorado peak climbing history to balance out the focus on skiing. For all you retro summit register fanatics, the Gores are a solid place to venture in to and seek these out. You don't have to worry about some reject droppin' trow and takin a #2 in the register tube either.

Around 10am or so, we made our way over to the reclusive "Drop". Its surely an exciting entrance.

First glance is intimidating, especially since you can't even see down the entire route. Lucky for us, mother nature had been splooging all over the central mountains, so coverage was not a problem. Ben and Rick dropped in first (same exact shot but a cool one, I thought atleast).....

The top probably reached an angle of 50-55 max for 30-40 feet then transitioned to a mellower slope. We all agreed on a consistent 40 degrees from just below the summit to the apron. Here are a few hero shots of us that give the online illusion that we are all really nasty skiers, but in reality, more or less a couple of average mountaineering joe's just out having a good time ripping up some turns in a seldom visited basin of Colorado's finest range (yep, I said it).

Not sure exactly how long this line goes for, but it feels like enough to warrant the effort to slog back there. I'm going to guess we had about 1300-1400 vertical feet of sheer bliss. Only bad news is when we reached the bottom, it was revealed that Ben's GoPro was defective. After a few choice words regarding the "made in china" mark, we gave up hope on fixing the damn thing and quickly made way for a weakness in the ridge between Eccles Pass and Deming's summit, as the day was growing old and the snow getting pretty soft.

Ben and some choice words about cheap labor in China

traversing over to our way out of this basin

Instead of traversing to Red/Buffalo Pass, then traversing over to Eccles, we opted to just climb straight back up to the ridge and finish off the day with some low angle turns lower down on the Deming ridge. We zig zagged on skins most of the way back up and were forced to boot up the scree for the last 100 feet or so. Ben and I got up there first and aired out our feet to a fine vantage point, planning future ops in the region for all times of the year.

Then Mike and Rick popped up over the ridge, making for a classic shot nabbed by Ben...

The ski down the SE Face of Deming was interesting. We all basically straightlined it out of fear of wet slides, since this face appeared to be peeling off like the layers of an onion.

We reached treeline with surprisingly minimal poling and were able to keep our momentum till the creek crossing, ending our day on a fine note.

We got back to the hour 9.5 hours after setting off, dumped our heads in the creek and then feasted at the refined establishment better known as SmashBurger. Ammonia based beef filler turd burgers with the works, Orange soda, and parmesean, garlic fries were enjoyed by all. In the words of Bruce Dickens, I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more deeply inset ski lines in the Gores.

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

COBuckeye	Made in China 6/7/2011 8:40am Brian, I read this report while sitting in a factory in Shanghai! This definitely made my day.
Yalegirl09	Nice! 6/7/2011 12:04pm Gorgeous Pics!!! Plus Salt and vinegar pringles are amazing!
benners	Stuff That Makes America Great 6/7/2011 1:59pm High-fructose corn syrup, low-grade, defective electronics assembled in China by the lowest bidder, and FDA-approved ammonium hydroxide based beef filler are more or less the lifeblood of this country, Brian. Don't bite the hand that feeds you. In all seriousness though, great line, great partners, great writeup. We need to get out into the Gores again this season. And for the record, I'd ski a line like this over a 14er just about any day of the week at this point, except for maybe this Sunday :D.
Floyd	Congrats 6/7/2011 3:12pm I know you've wanted this one for a while now. Let me know when you're ready to take those darn planks off your legs and join in for some real fun wallowing around in slush.
Matt	Gory details 6/7/2011 3:23pm Pairing man made junk with one of nature's finest ski lines... That was a great read, Brian. The only way to make it better would have been to post it from an iPhone along the drive back. Get with the program.
mtnfiend	Who can say no.... 6/7/2011 6:24pm to processed pepperoni spiced pig dong from Edward's meats Brian, honestly. :lol: Another solid day out dude.
Carl	A strong write up... 6/7/2011 9:57pm and a sweet looking line. Nice!
lordhelmut	Thanks 6/8/2011 2:21pm Thanks for the comments, excellent use of spring indeed. Scot - you've got it all wrong. I think its you who needs the priority re-adjustment, toss those snowshoes in the trash and start making some turns.
stanwagon	Nice job 6/8/2011 2:50pm Nice job and nice report.... liked the pics of distant peaks as that helps inspire me to get to some. The rock climb from E Red to Red that you saw so well makes a fine summer day.... Stan Wagon
stanwagon	can't delete 6/8/2011 2:54pm Can't delete dup post...sorry/
astrobassman	Good work on Deming 6/8/2011 5:59pm I liked the write up too. This makes me really want to ski something in the Gores. Maybe East Thorn on June 26 with Scot and company?
pioletski	Nice line! 6/10/2011 2:31am Sorry I missed this trip, guys, but sometimes I have to work too... Looks like an awesome time!

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