Sky Watcher

• Date: 26 May, 2023
• Peaks: South Arapaho Peak
• Route: Skywalker Couloir
• Mileage: 4.5mi
• Vertical: 2900ft
• Time: 11hrs
• Partners: Evan

It's good every now and then to get a reminder that the mountains are actively trying to kill us. Today was one of those reminders! I'm grateful at least that we could get taught a lesson without anyone getting injured, or worse.

The day started super early. Evan and I were planning on starting from the Hessie Trailhead, assuming that the Fourth of July Road was still closed for the season. We were thrilled to be wrong, as the the road was open and dry the entire way, dropping the day's mileage from thirteen miles or so to only five! We figured if we were at the base of the couloir by sunrise or so we'd have enough time to safely climb, planning on spending some time roped up just to get practice with snow anchors and double ropes. We sat around for a minute in the parking lot, until about 5:30 when we realized the sun was already rising and we had better get a move on!

By the time we'd started I didn't even need my headlamp. The approach was a mix of dry trail and waist-deep post-holing, which made for a slow time. There were some icy parts, which I was happy about because that meant that there'd been a freeze the night before! While I slid on icy rocks in my mountain boots, Evan was sliding on the snow exposed to the sky. No matter what, these conditions meant that the approach was going to take a bit. Eventually we got to the trail junction, where our descent off the mountain at the end of the day would meet back up with the Arapaho Pass Trail. It was pretty much completely snowed over, so we decided it was probably worth it to just take out the crampons and beeline uphill.

We realized pretty quick that we were on top of the wrong hill, but also that the meadow found along the trail wasn't actually all that far away. We added a bit of extra vert to the day, but in the end maybe only wasted something like fifteen extra minutes. We went through the meadow, where the approach leaves the trail, and made our way over to the base of the couloir. Here we took a snack and water break. It was about 8:00am.

The first bit of the couloir was a breeze. There were already steps put in for a couple hundred feet, which made ascent pretty easy. The snow was perfect névé and low-angle enough to not need to front-point when there wasn't already a bootpack. We made quick work of the first half of the couloir and stopped just before it steepened to take another break.

As mentioned we had decided to bring a set of ropes and a light rack, to practice skills mostly but also since the snow in the Princess Leia Direct Finish is known to be pretty steep. We made it to the bottom of where the snow reached about 60 degrees and decided to build an anchor and belay. I led first, placed one picket down low, and promptly ran out of rope. I built an anchor, belayed Evan up, and then he took lead.

Now here's where the drama began. He made it to the truly steep section and discovered that the snow in the choke was super soft. Soft enough that he couldn't make upward progress. It was at this point that I looked west and noticed a major storm system over the Gore Range, meaning that it would soon be on us. It was 11:00am. Evan suggested he downclimb back to me and we just do the standard finish to the route to save time. I figured that the snow might be just as bad over there as it was where we were, so I decided to simul-climb to him so we could tackle a rock band to the right of us that looked relatively easy. This was a horrible decision, as the rock was chossy and still had patches of slurpee snow all over it. In the time it took me to make it to Evan, make a few moves onto the rock, and place a nut, the weather was right on top of us. We decided to bail downwards, and left a rap anchor in the one possible spot I could find two solid nut placements. We rapped back down to where the snow was a bit more firm and, stuffing gear back into bags in somewhat of a frenzy, began downclimbing the now super-soft snow.

At this point graupel began coming down. Right as I was about to say that with graupel comes lightning, BOOM! There was our first sound of thunder. Nothing we could do now but downclimb in a safe and controlled manner. It took us maybe half an hour to reach a spot where we could start glissading. I did have to self-arrest a few times, and luckily it was firm enough to do so. We were pretty beat up reaching the base of the couloir, but we at least were grateful to be off the mountain. Of course we were still in an exposed position, but we made sure to re-fuel and drink water real quick before getting the hell out of there.

Looking back, we were extremely lucky. Despite hearing a ton of thunder, the storm seemingly surrounded us on all sides without ever truly touching us. Our hike back involved lots of post-holing, but at least we were in the trees! A pretty miserable day in the end, but one that I'm happy I could learn from.

So what did we do wrong? This is a question I always ask myself after days in the mountains, regardless of the success encountered.

1. Our first mistake was one of timing. We could have easily left the trailhead earlier had we known what time sunrise was going to be, and even despite our 2:45am wake up time we could have been up there earlier.
2. Our second was one of planning. Working out new climbing systems and pushing the limits should be reserved for days when there isn't weather in the forecast, and even if it looks like there will only be weather in the afternoon plan for it to come earlier than you expect.
3. The final one was a decision I made, thinking it was a good idea to follow Evan up to the crux and find a way around. We should have pulled the plug the second we noticed weather and just bailed down the couloir, instead of thinking it was faster to go up and over. We already knew what was below us, and the timing would've likely been much safer.