Barely having enough time to take a breath in between avalanche courses, I was able to get out for a big day in the Pecos Wilderness. There were a couple of ski shots that I had my eye on for several years and really didn't have anyone who had the time or interest to go out with me, especially since I'm kind of a short notice personal trip taker in light of everything else going on.
On the way back from teaching a Southwest Adventure Guides Level 2 avalanche course in Silverton, Colorado at the end of February, I asked Justin Spain if he was off on a Tuesday and if he would be interested in going to do a couloir and a fairly big and committing face on a long back country ski tour. He of course was psyched to go and asked what the plan was. I let him in on the scheme and we packed bags and got up early the day of the tour.
The tour started at Santa Fe Ski Area. We hiked up and over Deception Peak, then over to Lake Peak. The snow filled in a majority of the gaps that usually make for interesting rock climbs and bouldering problems. Overhanging corninces lined the ridge all the way to Penitente Peak and the lee sided aspect produced small slab avalanches during the storm. We cut through a cornice between Deception and Lake Peaks and it initiated a small avalanche that went down into the Santa Fe watershed. It's looking like the people of greater Santa Fe will be able to drink water this year since there is a large amount of snowpack in the watershed !
We hiked down the east ridge of Lake Peak and towards Penitente Couloir (I'm callnig it that since it's on the way to Penitente Peak, but it's kind of a misnomer since the couloir is actually on the Lake Peak massif). After a hundered feet of post holing down from the summit we put skis on and made our way to the couloir notch.
The notch was inviting and a good ingress into the couloir was a bit of a skiing jump into a vacated fetch zone. I realized that the fetch was devoid of snow, right down to the ground, so I nixed the plan to jump in and take a few turns to the left in an anticipatory effort to ski cut the top of the wind slab. I'm glad I didn't since the wind slab was bullet hard underneath a few cm of newer snow. So, I hiked up and gained a nice ski entrance on the wind slab higher up and to the East side of the notch. It worked great and I was happy that my edges were carving well along the 52 degree slope of the drum-tight snow that was compacted by angry winds from the North. The fetch that had no snow took up 50% of the entrance, so the turns were limited by that distance. Nonetheless, I was able to get down the couloir in good style and gain softer snow 20m down. The remainder of the turns were fantastic.
Turning out underneath a rock band, I was able to stop midway down the slope and wait for Justin who had made his entrance along with me just to get past the first 20m and get established into the couloir. We snapped some photos of this spectacular couloir and had a great time laying tracks all the way down and into more open terrain.
From the bottom of Penitente Couloir we skinned and skied down to the Windsor Trail and then up to Puerto Nambe where we caught the Skyline Trail up to Windy Point. The valley fog that was covering Santa Fe all morning was a result of the 8cm of dense snow that had fallen the day before. Rime ice was plastered all over the rocks, trees and escarpments at tree line and into the alpine terrain above 12,000 feet elevation. The fog moved in as we started up the Skyline Trail, which was perfect since it shaded us from the sun. The short wave radiation was bouncing off the cirrus clouds and had already heated up the dense snowpack to where the moisture easily stuck onto our ski skins. I broke out a bar of skin wax that seemed to help a little bit, but the snow was changing to slush so fast that it was becoming nearly futile to travel since the weight of the snow under the skis was taking a toll quick. The only cure was to advance to a higher elevation where the snow was colder, and so we did.
Windy Point had the sign for Baldy and we looked up through the clouds. A surreal landscape of large cliff faces separated by long vertical snowfields intermittently shined through the whisking clouds as they rolled from around the ridge and across the East Face of Santa Fe Baldy.
Large cornices poised like sentinels ran the length of the East Face ridge. No ski tracks were seen, but I had found out that there were some other travelers that passed through prior to the storm that had taken their turn, but now there was sign of them being there, making it feel quite remote for New Mexico.
Justin took the lead and got us to the summit in short order. We eyed the descents into the Lake Kathryn area and decided that those lines would have to be saved for another day. The East Face was too inviting.
Pulling out my cordalette, we decided that we were going to cut a cornice and let it drop onto the slope below to see how the snowpack would behave and if there would be any slab avalanche danger. I stepped 1.6 meters from the edge of the cornice and it promptly broke at 1.5m back. One of my skis was in the air, the other with 20cm behind the fracture and I was able to jump back while holding on to the cordalette and Justin giving me a quick belay. That boy sure is getting fast with the belay ! The cornice broke out some 6-7m along the ridge as it was quite undercut and heavy. It pummeled onto the slope below and triggered a small, slow moving slab that ended up entraining a large amount of wet avalanche debris that went nearly all the way to the bottom of the face over a very long minute. Although the snow wasn't moving fast, and the debris would not have really buried a skier, it could have knocked a skier or snow boarder down and carried them a long way.
I looked across the slope and saw where the other crew had entered the East Face. It looked like they did a ski cut right underneath the largest set of cornices and above a cliff band. I wondered if they had triggered an avalanche if they wouldn't still be there when we arrived a few days later. It seemed like a risky entrance where they cut across the underbelly of the gargoyles that overshadowed the cache of good skiing below.
We then cut another cornice and got the same results. I figured we could get into the East Face shot by hacking away at a cornice and making a realistic entrance and then making a drop entrance and onto the 62 degree face to make a coule of turns and gain a nice protected saddle where a broken vertical ridge running up the East Face doesn't quite meet the summit ridge.
The turns were better than I had imagined and were quite easy, but an aggressive mindset is what gets one onto the boiling plate, so I jumped in with my torso forward and skis parallel to the slope. A couple quick turns let the remaining snow slide and I stopped to let it go by.
Then, Justin jumped in and set up next to me. We skied the turns that only come in a dream. The could had parted and a nearly blue sky gave us the pat on the back as we skied onto more gentle grade of low 40s, then upper 30s. We started out in the debris and then moved our way out into the open slope once the angle subsided and risks abated with each turn.
Justin took a near perfect line the entire fall line. I moved over at the half way point to another slope and ripped through the snow on a small ridge on a rock back and then to more open gladed terrain and met him at the bottom where a piece of cornice had rolled all the way to the bottom, nearly 1,200' down.
We laughed in amazement at the quality of line that this was and realized that THIS is what memories are made of.
We took out our lunches and had a great bite to eat on a large flat granite rock. Then, we skinned up our skis and hiked back to the ridge. It wasn't over yet. We had to use ski crampons to make our way to the South Ridge, but it was worth it since we had a clear shot on corn snow all the way back down to Puerto Nambe. We left big deep turns in the open trees for nearly 1,000'.
Once at Puerto Nambe we augmented our plans to return back over Lake Peak via Penitente and just opt for the Windsor trail egress. IT was a great day and we didn't feel like we needed to push it along any more.
We celebrated with margaritas and Mexican food at Maria's in Santa Fe. I'm glad that I have an opportunity in my life to share my experiences with an up-and-coming mountain guide like Justin. Enough can't be said about having a good partner on high adventure outings. Solid teamwork with good methods for attaining shares goals is a fortunate circumstance that should not be taken for granted. I'm fortunate to have friends like him and can't wait to get out there once again with them to make more great memories !
That's what dreams are made of.
