Overview:
Summits/Ski Descents:
1) El Diente Peak and "Luttrell Line"
2) Wilson Peak and "Coors Face"

Vertical Gain: 8,400'
Mileage: 16.7 miles
Roundtrip Time: 12 hours

Started the 6hr drive from Colorado Springs at about 6pm and took a nap 30 min from the Rock Of Ages TH. Woke up at 2am to drive the remaining 30min and be ready to start moving at 3am. At the TH I met up with Patrick Gibbs (pagibb) and Natalie Moran (Snowalien). Patrick is from SLC and is currently on a stay-cation in CO doing a bunch of rad skiing! Natalie has been my go to partner this spring for lines that usually aren't in in previous years. We got going at 3:06am.... damn, 6 minutes late, guess the day is ruined (Just Kidding) haha We chatted and easily made our way up into the basin where we were presented with a beautiful rosy color painted across the hanging clouds. The sunrise colors were beautiful, but the snow conditions weren't.... in the trees, there was no refreeze action from the night and even in the open basin, things were soft albeit a mighty wind throwing us around at times. This mix of clouds and wind would end up being both a curse and a blessing as it kept conditions firm and safe, but left the skiing conditions absolute SHIT haha always a trade off in life I guess! We reached the Rock of Ages pass and promptly dropped in to ski to the base of El Diente Peak, which is in the next drainage, a ridgeline over from where the pass is. You get amazing views of the Luttrell Line from the pass, so get some beta shots before you head out! We were also surprised at how close Wilson Peak is to the pass (I was pleasantly surprised since I was planning to try and nab both if possible).

Natalie and Patrick skinning towards the pass with a beautiful sunrise show on the clouds with Wilson Peak as the foreground

Another image of the sunrise colors, with brightness turned down

Meeting back up at the pass (Natalie had ski crampons so she kept skinning, we booted up)

El Diente Peak

Close up of Luttrell Line with route in blue, main couloir is on other side of the subridge

Patrick skiing towards the base of the route

We reached the base of the Luttrell Line and soon were booting straight up. I led first, but it was a perfect mix of myself leading the boot pack and Patrick leading. Patrick would always be right on my tail when I broke, and then he would be way out in front when he broke trail, what a beast! We were not happy with the amount of avi debris in the couloir, it was quite bumpy and "not fun looking". We soon reached where the couloir doglegs to the left and it is there that the traverse begins. I led out onto the traverse and it had very nice conditions for kicking in and feeling solid, was n ice to be on steeper terrain! We then ascended the final slope which gets pretty steep, but not too bad. We topped out onto the summit ridge and soaked in the views and marveled at the aesthetics of the line we were about to ski, even though conditions were crappy and we could only see the initial slope of the route. We decided to wait about 20 minutes to try and let stuff soften up, but I am not one for waiting around when hundreds of clouds are in the sky and the sun may only be out for a few minutes, ITS TIME TO SKI!!!!

Looking up the main couloir towards the summit, route in blue

Booting up the main couloir

The "Fox Traverse" and final slope to the summit

Natalie topping out

Patrick looking STOKED to ski some firm breakable crust haha

Patrick dropped in and made flawless turns down into the steep part, where it is somewhat like a half pipe, so if you aren't jump turning 180 degrees, you end up skiing into an uphill and getting out of balance, but he ripped the F out of it, no problem! I dropped next and was soon down near Patrick where we awaited Natalie. She arrived in a few minutes and we began began the "Fox Traverse" back over to the top of the main couloir. At the top of the main couloir, Natalie and Patrick decided to wait an hour for hopefully softer conditions, but since I had my sights on a double day, II promptly dropped in and skied down. It was pretty terrible skiing between breakable crust and frozen avalanche debris, but it beats any day walking downhill! I quickly made it down to where I stashed my skins and tried to straight line down into the basin and try to ski as far uphill as I could to minimize the effort to regain Rock of Ages pass.

El Diente's Luttrell Line Ski Descent Video:

Patrick drops in first, flawlessly executed!

Me dropping in back down towards the "Fox Traverse"

Natalie coming down to meet us at the start of the "Fox Traverse"

The "Fox Traverse"

Hanging out after the "Fox Traverse", everybody pretty happy to put steep skiing on shitty conditions behind us haha

Myself descending into the main couloir, time to head to Wilson Peak!!!

