- Date: April 7, 2020
- Distance: approx. 11 miles round trip
- Elevation Gain: 4,500 ‘
- Trailhead: Bakerville exit
Dead Dog Couloir is a prominent feature on the East face of Torrey’s peak. Easy access from I-70 makes this steep aesthetic line a popular ski. Mark and I used the stable spring snow as an opportunity to try it out ourselves.
Starting at the Bakersville exit, we hiked up the dirt road, now snowed in, for about three miles before reaching the summer trailhead. We turned off onto the trail and followed the valley up towards Gray’s and Torrey’s peaks. Once we reached the base of the peaks, we diverged from the trail and headed toward our objective. We enjoyed beautiful weather, and a warm sunrise which hit the couloir at first light.
After leaving the trail, we shortly reached the steep face of Torrey’s and put our skis on our back to trade them out for our mountaineering axes and helmets. The snow was soft and made the boot up a slow affair. The snow was consistent though, and we slowly made our way towards the top. Because of the early sun hit, we decided on a turnaround time of 9:45 am to avoid any avalanche danger created by the warming snow. At 9:45 we were within a hundred vertical feet of the summit, but found a relatively tame location to transition and chose to turn around there.
After a somewhat precarious transition–it’s always nerve racking putting on your skis on the side of a steep slope– we were ready to ski down. Well, Mark was ready to ski down. This was the steepest slope I had ever skied, so Mark took the lead and made the first turns. Once he had reached a location where he could safely watch me ski down, it was my turn. Mark was yelling at me that the first turn was the hardest and that I just had to go for it, but I still found myself side slipping and skootching for a few yards before I mustered up the courage to make a fast, hard turn. The snow was softening and it took a moment for the skis to grip once they had landed. The turns were challenging, but successful, and soon I had made it to Mark where we congratulated one another on making it through the first and steepest pitch of the line. We continued down, finding improved snow conditions as we got lower into the couloir where there had been less wind drifting. We skied in pitches, looking for safe stopping locations before we started the next pitch.
Between the early start, the long hike in, and the steepness of the skiing up high, this was definitely the most challenging ski objective I had undertaken to this point. As the snowfield started to open up, I lost focus and took a fall. I self arrested quickly and was perfectly fine, but was shaken. Mark was above me, watching me ski and was similarly surprised. Obviously, I had let myself get out of control, and I felt bad for the risk that such a momentary lapse could have put us in. Getting injured in this sort of outing would have been just as challenging for me as it would be for Mark, my partner who is responsible to me. Luckily, we didn’t have to contend with any sort of calamity. I shook off the adrenaline spike from the fall and Mark, ever supportive, held no grudge or unnecessary worry over me. We continued skiing, more focused now and made a safe descent back to the car, hiking where it was too flat to ski. I look at this misstep, not as a reason to stop challenging myself, but a reason to continue to do so. At the point that I fell, I was skiing on terrain well within my ability, so I know that what I need to develop is a higher level of consciousness in these situations; I need to keep my attention sharp even when the terrain is low consequence. The best way to do that, I figure, is to keep trying to do it! Thankfully, my ski partners agree.
Back to the car at mid-day, we were tired from the early start and exciting hike and ski. Mark drove us back to Leadville and we spent the afternoon languishing in the exhaustion, thankful for yet another remarkable day on skis.