Just over 10 years ago I found myself standing on top of Wilson Peak with my leg doing the “Elvis dance” and my heart pounding louder than usual. I peered down at one of the steepest lines I had yet to ski and wondered how I was going to safely ski down. While I was working on slowing down my breath and calming my nerves, I looked over at one of the guys in our party and he was partaking in the celebration of April 20th. I couldn’t believe it, I was trying not to vomit from anxiety while this other guy was smoking a bowl! I learned and have repeated a mantra to many clients and students in the past, “Anxiety is excitement without the breath.”  Maybe if I knew that back then it could have helped me understand the positivity around what I was feeling.

 A couple of months prior I was in the S. Lake Tahoe region wandering around a convenient store grabbing a typical breakfast snack and coffee before a day of skiing. I cruised through the beer isle and saw a Coors Light beer display positioned oh so cleverly. It caught my attention while deciding between the breakfast bagel and the burrito. I stared at the mountain on the grayish/silver cardboard box and my imagination was captivated. At that time Coors Light used a photo of Wilson Peak in advertising, “Tap the Rockies.” I thought about what that would be like to ski the couloir from the summit and how fun it would be. Little did I know I would have the opportunity to ski it that spring. My “Objective” for going to Colorado was for an interview at an interesting school in Carbondale near Aspen. I used that as an excuse to head Telluride shortly after. I reached out to a ski buddy and the mission to ski some of Colorado’s ‘14ers’ (14,000 foot peaks) was hatched.

There was another group that joined us on the summit too. I was skiing with my buddy who resides in Telluride along with his friend. His friend was the one who was slowing his breath in other ways. We all decided to join forces and ski this peak together while managing avalanche terrain and skier traffic. I remember getting into position while carefully jump turning and sidestepping over rocks on the side of what felt like a precipice. “Wouldn’t want to fall here I thought” or I would become a finely grated piece of cheese. Thankfully the couloir was a little more filled in with deeper snow in the center. These were the type of conditions when you embrace the “Captain Center Punch mentality” and ski the gut (middle) of the line. Speaking of guts, my stomach was still doing cartwheels as I inched closer and closer to the center of the ski line. I finally dropped in making each turn as precise as I could while making each one count.

Sometimes one can achieve the Flow State where you become entranced and every action becomes effortless. This was not the case for me, not this time at least. It felt like a lot of concentration while the fear of falling was constant. I had never been so aware of my edges and the surface area of my skis while trying to use all of it to my advantage. My legs quivered as I initiated each turn with a hop then firmly planted my skis back into the slope while repeating this over and over. I like to use the terrain to my advantage while using the least amount of energy while skiing, this line just felt like a lot of work regardless of one’s technique.

We all regrouped with the steepest and most exposed part of the descent behind us. Now we just had to traverse a hard skiers left below the cliffs that flank the mountain. While skiing across the lower slope of Wilson Peak towards the trail back to the vehicles I was finally able to breath normally again with my heartbeat returning to normal. I felt so fortunate to be where I was at the present especially just cruising on my skis without too many worries. Sometimes that is my favorite part of the day, skiing mellow terrain after the objective, I get to zone out and relax after the adrenaline wears off. Skiing the first 14,000 foot peak of the trip so far felt like getting a monkey off of my back. It probably installed more doubt than confidence knowing that I was going to have the anxious feeling plenty of times in the days ahead.

 In between skiing the high peaks we would get back early, dry our stuff out, eat a lot of food and relax. We would laugh or recount the day and then begin to think about the next day. Obviously we had to look at weather in order to plan the best possible conditions.  To minimize the risk of avalanches and rock fall our days started early. Sometimes I would go to bed around 8:00 and we would get up around 2:00 in the morning. I think on the peaks around Telluride we would start skinning before 3 in the morning with the hopes of getting the conditions just right. We dropped into Wilson Peak around 9:30 in the morning and were back at the cars around 11:00 or so.

 On some of the days that we didn’t ski the 14ers we skied the local backcountry near Telluride. I had the opportunity to meet other locals and checked out amazing terrain. We would gather beta from other skiers before heading out to the next adventure. Our next weather window was coming up so we decided to give Mt. Wilson a try, this mountain is different than Wilson Peak. To access Wilson Peak you park on Lizard Head Pass and start the journey from there.

With our headlamps illuminating the crunchy snow we found a snow bridge that crossed the creek right from the start. I remember thinking how the crossing would be when everything warmed up later in the day… While in town it was suggested that we make a certain mark on the map, or use a spot on the map as a beacon to aim for. It was great skinning in the dark just the two of us, every so often we would stop to take a compass bearing to make sure we were on track. This was before all of the new fancy GPS mapping technology which is quite handy now. When the sun finally came up we found ourselves in the main basin below Mt. Wilson. Compared to Wilson Peak the mellowness of the approach (and ski) was well welcomed for me. It was a big approach but the skiing was relatively easy and the objective hazards were low. We weren’t too worried about avalanches and rock fall.

