Colorado Ski Adventures 2024
Sitting in the middle of summer I wanted to take the time to reflect on my spring 2024 ski alpinism season. As an aside I am beginning to like the term ski alpinism to refer to skiing bigger lines and summiting peaks to differentiate from the more casual “backcountry skiing” I do throughout the winter. Ski mountaineering was my favored term but the skimo community causes too much confusion with this… anyway let’s take a look at my 2024 ski season by looking at the summits I stood atop as well as the key lessons I am taking away from this season. I hope these lessons can help others on their own skiing journeys.
Major lines/ Peaks I skied this season
- Quandary Peak [video]
- Mt Hagar + Golden Bear [video]
- Torreys Peak, Tuning Fork Couloir [video]
- The Citadel (Snoopys) [video]
- Dragontail Couloir, RMNP [video]
- La Plata [video]
- Mt. Elbert [video]
- Mt Audubon, Indian Peaks Wilderness [video]
- Buffalo Mountain, Silver Couloir [video]
Some planned lines I didn’t fit in 🙁
Longs Peak via Kelpingers
Atlantic peak / Hawaii Couloirs
Apache Peak
Paiute Peak
Holy Cross What Big EyesMt. Sneffels
Favorite Moments
It’s hard to pick favorites but some top moments that stood out this season were:
- Finally getting to ski La Plata. I had been eyeing this peak and line since last year and when sitting on the summit of Elbert had an incredible view of La Plata that cemented my need to get up there with my skis. Due to some planned trips and life it was looking like I was going to miss this line yet again but in the middle of June I made it out to La Plata to end my season with a bang.
- Finally harvesting the perfect corn on Mt. Autobahn. I had a series of outings that missed proper corn harvest timing but on Mt. Autobahn everything came together for perfect corn conditions. I was planning on hitting up Paiute Peak a few days after with how great this day was but never made it which still haunts me.
- Discovering the Citadel. The Citadel or Snoopys is a 13,000 peak well known for its ski lines, however, I had not researched this peak and when heading out Golden Bear / Mt Hager saw it and knew I needed to ski from this awesome looking summit.I did my research and found out it was very well known and got back a few weeks later for the worst ski conditions of my season due to not waiting long enough for the snow to warm and skiing the south side to be closer to my car vs. figuring out the car thing later and skiing the better aspect.
Biggest Lessons
These are the biggest lessons I took from this ski season. My intent writing these down is to help cement these learnings for myself and maybe someone else on their skiing or mountain missions.
1. Stay healthy
There were a few weekends I was all set for some big adventures but getting sick crushed these plans. This is particularly painful after doing all the avy research, waiting for the perfect weather window, clearing the calendar, and committing to a date. With the short time window of stable snow conditions and enough snow for many of these lines a weekend or two of being sick can really cut into one's spring skiing goals. This is especially true for people like myself that have an intense workload during the week, trips and other obligations that creep onto my calendar, and so many other hobbies and goals that compete for time. Staying healthy seems obvious but the more practical question is how can I do this? Looking back at the couple times I did get sick I was overstressed and overtrained (really functional overreaching). In retrospect better managing these stressors and training volume could have prevented missing these weekends and resulted in more epic lines on my completed list.
To take us on a tangent I like to think of the stress load one can take as a bucket and the various stressors in your life as different spigots that are flowing into this bucket. This bucket has a hole that allows it to drain some amount of stress per day but this hole is small and if multiple spigots are on full blast this hole just can’t keep up. We can for sure do things to increase the depth of our buckets and the size of this drain hole but if the flow rate of water into the bucket vs. the amount this hole can handle is too large we are setting ourselves up for sickness and not being able to perform at our best. Any stress source like physical training, work, or personal stress doesn’t matter to the bucket and results in the same rising water level.
I have always been bad at resting but as I get older and have so much more on my plate realize the important of managing my stressors and the importance of being proactive with rest before I get to a full bucket situation. I still have a lot of work to do here and need to get better at tracking this commutative stress load but just being aware of it feels like a good starting point.
