The purpose of this trip report is to document a few skiable lines on 9 Conundrum creek 13ers. The first 13er skied was Hunter, in April 2021, which was covered in this trip report. In April of 2024, I teamed up with Justin for a ski of Castleabra (aka Mt Raoul).

PART I - CASTLEABRA (MOUNT RAOUL)

April 2024

We had packed into the Conundrum Creek the day before and set up camp at Silver Dollar pond about 5+ miles in (the plan to go all the way to hot springs in slushy snow proved too ambitious). Followed faint, few weeks old, but still helpful snowshoe tracks. Next morning, instead of following the wise tracks I decided to cross the Conundrum Creek about 0.5 mile too early and promptly fell into the said creek. Got a soaked left boot, wet skins, and an epic glop that followed that mishap (had an unexpected inch of heavy wet snow overnight). Battled my way up the basin, but eventually made it to the summit by 1pm.

However, all this effort was worth something as we had pretty great conditions in the Sloman couloir itself. Quite short though. On the way back, speedy and nimble Justin partially collapsed the small snow bridge which we crossed without much trouble in the morning. However, I wasn't so nimble and fell into the Conundrum creek once again, soaking both boots this time, thankfully just a mile away from camp.

The next day, Justin wanted to ski Keefe, but I needed a rest day and to dry out my gear. Upon hearing the plan, Justin who doesn't yet believe in rest days, decided to head out and tackle the Unaweep boulders instead. Next morning, I packed up my camp and eventually reached the hot springs, spending the rest of the day drying out my gear in the sun and enjoying the hot springs.

PART II - 13ERS UN 13,214, "TRIANGLE" PEAK and UN 13,173

April 2024

The following morning, I started from camp around 6.15am, as the weather was forecasted to come in the afternoon. I wanted to see if I could ski 2, maybe 3 13ers, if the weather allows, since the approach was so short. Having done these peaks in 2019 in dry conditions definitely helped with navigation, and generally what to expect.

Directly from camp, I followed the direction towards the Triangle pass. I took the north shoulder, hoping I could skin it, but the corn was still frozen, so I switched to booting. I was still punching through, so the going was fairly slow. I finally topped out on UN 13,214 just before 9am, quickly transitioned a few feet below summit on a flat ridge spot and dropped down the still warming up East face in the general direction of the Triangle pass. There were a few steep turns, but it was over very quickly. I contoured towards Triangle pass trying to preserve elevation and transitioned back to skinning.

I then skinned up to the Triangle pass until it got steep and rocky, then transitioned to booting. Remembered the NW ridge being steep and loose, and it still was. Glad to have my crampons on for steep dirt (but that's how aluminum crampons get downgraded to microspikes eventually).

Once on top of the corniced ridge, got out my ice ax, as the last bit before the summit is surprisingly steep. I was initially planned to ski the NW slopes, but upon seeing the East face, I was sold - it looked very nice. Transitioned on the flat(tish) summit and dropped the face around 11am. Didn't even realize it at the time, but kicked off a small slide with the upper turn, as the snow was getting warm in direct sunlight. Skied towards Coffeepot pass, then around to the base of UN 13,173 on the north side.

My main goal for the day were the 2 13ers, since the weather was expected after 12pm. However, on the summit of Triangle, the weather still looked great. The clouds were starting to form, but they were building very slowly and were still far, so I had time for another peak.

From hiking it in the fall, I knew that UN 13,173 was not a trivial peak. That day I had strong winds from the north, and my options were limited to the south side. I remembered a long talus slog from Triangle bypassing an unranked ridge bump, then struggling to find a good way up. Everything was loose and steep.

This morning, en route to the first UN 13er, the north facing couloirs stood out to me, and while short and aesthetic, they didn't look easy. I vaguely remembered from 2008 TR by SarahT that's what they climbed. I also remembered the summit ridge to be very exposed and loose, but also the side towards UN 13,559 being quite a bit easier than the way I came up in the fall.

So after skiing down and around from Triangle peak I considered my options on the north side. The main line looked steep, with the bulge in the middle, and the apron was full of "chicken heads" - icy chunks. The more mellow line to the lookers left (aka the F couloir named by SarahT) looked to have better snow and I initially thought was closer to the true summit. So F couloir it is!

Around 12pm, the north facing couloir was still frozen, with sun just starting to warm it up. Everything went well until the ridge when the aspect changed to more east facing and the snow got unsupportive. At least it was a short posthole to the summit. Except it was the false summit, with the true one still across the exposed ridge. I decided to leave my skis on the flat(tish) section of the ridge in case the ridge traverse takes too long. But still not trusting the flat section, I stuck my skis vertically in the snow, and set out to the true summit across the very exposed snow covered ridge, scouting other ski options. The traverse proved to be easier than it looked and soon I was on the tiny summit. I carefully reversed my steps back to the skis. I *could* ski the F couloir, but it was further down the ridge and I was concerned about the soft, east-facing upper section above the couloir, as the time was closer to 1pm. Alternatively, I could try to ski the line just below, which looked steep and aesthetic, but I knew the apron had icy chunks. After some pep talk, I convinced myself that it was doable. My other concern was the condition of the snow - was it still firm or was it starting to warm up? But looked like the sun has been on it for an hour or so.

I carefully side slipped through the narrow, rocky entrance, just wide enough for my short skis. I soon discovered that the skiers' right side was warmed up, while the left side was still firm and icy. After a few carefully executed jump turns I arrived at the bulge/crux section, which was still in the shade and firmly frozen.

I carefully side slipped through and commenced the jump turns until the apron. I was able to navigate around the imperfect snow, finally arriving at the smooth corn section below it. Whew! That was a short, but exciting line.

Right on cue, the clouds started to move in, and I enjoyed skiing perfect corn across the basin right back to my camp by the hot springs.

I couldn't leave without another long soak in the hot springs, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I procrastinated since I was dreading the ski out through the forest full of wild animals and on soggy snow. Alas, it was time to head back out to the trailhead.

Since the skintrack from the prior days was the only firm(ish) snow in the basin, the animals seemed to appreciate it. About 500 feet down the trail, I ran into very recent bear tracks! Well, at least he wasn't camping with me by the hot springs. And I lost track of how many cat prints were on the skin track.

On the way back, I managed to navigate the snow bridges correctly and the further slips in the raging creek were successfully avoided.

PART III - 13ERS UN 13,552, UN 13,559, UN 13,173 (repeat), HILLIARD & KEEFE

April 2026

Fast forward to the spring of 2026, and Sarah pitched the idea of skiing some random peaks in Conundrum Creek. She has also been chipping away at the 13ers in that basin. Not feeling particularly strong, I packed in a day earlier with an extra heavy pack. Unlike in the prior years, the trail was dry for the first 5 miles. After Sarah arrived, we hatched the plan to start with UN 13,552.

Day 1 - UN13,552 + bonus couloir

We followed a straightforward path across the basin and arrived at the base of the peak. We could see a potential almost direct line to the summit, but it looked very steep. So Sarah booted up the obvious wide SE facing couloir leading to the summit ridge and terminating around 13,400 ft or about 150 feet below the summit. This is the line we ended up skiing. We followed the ridgeline to the summit, but didn't see a manageable line closer to the summit. Perhaps in a better snow year it will be more obvious. We reversed our steps, transitioned and skied our ascent line.

We still have some energy and time for something else, so we traversed to the next basin and decided to go up one of the 2 prominent couloirs that one can observe from the Conundrum hot springs. Sarah been wanting to ski it for awhile and I wanted to get a better lay of the land and see the conditions on Hilliard and Keefe.

Sarah booted up the couloir which was longer than it looked (~800 ft) and we even went to the top of the pinnacle at 13,100 ft for the great views. The open book couloir turned out to be one of the better lines in the basin that we skied - in mid 40-ties and aesthetic. Once back in the basin, I followed Sarah who found a direct line on snow through the trees down to our campsite.

Day 2 - UN 13,559 + UN 13,173

The next day, we tackled the other side of the basin and started our morning with UN 13,559. This was the only peak we couldn't see a skiable line down to the Conundrum creek, but after examining all sides on CalTopo, we jointly determined that the NE side appeared the most promising - less steep and having the correct aspect for the snow coverage. We decided to reverse my descent line from 2019, but I distinctly remembered navigating some rocky towers near the summit. I led partway through the gully on the western side, then Sarah booted up the face to about 13,200 ft on the ridgeline. From that vantage point, we could finally observe the NE face for the first time and the conditions looked great. In the interests of time and efficiency, Sarah traversed across the face and booted the SE ridge to the saddle and then the rocky summit. We quickly transitioned as we didn't want the NE face to warm up too much and skied down to the bench around 13k feet. We then did an easy traverse on skis and booted up to the saddle, then skied still frozen and unconsolidated NW aspect. We still have energy and time for another peak and I was up for a repeat of UN 13,173.

We contoured around UN 13,559 on the Conundrum creek side, put skins back on and got to the bottom of the Y couloir on UN 13,173 that I skied last time. We found the deepest snow conditions on this peak. Last time it was consolidated frozen corn, this time it was deep powder.

Sarah led the booter to the tiny summit via the steep right brunch of the Y couloir. We then traversed the narrow and exposed ridge to the left brunch of the Y couloir. The entrance was rocky, so we downclimbed 10-20 feet and were able to transition. Couloir felt easier to me this time in great powder conditions as compared to frozen corn 2 years ago. After that we enjoyed a great mellow ski back to camp.

Sarah had already skied Hilliard, and wanted to ski Keefe with better coverage, so I was on my own for day 3 of peak skiing.

Day 3 - Hilliard + Keefe

After saying good-byes in the morning, I followed our descent line from 2 days ago for about 400 feet, crossing a rather fresh bear track, then branched out right towards Hilliard. The skinning for once was straightforward on frozen corn. I was making a decent progress, while passing our tracks around 12,400 ft. I was lulled into complacency, because the frozen corn suddenly became steeper than I preferred. Despite my best skinning efforts, I fell, slipped and had to self-arrest with the whippet. Not wearing a glove at the time, I scraped my right hand pretty badly. Oh well, it's only a flesh wound, right. I briefly put crampons on, got past the problematic section and continued skinning towards Hilliard. Around 12.9k feet I once again switched skins for crampons and booted up to the summit where I arrived around 10am. The ski descent had some steeper sections in mid to upper 40ties, mostly to avoid the rocks.

The connecting ridge with Keefe was not very far and I vaguely recalled traversing it in the summer with a bypass on the NW side. I slowly made my way across through rocks and unconsolidated snow. Once on the southern ridge of Keefe, I was rewarded with a view of a coyote (who I thought was a wolf), who thankfully was going in the opposite direction, i.e. towards the Conundrum creek. The rock on the ridge was mostly dry, but there was still plenty of skiable snow on the face, starting just a few feet below the summit. With a good freeze, I wasn't worried about the slides later in the day, and the angle was the most forgiving of all the lines we skied in the basin last few days. The coverage below 11,000 ft was pretty sparse, so I aimed to contour skiers right and towards my skin track from this morning. The resulting 2,300 ft ski descent back to camp was pretty fun with various features and gullies. One last well-deserved soak awaited.

In the morning, I packed up and was able to ski the first 3 miles (with multiple short walks). After the Silver Dollar pond, I shouldered skis and boots and slowly made my way back to the trailhead.