We summited and skied down the first part the mountain then traversed over skiers right to find the entrance to a line called the “Boxcar Couloir.” My buddy was all about checking it out where I would have rather just skied to the bottom due to fatigue. Looking down the ‘Boxcar’ it was evident that it was a classic line, perfectly spaced snow between a rocks and pleasing to the eye. My buddy dropped in first, I watched him beautifully sway side to side all the way down. Skiing down this part was pretty fun, type 1 fun actually because their were not too many worries. The hardest part of the day was crossing the creek back to the car. The sun’s rays had warmed the once frozen snow and we found ourselves beside the swollen creek. I think the snow bridge we used earlier had cracked and the water flowed over it. I can’t quite remember how it went but we were able to cross it safely without getting too wet.

Soon after that day we skied El Diente, another 14er in the same vicinity. We returned to the Wilson Mesa area where we started for Wilson Peak. Wrapping around the same icy corner while avoiding the private property we navigated our way to almost the summit of the mountain. The summit of El Diente is a huge rock block so we hung just down the ridge of the true summit and called it good. The highlight of that day was staring out at the spine of rocks on the ridge that separated the bigger peaks. The area was so neat and it gave me the chance to reminisce on the week prior as we could see our ascent route across the way. With a sustained steep pitch for a couple thousand feet of good skiing we had another successful day in the mountains.

 The last peak in this group was one of the most impressive peaks of all, Mt. Sneffels. It is the prominent peak that looms in the San Juan skyline as you drive from Montrose south along highway 550 to Ridgeway. That view is hard to forget especially on sunny days when the black rock etches a line with the blue background contrasting every undulation. It is even good enough for Ralph Lauren who bought a large parcel of land below outside of Ridgeway. It is so beautiful yet rugged with the promise of amazing views while recreating around it in whatever way is chosen.

 Our trailhead of choice was up in Yankee Boy Basin. It is a beautiful area just outside of the little town of Ouray where wildflowers or frozen waterfalls are in abundance depending on the season. The difference about skiing Sneffels compared to the other peaks was that it offered a little more spice with a mandatory rappel from the summit. In the guidebook it mentions that once you find the rock on top then you build an anchor so you can safely lower yourself down to the top of the descent. Well when we were up there we never found the rock that offered an anchor. Instead we came up with plan B, thanks to “Johnny on the spot” thinking.

We found a hanging snowfield to carefully ‘walk’ across while being belayed. One of us would bring in the rope or let it out as the ‘walker’ moved ever so gently across the precarious warming snowfield. We had a 3rd guy in our group who was more of a rock climber so he went first. I remember being pretty puckered as I traversed the steep pitch. It was probably near the level of fear I felt while standing atop Wilson Peak. I would plant my ice axe and then take two steps to my right while I faced the slope. I repeated the same notion over and over until I reached the ‘safe’ part. I then transitioned over to belay my buddy across. It was just as nerve racking watching my buddy go through the same hanging gauntlet. I couldn’t wait for him to get across so we could just pack up the dang rope and ski off this thing.

 As each one of us crossed this area we knew that if we fell we wouldn’t fall to our death, we would just pendulum and swoop down a ways while potentially ending up hanging off a cliff at around 14,000 ft. We didn’t bring along any snow pickets or any other anchor device to plant along the way as we traversed. This would have been the preferred way to safely manage the terrain but we were only prepared for rappelling off the ‘rock anchor.’

Thankfully before we knew it we were clicking into our skis and about to slither down the Snake Couloir. The top section wasn’t too bad and the snow was soft enough to provide great grip without too much movement.

We made our signature on the snow then popped up on a cornice that divided the route. To our left the slope steeply slid away to west side of the mountain down towards Ridgeway. The Snake continued down to our right at a sharp angle and turned a little narrower and steeper. The crux of the line was just below and measured around 8 feet across with slope angle hovering around 50 degrees. I remember it being pretty steep and tight while lacking the softer snow conditions from above. I remember wishing that at the bottom of the couloir we could enter the state of relaxed skiing after the big objective. With our route specifically where our vehicle was parked, we had the ‘opportunity’ for bonus climbing. Already exhausted we still had to skin and climb 1,000 ft. back up to Lavender Col before we could ski down to the car. To say the least, the beer tasted pretty good at the end of that day. We had just skied the four prominent 14er’s plus some extra lines around the San Juans. I felt so tired yet psyched on what we had accomplished. It was time to rest a little and plan for our upcoming adventure to Chicago Basin.

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