Did the Brainard Lake triathlon today (bike/climb/ski) with our eyes set on Queens Way on Apache.
The road is 100% snow free but the gate is closed. The trail is a fabulous melange of snow drifts, running water and shin deep mud. Going was extremely slow. Snow on the north side of Lake Isabelle is unavoidable, steep in places and was bullet-proof at 6am this morning. We used axes to chop steps in a couple spots as it was more realistic than trying to put our ski boots on.
Above the lake, snow is intermittent with talus.
Both Apache Couloir and Queensway Couloir are holding good snow. Queensway is almost continuous from the summit but also has a large runnel. SW couloirs on Pawnee are melted out in parts. Airplane gully was melted out about 1/3 of the way down. Navajo snow field, as always, looks quite good.
I had to turn back to make it back for a meeting in Fort Collins, but my ski partner, Alan (clemsonmtneer) continued on and climbed and skied the Queensway couloir proper. A recent text said the snow was pretty good.
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