- Date: April 29, 2021
- Distance: 8 miles round trip
- Elevation Gain: approx 4,200′
- Trailhead: La Plata trailhead
La Plata peak had been on Parker’s ski list for a while and when we viewed the north face at the break of day, Mark and I could see why. The face boasts a beautiful web of snowfields, couloirs and rock outcroppings.
The early spring skiing start was especially challenging for me. I had gone to a pool session (to learn to roll a kayak) the night before in Alamosa. I didn’t get back to Leadville, and bed, until 11 pm with my sinuses were full of pool water. I awoke only a few hours later to ride with Mark to the La Plata trailhead with a headache from the sinus irritation. The three of us would face our own wave of personal challenges on this outing, but the resilience of our group as a whole reinforced our faith in one another as ski partners.
To gain the face, we hiked up the La Plata peak trail for a little over a mile before branching off to hike over the west shoulder of the peak. A popular option is to follow the trail to the ridge and then ski down the face, but as a group we generally prefer to hike up what we are skiing down, so that we have the option to turn around if the snow starts to warm too much. We hiked into the basin and then contoured up the valley to the bottom of La Plata. Despite the usual navigation challenges and pre-dawn fatigue, we made decent time; we reached tree line just as the sun was lighting up the sky. Side-hilling over some of the steeper snow proved challenging as we struggled to grip our skins on the slick terrain. Parker, set the trail while Mark and I wallowed in indecision taking off our skies to try to boot through the slick, punchy snow. When we finally reached the bottom of the couloir, I was glad to transition to crampons, enjoying the firm purchase of metal spikes strapped to my boots.
At this point, Mark was starting to feel nervous. This would be the steepest line he had skied this season, which had consisted of relatively little skiing because of his responsibilities at home. I took a long turn breaking trail on the boot pack, finally feeling strong in the light of the sun. As we hiked over a bit of a roller, Mark felt nervous about the steepness of the terrain, and we considered abandoning the rest of the hike in order to ski something we were all comfortable with. When we crested the feature, however, Mark found confidence in the mellower pitch of the couloir we planned to ski. We kept moving forward, Mark feeling good enough to take a turn at the lead. We moved towards the summit, but found ourselves uninterested in achieving the summit proper. Instead, we found a nice spot on the ridgeline to enjoy a short break before starting our ski down.
I made the first turns into the couloir and Mark and Parker shortly followed down the first steep pitch. The ski felt long, which was a treat after the hard work we put in. When we reached the bottom of the face, we admired our tracks and then headed out. We skied and scooted down the valley all the way toward the bottom of the Ellingwood ridge trail rather than following our tracks back out. It seems like that might have been the more straightforward way in too. The ski out involved a fair amount of wet, collapsing snow and bushwhacking through thick groves of trees, but we eventually made it down to the trail and back to our cars.
We enjoyed some time together in the parking lot, joking about our indifference toward reaching the summit of peaks. We decided to coin ourselves “Team Never Summit” in honor of that shared experience. Tired and happy, we headed separate ways, looking to the near future for another ski together.