OTHER Trip Report 06/01/2009

Peak(s):	S. Arapahoe Peak - 13500
Date Posted:	06/01/2009
Date Climbed:	05/30/2009
Author:	davebks

Skywalker Coulier
Hello all, so I went up Skywalker Coulier on Saturday, May 30th. There is still a ton of snow up there. It was a great day out. One thing I can tell you though is get up earlier then you thought you needed to. I hit the trail at about 6:30am. The hike up was pretty easy. Still lots of water running and tons of mud all over. I saw some people camping but it just looked muddy to me. Once I got up under the peak and started up though the snow was nice and cold, it had frozen overnight. Everything was nice and stable, blue skies and nothing to worry about. I got into some of the steeper stuff though and two guys decided to ski right down on me. I yelled up that I was climbing (in case they didn't see me) and his response was yelling back down at me, "yeah, well we're skiing". So I got some stuff kicked down. Thank you to the other skiiers who communicated with me. That was nice. As they skied a river of sugar snow flowed by me by me but overall every step was stable. Once I got to the upper part of the climb, under Leia, the sun had been on it for an hour or so and it got wet. The cornice upper left was dripping pretty good and the steeper it got the more the snow would collapse under my feet. I decided to climb the rocks to the right, then cut back onto the face to top out. Once I made it on top of the chute, I hooked right up and over the summit and made my way down the ridge to the trail. By the time I got down it was snowing on me, lightly, so there is new snow up there. At 12:30pm there was thunder and lightning all around me. So it was about a 7 miles round trip, 4500ft elevation gain in total. Hit the trail at 6:30, summit of peak at 12:30, back at the car at around 3ish. Here are some pics: 1 Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Skywalker Coulier

Hello all, so I went up Skywalker Coulier on Saturday, May 30th.
There is still a ton of snow up there. It was a great day out.
One thing I can tell you though is get up earlier then you thought you needed to.
I hit the trail at about 6:30am. The hike up was pretty easy. Still lots of water running and tons of mud all over. I saw some people camping but it just looked muddy to me. Once I got up under the peak and started up though the snow was nice and cold, it had frozen overnight.
Everything was nice and stable, blue skies and nothing to worry about.

I got into some of the steeper stuff though and two guys decided to ski right down on me. I yelled up that I was climbing (in case they didn't see me) and his response was yelling back down at me, "yeah, well we're skiing".

So I got some stuff kicked down. Thank you to the other skiiers who communicated with me. That was nice. As they skied a river of sugar snow flowed by me by me but overall every step was stable.

Once I got to the upper part of the climb, under Leia, the sun had been on it for an hour or so and it got wet. The cornice upper left was dripping pretty good and the steeper it got the more the snow would collapse under my feet. I decided to climb the rocks to the right, then cut back onto the face to top out.

Once I made it on top of the chute, I hooked right up and over the summit and made my way down the ridge to the trail. By the time I got down it was snowing on me, lightly, so there is new snow up there. At 12:30pm there was thunder and lightning all around me.

So it was about a 7 miles round trip, 4500ft elevation gain in total. Hit the trail at 6:30, summit of peak at 12:30, back at the car at around 3ish.

Here are some pics:
1

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

davebks	D Baker and friends 6/1/2009 6:54pm Haha. I didn‘t use it because I was hiking up and over. No skiing for me. I didn‘t mean to be so harsh about the other skiers, and I changed my copy in here, but I really thought that was rude and dangerous. At least give me a heads up, you know? Anyway, good times overall. I had a blast! and am glad you guys did as well. I am guessing that is your group in my pics then? I have a link to more photos you might be interested in if that‘s you. Cool shots. Let me know.
d_baker	pictures 6/1/2009 9:10pm My partner and I are in your pic‘s, probably the third & fourth climbers shown in the lower portion of the couloir. We didn‘t ski it either; we went up and over like you. If you could pm me the link of photo‘s, that would be great. Thanks.... Conditions of Leia finish: Fun! And the snow was soft enough to go without crampons and I left my second tool on my pack. (Was able to get a good self-belay with my axe.)
d_baker	tracks 11/30/2010 5:20pm I hope you enjoyed our booter (if you used it). ;-) We hit the couloir at 7:45 and topped out on Leia at 9:15. I think I probably saw you starting the climb. The skiers were "with us" in the sense that we swapped leads up the couloir. Conditions the next day were much different. I ran into a guy from 14erworld and they turned back early due to a poor freeze. We attempted Neva on Sunday and had deep, heavy, wet snow, so we turned back half way up the cirque. Good climbing up there!

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