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Our original plan was to drop a car off at the trailhead in Frisco, then drive to Vail Pass and climb Uneva Peak skiing back down to Frisco from there. We accomplished everything except reaching the summit of Uneva.
My starting line is off a little to the Northwest
After meeting up in Morrison at 4:45 a.m. we drove to Frisco, where I dropped my car off at the trailhead which is right off of the exit ramp. From there Nate drove us to the top of Vail Pass where we were greeted to an empty parking lot. We started skinning up at about 7:00 a.m. to an abundance of fresh snow.
Beautiful new snow
There was not much of a skin track due to all the new and blowing snow and it soon disappeared making us break trail the rest of the way.
Barely a skin track left
Skinning up in a ton of new snow
We took turns breaking trail and once we broke out above treeline the wind really started to pick up. The temp was well below zero and I don't even want to guess what the wind chill was.
Skinning to the ridge
Fighting the wind and cold, we made it to the top of Point 12,363 next to Uneva Pass. It was a complete whiteout and I knew there was no way we would be traversing the ridge to climb Uneva. Initially, I wanted to summit Uneva, then measure the slope angle to see if we could find a safe ski descent, but that wasn't going to happen in this weather.
So instead we skied down off the ridge near Point 12,363 where the slope angle was a safer 25 degrees.
Nate on top of the ridge about to ski down
Nate coming down the bowl
Once we skied down the bowl into the trees the wind subsided and we had great turns in the forest of the Eagle's Nest Wilderness.
Beautiful tree skiing in the Eagle's Nest Wilderness
Then the topography levels out and it becomes a bit of a slog for a while, but the scenery is unbeatable. We found some large rocks and downed trees that were just asking us to jump off them...
Jumping one of the many large boulders
Huge log with a ton of snow
I love jumping off trees
We eventually traversed to the top of a large boulder chute and had a blast jumping off everything we could find!
Near the top of the boulder field skiing down
Fun!
And more fun jumping the powder pillows
From there we reached the Tenmile drainage and traversed/skied our way to Frisco. Even though we did not summit Uneva, it was a great ski tour through a beautiful wilderness area. We were both pretty beat from a long day of touring and skiing.
We drove back to Nate's car at Vail Pass with a very nice crow standing on top, guarding it for us.
What???
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
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