2. Start later!
Ok this may not be the best advice for everyone but this year I had a couple ski adventures where I started too early for ideal snow conditions. I also know my lack of patience at a summit will make me hanging out for hours very unlikely so I needed to adjust my timing planning accordingly. This was largely due to poor planning on my part and being too conservative with the time it takes me to get to the tops of these lines. The poor planning could be summarized as
Know how fast you climb
I was using Naismith's rule for a while (1 hour per 3 miles and an extra 30 min per 1000 ft climbed) yet found myself a bit quicker than this on most climbs, especially when skinning.
Only the weather for the day matters
There was one line where I heard rumors the snowpack was perfect at 10am on a Wednesday and when making my way up the same line Saturday did not fully account that the weather was much colder on the day I was summiting. I intellectually was aware of this difference in weather but did not change my timing enough to account for this.
Trust your planning
I found myself often adding 30min here and 10 min there for “maybe something will slow me down” and in the future will trust the timing plan versus building in too much buffer and having to wait around on the summit.
Know your summit type
I am not the chill on the summit and take a nap kind of person but a 5 min views, 5 min of snacks, and 5 min getting gear ready for the decent kind of person. This may change one day but for now I have accepted that I won’t be relaxing on the summit waiting for ripening corn for hours on end.
3. Ski the best line for the day
This is something I actually did pretty well this year but as an objective focused person it’s easy to have a line in mind you really want to ski and focus so much on this line that you wind up skiing it in poor conditions or miss a much better skiing line nearby. I would rather have better skiing conditions than check a line off my imaginary list as at the end I would rather have better and safer skiing than a line that is cooler in my head or better known. Overall I am more and more interested in avoiding the well known lines and putting in more miles of exploring to find less trafficked zones.
Pro tip: Make sure if you change plans you let people know these changes. This is especially true when solo like I often am.
Gold Star Gear
These are the pieces of gear or things that stood out this year. Most of my other gear is the same as I shared in THIS VIDEO and working well.
1. Blackcrow Navis Freebirds
I got these at the end of last year's ski season but didn’t use them on any bigger climbs and opted for my lighter setup.This year I bought the blackcrows and heavier boots up on all these lines besides Quandary and La Plata and found the added weight was well worth it for a more fun and solid ski on the descent. I personally rather train and be strong enough to have skis that ski the way I want vs. playing the lightest weight setup game. These skis have felt so solid across different snow conditions and feel like the perfect single quiver ski ski for my needs.
2. Electrolytes
I was never great at paying attention to hydration and nutrition on my longer days but have really researched and emphasized proper fueling this year and found this made my climbs easier and more enjoyable. One particular favorite of mine was LMNT electrolyte packs that have more sodium than typical electrolytes which is needed on those long and hot climbs. I also pop some electrolyte pills prior to starting the climb which I also found useful and a very cost effective way to ensure proper electrolytes.
3. Smith Summit Helmet
Previously I used my Smith Mission helmet which I also use for resort skiing. It is pretty lightweight and I liked the idea of only owning a single helmet but this year found that the bulk had me leaving it behind more than I probably should have. To resolve this I bought a Smith Summit helmet which has been an awesome addition to my gear. The size, weight, and ease of attachment to my pack has me bringing it on every climb and I figure any helmet you will wear often is a worthwhile investment.For anyone helmet shopping I was really close to pulling the trigger on the Dynafit TLT helmet but opted for Smith in the end as I 100% know their sizing and the Dynafit color that was on sale went of stock right as I was about to order.
Conclusion
It’s insane how few lines are on this list with the amount of effort it felt like fitting them into my busy schedule. I fit all these ski adventures between a busy life and like most have competing priorities for my time. Looking back I feel that with the time and energy I put into skiing this spring I would see more lines on this list but overall am stoked with the lines I did get to safely ski and think my balance across different life priorities is at a healthy spot.
Many in the adventure sport scene are so singularly focused on their sport that it’s easy to feel like you accomplished nothing in comparison but I am starting to realize that safely skiing 10 amazing lines (hopefully more) a season while also traveling, prioritizing my reltionships, having a thriving career, and enjoying other aspects of life alongside skiing and the adventure sports I love is pretty rad. Simultaneously there are so many mountains and lines I want to ski that I know some of these upcoming seasons I’ll have to prioritize skiing more but for now I will play the long game and focus on staying healthy, safe, and being ready for when this time comes.Thank you for reading and I hope you took something valuable away from this and please follow along for more adventure stories, trip reports, and random thoughts from yours truly.
Jake Kaiser
7/31/2024
