My first 14er ski descent: The East Ridge of Mt. Elbert

This year has been my first serious foray into backcountry skiing. After triggering a massive avalanche in the backcountry 23 years ago on a simple hike with a buddy near Loveland Pass, I've honestly been pretty scared of it, and stuck exclusively to climbing. But recently with the encouragement of ice climbing buddies, I decided to get educated and dip my toes in the water. The first step was to get surgery on my foot so I could fit into ski boots again. If anyone ever tells you to cram your feet uncomfortably into rock climbing shoes, believe me that there can be consequences. This advice given to me on a climbing trip in Europe led to the growth of a massive bone spur on my right foot, which I dealt with for many years not really knowing how to get rid of it. Once that was taken care of, I started researching a super lightweight ski set-up; something I could put on my back through technical terrain without it throwing me off too much. I settled on the Atomic Backland skis with FKT bindings, and Scarpa Maestrale ski boots custom-formed to my feet. My main issue would be my schedule. With Wednesday as my day off, and a distaste for long adventures with random online partners, it seemed I would be doing this thing alone. I would have to be conservative.

I began with trips up to Chasm Lake under Long's Peak, Lake Isabelle, Lake Odessa and Andrew's Pass in RMNP. My first mountain I skied was the East face of Mt. St Vrain in the Indian Peaks. Next up was the East Ridge of Mt. Elbert. The avalanche forecast was good for Elbert on March 12, and the East Ridge sounded like very safe low consequence terrain, so I headed out.

This was a fairly dry year so I managed to drive my Honda CRV up the 4x4 road over ice-filled potholes very close to the end of the road. Conditions were forecast to be perfect all day; cool, sunny, no wind, and no recent snowfall. Could be a little sparse. I skinned up the icy road to the trail and passed but one person the entire way to the summit. The angle on this mountain is such that you keep the skins on the whole way, stay the trail, and basically don't even need to switchback. I noticed many post-hole prints from hikers and snowshoers and was pleasantly pleased with how effortless it was to float up the mountain without sinking in at all. The ascent took little more than 3 hours.

Being atop Colorado's tallest mountain, so far above treeline, it was a little intimidating clicking in with intent to ski. But the East Ridge is like the longest most glorious green/blue run at your local resort. Of course, not exactly like your resort: I encountered plenty of hard ice, hard-pack snow, breakable crust, and sastrugi before gliding into the trees.

From here I started floating atop deep powder. Having exclusively snowboarded for the last 25 years, it was a strange sensation leaning straight back so far to achieve flotation, but I got the hang of it quickly. Now, on the trip up one has to navigate some downhill/undulating terrain to proceed up the mountain. I attempted to short-cut this situation which kind of worked, but put me through a very thick aspen glade and other less-than-desirable terrain to ski through (lots of deadfall). So next time I'd probably just stick to the trail.

Before I knew it I was back to the car to begin the next adventure of smashing it through the now melted ice on the jeep road, and back to safe driving. All in all, I'd say this was a perfect first 14er ski descent!

https://youtu.be/IjEEWYUp2V8?si=m_kYgN7rsRlwBRcz