- Date: May 5, 2023
- Distance: 5.95 miles
- Elevation Gain: 3,373‘
- Trailhead: Buffalo Mountain Trailhead
Our ski mountaineering had come to an abrupt halt when Mark when back to work the first of May. I reached out to all my ski partners, but to my dismay they all had jobs and were busy at work. I took the time to myself to get back on the mountain bike and make plans for Mark’s first weekend off.
Thankfully I didn’t have to wait too long to get back on the skis; when Friday rolled around Bart, Parker and I set off to ski Buffalo peak. Buffalo peak is a prominent peak in the southern end of the gore range that looms over Silverthorne, just off of I-70. The ‘Silver Couloir,’ which comes down from the summit on the Northeast face, is included in the “50 Classic ski Descents of North America.” Its notoriety and accessibility along with an increasing population of backcountry skiers in the Summit county area means that this route saw a lot of traffic this season. Ready to get back into the high country, we decided to include ourselves in the number of skiers heading out for this objective.
Bart had skied the popular route a couple of times previously, so we took an easy 6 am start and followed his lead to the summit. We climbed up the forested northeast ridge to the summit, fighting clumping snow on our skins as we broke tree line. Parker was especially being weighed down by the clump, and a few hundred feet from the summit decided to boot the rest of the way on the hard packed snow. Despite the delay, we summited with relative ease and enjoyed the views across the gore range and down to summit county.
Another pair summited shortly after, and we chatted with them for a while as we transitioned. As we began to descend, we spotted some mountain goats, and Parker scrambled off to capture some incredible photos of the group of them.
As expected, we made our way down through old ski tracks and some variable snow conditions: the top of the couloir was chalky and cold, yielding to some quality corn in the middle of the ski, and then alternating between frozen crust in the shade and total slop on the sunny aspect as we got down low. We took a look back at our ski before starting our scoot out through the trees, roughly following the summer trail back to the car.
We were back to our starting point by 11 am, enjoying the sunshine before we headed off our separate ways.