Spring Skiing: Better than Expected

Posted on by nicolettejones13

Before I transition into full summer work, I have been enjoying some down time and the best of the Colorado’s spring greenery. The waning snowpack that backdrops the alpine flowers and budding aspens has me thinking back to the surprisingly good skiing we got in this spring. Read on for a few photos and accounts of some of my outings this spring!

As March drew to a close, snowpack across Colorado was at record low levels and Mark and I were anxiously awaiting the closing of Snowmass so that we might finally be done with the tedium of this past winter’s work. We had basically given up on the rest of the season and were, along with the majority of our peers, looking forward to mountain biking as the trails dried out early.

It was, then, a surprise to find some of the best turns of the season over the last month. Furthermore, the stable nature of the snowpack and the April storms made for excellent backcountry conditions.

Starting with a strong storm in early April, we clicked back in to our touring setups and headed out for three consecutive days to the top of highland Bowl. Despite the resort being closed, we expected to see more people skinning up for the all time powder, but instead found each day only ourselves and two to three other people.

The bottom right photo is the bowl the day of highlands closing. We were then surprised and ecstatic at how good conditions were when we got out there a few weeks later!

South Hayden and Leahy

A few days later, Mark and I headed out to Ashcroft and skied South Hayden and Leahy. It was a bit windy up high, and the ridge hike to South Hayden was almost enough to discourage us from going out for more, but the traverse over to Leahy ended up being an easy addition for a few more fun turns.

After the mellow descent down South Hayden, the top of Leahy felt steep, and we both made careful turns in the variable conditions. As it opened up, conditions improved and we made some happy turns back down to the American Lakes basin.

South Hayden

Leahy

Castle: East Face

We turned around the next day to ski the the east face of Castle. That day was not as smooth as the day prior.

Mark realized he had forgotten his skins an hour into the day, and after a couple attempts at 1 skin, 1 crampon splitting between he and Kevin, he trudged on. The snow was sometimes firm, sometimes soft enough to posthole through. But Mark put his head down and made remarkably good time to the base of the couloir. It took us a bit longer to summit since we climbed our ski line, wallowing in the waste deep snow that would sluff out on us before we got the chance to ski it.

After skiing the steep turns off the summit, we traversed over on warming snow that was already sluffing below our skis. When I made my first turn above the couloir we had climbed, the snow slugged out below my skis and continued picking up volume and velocity all the way down to the fan below.

I invited Mark and Kevin to ski to a spot where they too could see, the snow picking up speed downhill. I made a few more careful turns and soon all the fresh snow had ripped out leaving the frozen bed surface, a few rocks sticking out, and a foot tall wall of snow on the edges of the couloir.

The ski down was tedious as we picked our way, one at a time through the less than ideal conditions. Finally off the face, we were glad that this was not an “uphill both ways” day, and that Mark would not be hurting for skins on the exit. We skied out and discussed our poor timing and decision making, all while dreaming of our next outing.

North Pearl & Greg Mace

A week later we were out with Kevin again, excited after another storm. We set our eyes on a sub-peak of pearl, looking for good powder on the north facing terrain. The approach was straight forward up a ridge, and we were able to skin to the top of our line.

The snow up high was wind affected and near the bottom of the face it was thin and rocky. The middle turns held the spirit of what we were looking for, and we decided we had time for a little more.

We climbed Greg Mace as a bonus for the day, but found ourselves amongst a handful of other skiers making excellent turns down to pearl pass road.

High fives all around; we were happy, once again, to have found the motivation to make it out there.

  • Date: April 15, 2026
  • Distance: 10 mi
  • Elevation gain: 4,600 ft
  • Trailhead: Pearl Pass rd
  • Strava activity: Lost in the sauce

Star peak North Ridge

Spurred on by the good conditions and Parker’s availability, the next day we headed out to Star Peak, which we had been longing to explore for the past couple seasons.

The approach was long, and we opted to take an old mining road the majority of the way in. The road added miles with its gentle, but it got us up and above tree line without any route finding required.

While we were happy to have made relatively good time, we were a bit bereft to see a perfect looking skin track coming from the trees above the Lindley hut; “we could have just followed them!”

Oh well. It was so cool to be back there amongst the various ridge lines of Star peak, and we marveled and planned future outings as we approached our intended line. Mark had spent the morning feeling low, mentally/emotionally drained and as we started booting up the couloir, he made it clear he did not want to ski the steeper options of the available terrain. The top of the line is braided snow and rocks, so we chose a notch with a gentle roll off as our transition point.

Conditions were soft and we enjoyed skiing down the face. As we exited the basin, we decided to follow the skin track out and found ourselves in tremendously variable snow in the thick trees. Skiing down through the sometimes breakable, sometimes supportive, sometimes soft, sometimes icy snow, took longer than we expected from the exit, but eventually we reached the hut then the road.

Parker and I had lugged our sneakers around all day and we were excited to have the chance to use them for the last mile and a half of pavement back to the car. Mark had opted to leave his behind, so he trudged on ahead of us, ready to get his feet out of ski boots.

When Parker and I arrived at the car, Mark was basking in the sensation of bare feet in the warm afternoon sun.

It was a long walk, but with so may different lines to ski, Star peak is already calling our return.

Greg Mace + bonus on Pearl Ridge

Unsure of the potential for wind slabs after reported high snow totals, we decided to ski close to the cars and make the most of the fresh snow.

Mark was visiting his mom in Denver, but thankfully Kevin was happy to pick me up at 6am to chase powder. Skis on our pack ready to leave the dozen or so other cars parked at Pearl Pass road in Ashcroft, I heard my name called from a few cars down. Mike was putting skins on his skis, planning on skiing solo, but given the timing and similar plan, decided to make an easy addition to our group.

The three of us skied three lines on Greg Mace. Although the snow was not as deep as we expected, the uphills went by quick and the laps were fun.

It was a busy day out there, and we enjoyed our time at the top of the ridge admiring others chosen lines.

And one more Bowl Lap. As I prepped to leave for the UK, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the chores involved in prepping for international travel and a bikepacking race. With more fresh snow, I wanted to ski, but did not want to dedicate a whole day to it. Mark was back to work at the bike shop, so I reached out to our friend group for likely partners. Thankfully Mike was thinking on similar terms. He was already planning on heading up to the bowl, so I excited myself along.

We started out by hiking up the grassy lower slopes, skinned a bit up thunderbowl, then shouldered the skis again for the road from thunderbowl to the main mountain. From there we skinned on continuous snow to the top of the bowl.

Having already set up a day, the snow was soft but surfy. We made bouncy turns down the face, then carefully picked our way down the runout and the lower mountain.

Easy and rewarding, it’s always special to be skiing powder the last week of April.

Conundrum

Mark was busy at work, but I was excited to get out for another ski day with Parker. He brought his camera and got some really cool shots of this one.

We started the day early (much earlier than we needed to) and were moving by 6am. The skin up was quick on frozen snow and we were surprised to see a few other groups already heading up the drainage as we made our way to the summit. We passed one group, then caught another and enjoyed some conversation at the top of the line. Looking down we could see quite a few other people making their way up the popular 14er ski lines. The same entrance for conundrum also accesses the north face of Castle, so there’s no surprise that a blue-bird spring day was drawing a crowd.

We did our best to let the snow soften, but after waiting as long as we could, we dropped in to still firm conditions. The skiing was a bit treacherous, and other groups booting up the couloir made the line even tighter.

We made our way out enjoying a few corn turns before carefully picking our way down the road which was melting out fast and required a few transitions out of the skis.

Parker got some really cool film photos of this one! These are all his photos:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *