Southeast face of Augusta Mountain (12,559 ft.)
The ski area of Crested Butte oftentimes suffers from lower-than-expected snowfall amounts, but just 9 miles to the west/northwest the Ruby Range gets hammered with some of the highest snowfall totals in Colorado. All winter long I’ve gazed wistfully at the snow-smothered Ruby Range peaks, tantalizingly out of reach for those of us without snowmobiles. In late May now that much of the lower access roads have melted out, yesterday I finally had the chance to get out for a spring descent up in these mountains. Daniel and I hiked up and skied/rode down Mineral Point, the prominent pyramid-shaped peak visible up valley as you drive into the town of Crested Butte.
The south face of Purple Mountain (12,958 ft.) in late May, begging to be skied.
Later in the afternoon back in town sipping beer in the sun, I gazed up the valley at the peak we just descended, pleased to finally be thinking “I just rode that!” instead of “I wish I could ride that!”
Nice, Jack! I love it when you see a trail or mountain over a period of time you want to climb, bike, ski, etc. and then you do it. Looks like a lot of snow still out there. Right now as I type, Pikes Peak is getting hammered with snow, all the way down to Woodland Park, which sits around 9,000 feet!
Hey Justin, yeah this is the winter that just doesn’t quit! (As usual in recent years). Around here there’s a lot of snow still up high, but down low it’s melting out fast, which makes the skiing a mixed bag.
The Ruby’s always seem to look out of place, like giant vanilla ice cream cones compared to the surroundings – so cool to see your app close perspective. Begging to be skied indeed!