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With
Winter X Games XI upon us, Aaron Taylor, Dave Songayllo, and I decided
that there was no better place to be than in the backcountry. Although
70,000 screaming teens does sound like a great time, the lure of 12,521
ft. Greg Mace peak was too much to resist. Starting Saturday night from
my home up Castle Creek Road, we trekked under the moonlight to the Mace
hut for some sleep. In the morning we said good-bye to our host, Amos
Mace, and started the trek up to Greg Mace Peak. |
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It was amazingly clear, a perfect Colorado bluebird day.
We roughly followed Lou Dawson's backcountry ski guide with some tips
from Amos as we climbed the Pearl basin. After a brief chat with hut
users at the Tagert Hut, we continued up in the shade of Greg Mace Peak. |
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Two hours of climbing brought us to the saddle below the
peak and rewarded us with some great views. I could not help thinking
about the people at X Games and about how lucky we were to be living
here. As we ditched our skis and prepared for our mountaineering ascent
of Greg Mace Peak, we joked about the extreme couloirs on the east ridge
of Castle Peak. We will wait until spring for those. |
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With boots and axes (crampons and ropes might have been
helpful), we came to the first "climbers" summit of the peak. The true
summit was still a hundred yards away, up a fourth class scramble on
crumbling limestone. The real trick is that when you approach the peak
from the south, you must climb down into a starting zone, kick steps,
traverse the west face with a 2000 ft. chute below you, and then climb
up the north face to the summit (that is why crampons and ropes might be
helpful). |
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| Route traverses left and below the rocky
summit |
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| After another half hour we reached the summit
of Greg Mace Peak. Although this is by no means a large
mountain, nor all that technical, we felt a sense of pride.
Except for Aaron, we don't know what he was feeling at the time. |
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Retracing our route and soaking
in the sun, we returned to the
saddle to claim our skis. The
morning had been great and we
were excited for our planned ski
descent. The Backyard Chute is
mostly 30 degrees or less with
no concerning sign of avalanche
danger. We traded off the first
descent on each pitch as we went
down. Snow conditions improved
as we got back down to tree line
with a boilerplate crust covered
in six inches of fresh powder.
Sweet! |
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| True summit of Greg Mace Peak on the left,
saddle and Backyard Chute on the right |
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| We finished the last of our lunch and
congratulatory chocolate at Amos' place and then headed back
down the valley. By the time we skied to my door we had been
traveling for only about seven hours. A little tired but mostly
happy, we all parted ways with the hope of skiing more of the
Pearl Basin. |
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