- Date: May 9, 2023
- Distance: 8 miles round trip
- Elevation Gain: approx 2,600′
- Trailhead: Fremont Pass Trailhead
We woke up tired from our big effort on Huron, but Mark and I were ready to rally when our alarms sounded, not wanting to get caught up in the same warming snow we had seen the day prior.
Mark and I had decided to take advantage of my last few days in Leadville to ski another nearby objective, Mount Tweto. We had first spotted the peak a few years before when we first exploring the areas around Leadville. This rarely discussed peak sits in the same drainage as Mount Arkansas, just a short drive up Fremont pass. It’s obvious ski line is known as the ‘crack couloir’ and while it cannot be seen from the highway, nor truly from the base of the peak itself (it is easiest to see from a summit across the valley), it makes for an exciting and interesting ski.
As usual, Mark and I struggled to match pace as we skinned up toward the base of Tweto. Despite the fatigue, Mark was quick out of the gate and I struggled to keep up. He was patient in waiting for me, and we would soon switch roles when we dawned crampons to head up the couloir. This line is clearly windfilled throughout the season and variable rock outcroppings create several wind lips and steap off-camber pitches.
The snow was firm and although it was getting early sun, was not concerningly warming. We hiked over the crux near the top: a left hand turn off the face into the couloir and figured we would be good skiing down it. Shortly after we gained the top of the couloir. I made the last few steps to the summit and then came back down to meet Mark as he topped out.
We made a quick transition and headed down. Cold chalky snow on the top few turns quickly relented to incredible springtime conditions. We made a few slashes on our way down then started our scoot out the runout.
We had inteded to contour out of the valley as far as we could, maximizing our downhill to minimize the amount of skating we had to do, but mark spotted the perfect harvest: a cornfield, perfectly sofened spring snow on an open slope. We ripped a dozen incredible turns down to the bottom of the drainage and found the combination of our momentum and the fast snow to be enough to carry us almost all the way back to our cars.
A few hundred yards of painless skating and we were back where we had started, high fiving and celebrating what ended up being one of our favorite objectives of the season.