Ellingwood Point Trip Report 03/30/2015

Report Type	Mini
Peak(s)	Ellingwood Point - 14,057 feet
Date Posted	03/30/2015
Date Climbed	03/28/2015
Author	killingcokes

South Face Turns
It's always good to go for it. After heading around the state doing some sales it was time for some skiing. I've been itching to get on some big peaks for a while now and I'm finally feeling better after getting struck down by the flu for almost 3 weeks. Met up with YC and we headed down in his Taco. Blanca Road is a tough beast and with not so great shocks we didn't make it very far up the road. We had an hour and a half walk on dirt before we hit the snow in the gulch. The original plan was to go for Little Bear and Ellingwood but with so much vertical added in and YC coming off the couch and getting better from the flu too we opted for just the one peak. It turned out to be a wise choice. We made it to Lake Como before one of the groups up there was awake. We then caught up with a lone climber heading for Blanca right as we got to the site of me and Joe's snow cave site. It was a trip seeing that. It brought back a flood of memories, mostly being colder than I care to ever be again. Lessons learned and survived are the best lessons. I dropped the rope, gear and harness at the base of Ellingwood's South Face and up we went.... more words and pics here http://makingturns.com/?p=6113

South Face Turns

It's always good to go for it. After heading around the state doing some sales it was time for some skiing. I've been itching to get on some big peaks for a while now and I'm finally feeling better after getting struck down by the flu for almost 3 weeks. Met up with YC and we headed down in his Taco. Blanca Road is a tough beast and with not so great shocks we didn't make it very far up the road. We had an hour and a half walk on dirt before we hit the snow in the gulch. The original plan was to go for Little Bear and Ellingwood but with so much vertical added in and YC coming off the couch and getting better from the flu too we opted for just the one peak. It turned out to be a wise choice.

We made it to Lake Como before one of the groups up there was awake. We then caught up with a lone climber heading for Blanca right as we got to the site of me and Joe's snow cave site. It was a trip seeing that. It brought back a flood of memories, mostly being colder than I care to ever be again. Lessons learned and survived are the best lessons.

I dropped the rope, gear and harness at the base of Ellingwood's South Face and up we went.... more words and pics here http://makingturns.com/?p=6113

Comments or Questions

BillMiddlebrook	Excellent 3/31/2015 12:26pm Nice job, Fritz. Love the photos! I was wondering about Blanca snow conditions and you answered that one for me. T–H–I–N.
killingcokes	Thanks Bill 3/31/2015 3:31pm Thanks Bill. Speaking of conditions here’s a condition update for peaks all over the state. Wasn’t really sure where to put something like this. MakingTurns.com Colorado Condition Update 3/25–29/2015
Gueza	Your photos are killer 3/31/2015 6:08pm Any chance you got a shot looking towards Culebra?
SchralpTheGnar	blanca conditions 3/31/2015 6:30pm Other than dav’’s 20" powder day in january that’s pretty much how blanca looks in all the ski trip reports that I’ve seen of it, I think it’s just naturally boney but it goes.
killingcokes	Thanks 3/31/2015 6:33pm Thanks for the kind sentiments. Blanca is in the way of a view of Culebra from Ellinwood.It was dark on the way in and the way out. I saw it a few days before and it looked coated but that was from Alamosa. The North Face was in shadow so I couldn’t get a look. Generally the Sangres are looking stacked this year.
moneymike	I will echo SchralpTheGnar’s comment, 4/4/2015 1:50am that’s just the way Blanca looks. In fact, it doesn’t look bad for Blanca standards. People have skied it in worse conditions. Killingcokes: it looks like your slope slid in the same place mine did last spring. Nice photos.

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