Memorial Day 2024

Memorial Day 2024, 25 years after our first Memorial Day trip in the Aspen area in 1999, some things have changed since then, some things have not. One thing new this year is my sick new AT setup, ON3P 102 Woodsman Tours with ATK Raider 13 bindings, so sick, can't recommend these skis enough, damp rocker-camber-rocker float, and enough torsional rigidity to edge the steep and firm.

There is a certain element of comfort that comes from repetition, the formula for Memorial Day has held steady over the years, find a place to camp, pick some peaks to ski, hike and ski some peaks, have some beers, eat some food, chill at camp, and do that more or less every day. Some years the snow is better than others, some years there have been 10 people on the trip, other years 3, but each trip, when it's over, leaves its own unique imprint upon the soul. I can think of no better way to celebrate Memorial Day and honor the fallen than getting out into this beautiful country of ours and reveling in the freedom that their sacrifice has granted us.

For 2024, we had a crew of 4, me, Mike, Steve, and Gabe, and we settled in a campsite at the collegiate peaks campground outside of Buena Vista. They would all arrive at different times after work on Friday, I took Friday off and decided to do a tour up Mt. Helen outside of Breckenridge.

Mt Helen - East Slopes
5/24/2024
13,186' Elevation
5.72 Miles
2,726 Vert
4:24 Hr


On the drive up to the TH got a glimpse of Breck blanketed in the deepter.


A cold start to the day, about 20 degrees at the TH, saw one other dude in the lot heading up Pacific Peak. Got the gear packed up and was able to start skinning right from the lot, there is some steep skinning up that peak, but nothing too crazy. It was freezing all day long, super high winds at the summit and the surrounding peaks just buried in snow.

Beautiful day to be skinning up a beautiful mountain.


Holy cold on the summit.



Pacific Peak and surrounding area looking oh so fine.



Got some nice turns in.



Found some nice steep trees down lower, reminded me of chair E.



Was able to ski right back to the car, pack up and head up to to the campground, got "The Taj" setup while enjoying a drumroll IPA waiting for the troops to arrive.




After everyone arrived, we got settled in, mmmmm mmm, those are gonna be some tasty burgers, one for each person, so democratic.

Turner Peak - North Slopes
5/25/2024
13,238'
9.05 mi
3,286 vert
9:28 hr

Turner Peak was fun to research, most people hike from Cottonwood Pass road, some people ski the southeast gullies down to the road, but I wanted to get back to Hartenstein Lake and check out a basin I've never been to before, not much beta out there on the ski of this area, so this day had a nice adventure feel to it. Had the whole crew out today on this one, and it was cold to start the day, and stayed cold all day long. We started from Denny Creek TH around 6:30am and made our way up to the lake.

Rad dudes in the lot getting ready for the day.


Stylin fellas taking a little break by the bridge.



You can't take a bad picture of Steve, sponsors coming shortly I'm sure.


Above the lake



Booting up the north slopes just below



Summit! This is my favorite pic from the weekend, it was hecka windy and cold on the summit, but that was a lot of work to get up that peak, proud to be a part of this number!



Summit ski by Mike


The ski descent was firm off the top, never really warmed up, but it was edgeable and the upper slopes led to some nice steeps below with some fresh snow.



On the way out, winter just wouldn't let go it's grip and we hiked out in a storm with grauple and snow.



We made it back to the car and headed back to camp, it was cold and cloudy, puffy coats were the order of the day. Gabe made a delicious tenderloin with sautéed mushrooms and onions paired with a nice Zinfandel. We worked on some tunes, with a nice eyes>estimated>pickin'>jammin>scarlet>eyes sandwich and had an IPA testing, with Odells Mountain Standard taking first place.

Mount Hope - Hopeful Couloir

5/26/2024
13,939'
6.5 mi
4,225 vert
8:35 hr

One nice thing about these cold temps was we didn't have to be too concerned with super early starts, with our eyes on Hopeful, a northish facing chute, we figured summiting and skiing around 1pm would be fine. Another thing to note is that our times are not the fastest in the world, so we still need to get started early, like 7am, but not dark thirty.

The hike up Hope from Sheep Gulch is steep out the gate, through the woods, but once you get out of the trees the views of Belford and surrounding high peaks is absolutely stunning. Blessed to be hanging out in areas like this.



We took the right hand side of the snow slopes in the high basin and Mike did a nice job setting the pace and kicking the steps.


We took a rocky line to the right below the entrance to the couloir because it looked safer than booting up the snow to the left, which looked like it was threatened by a cornice, turns out that cornice isn't in play until you're in the couloir proper.



We made it to the summit around 1pm and it was super cold and windy, full on winter gear required.


We were able to pole off the summit and find the entrance to the Hopeful couloir, a few folks had skied the couloir about an hour before us and the snow looked nice and soft when we watched them drop in and oh boy was it nice.

Dwarfed by the surroundings, Mike makes his way down.


Nice turns



Our plan was to ski the couloir and then weave our way around below Hope Pass, got a nice view of the line, lost a glove in the high winds while transitioning.



The boot back up to Hope Pass was easy and we got some nice corn down from 12k-11k with some cool views.



We made it back to the car and headed back to camp, Steve and Gabe had headed back home, so it was just me and the bro, we decided to break down camp and sleep in the car with our sights on a 5am departure for Lackawanna for the final peak of the weekend, but not before spending some time chilling by the chilly river.

Lackawanna - Lackawanna Gully

5/27/2024
13,826'
4.4 mi
3,406 vert
6:23 hr

We left camp around 5 and made the hour drive up Independence Pass road, originally we were gonna leave the van at the La Plata trailhead but that was full by 6am, luckily lots of other spots and we found a nice parking spot about 500 yards past the gully on the left hand side of the road. The boot up to the entrance of the gully was steep and weaved in and out of some dense brush and trees but nothing too heinous. Once we got to the snow line around 11k it was skis on the back and crampons on the boots the whole way up. Snow conditions were stellar for booting up, taking a nice and steady pace we started ascending the peak.



Booting up some powder higher up.



Pleasantly surprised to be in nice weather on the summit for the first time of the trip, amazing summit with endless vistas in all directions.


Summit ski, for some reason Mike's phone takes 8bit Nintendo photos.



The ski down was stellar, powder up high to corn down low with almost 3k of skiing.


Skiing in sublime surroundings.



We made it back down to the car and had the first warm weather of the weekend, changed into flip flops, shorts and t-shirts made the journey back home, again reminded of how grateful we are for those who paid the ultimate price defending freedom in this country, especially my Uncle Leo, who died in service in Vietnam. We are blessed to enjoy these freedoms and honor the fallen by getting out and being free.