Great long day on pikes peak today, still hiking back to Manitou springs at 8 p.m! I started from crags campground around 6 and climbed up the normal trail. I got to the summit around noon and was set up to ski down the right side of y couloir (from below) at 1. I had to down climb about 30 ft of rock and slush until I could get to a spot where it was wide enough to put my skis on. After that, the couloir was excellent with great slush. There were a couple of chokes, primarily one with about 15 to 20 feet of drop about two-thirds of the way down, that I could barely side step down with my short skis. I could have probably straight lined through, but didn't want to risk it with no one else out there. I got to the bottom around 1:30, but the snow ended around 12,500, so it took an hour or so to get to the bottom of the bottomless pit. Weather was rolling in, so I was not able to climb back up to 13,000 feet on rum doodle ridge as planned in order to down climb to where my car was parked. Instead I came down to Manitou springs on the barr, but at least I got down! From talking to another group that climbed up the left side y couloir, snow ran out way lower. also railroad couloir appears to be fully out.
             
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