Patrick dropping into the main couloir, about an hour after I had

I transitioned and began my uphill back towards the pass. I made radio contact with Patrick and we decided to make radio contact every 30 minutes to ensure we were up to date on each others' status. I'm really glad I got 4 T200 Motorola radios! Only $35 for a pair (accidentally ordered 2 pairs, whoops) and they have pretty great reach, although they are "line of sight" so if you are on the other side of a ridge line but only a mile away, they won't work. Anyways, I began skinning uphill, slowly traversing left on the side slope since the snow was soft enough to facilitate easy side hill skinning and I wanted to take the most direct line to the pass (sometimes works in my favor, usually doesn't, but thats just my preference: STFU Straight The Fuck Up haha). I reached the pass by our 2nd radio check and when I started to take my skins off I got a sharp pain in my chest on the left side.... Oh well.... Soon I was skiing around the basin to get beneath a couloir that Natalie had booted up two days before on the opposite side of the peak as the Coor's Face. By the time I made my 3rd radio check with Patrick, I was in the boot pack and well on my way to the summit (Thanks Natalie for a super solid boot pack, it was solid and the easiest elevation I think I've ever gotten!). The whole way up to the summit, if I took a deep breathe I would get that sharp pain in my chest... Oh well.... I reached the summit before our scheduled time for the 4th radio check and made contact letting them know I was confident in the conditions being safe and that I was going to do Coors Face. I got my skis on and soon was ready to ski down this classic.

"Look Back At It" Looking back at El Diente while on top of Wilson Peak

Looking down onto the Coors Face, such a sweet line! I went into the couloir to the right, it was pretty tracked out, maybe should have gone left....

I made my way down the ridge to the left, following tracks from days prior. My first glimpse into the various couloirs showed a lot of damage from being skied numerous times! Looked super chopped up and bumpy.... bummer. I dropped into the couloir and began making jump turns on the crusty snow that basically had shelves carved into it from previous ski descents. I noticed I was getting out of breath much easier and blamed it on just being a big day. I made my way in the crappy snow and decided to take the easy route to the left and get on mellower terrain to try and get out quicker, I was getting pooped haha I made a stop to check out the face, looks pretty awesome from below! Will definitely have to come back to ski it in better conditions!

Wilson Peak's Coors Face Ski Descent Video:

Looking back up at the Coors Face from below, pretty gnarly looking! Gotta get it in better conditions one day!

I made the super long traverse left to try and meet back up with the road. With the non-existent freeze overnight, I was skiing in super heavy snow. I would comically push off these super slow wet slides on little terrain features and just stop to watch them slowly creep down hill and sometimes pick up momentum... wouldn't want one of those to hit me moving fast thats for sure! I met up with the road and made my way to where the snow gets non-continuous and transitioned to shoes where Patrick and Natalie ran into me after having regained the pass and skiing out along our approach path. We got back to the cars right at 12 hours roundtrip and we headed to Taco Del Gnar in Ridgway before we all parted ways for a solid day trip! Bad weather was rolling in so my plans to do the snake and birthday chutes on Sneffels was snuffed out and that damn sharp pain in my chest was beginning to concern me... I went to go get a good look at Sneffels (SO FREAKING EPIC AND BEAUTIFUL!!!) before driving 4 hours to Salida where I car camped in the Walmart parking lot. Can't wait to come back to the San Juans, truly a magical place. I always feel like I'm in a whole other realm when I go there!

Post Script:
I arrived back in Colorado Springs the next morning at 9am and went to Fort Carson's hospital to see what was going on with the chest pain. The pain was not bad at all, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thinking of worst case scenarios especially with my big trip to Pakistan coming up in less than a month.... I told them my symptoms at the ER desk (sharp chest pain that had seemed to spread to my neck and arm as a dull ache) and immediately was being ushered around to different tests/labs. At this point I started to worry. I was taken into the a private room in the ER section and they suspected a pulmonary Embolism (Blood clot in lung)... great, perfect timing. A blood clot in my lungs could be fatal, or even worse, prevent me from going on my climbing/skiing expedition to Pakistan in June-August haha priorities right? Thankfully, the tests for clotting factor came back negative so Pulmonary Embolism was basically ruled out. Apparently I must have just been putting my body through so much wear and tear lately (me, really?.... haha) that I must have strained/torn an intercostal muscle in the ribcage. I was immediately relieved to know that the pain had no other effects on my performance than just the pain, Pakistan is still a go! Needless to say I am finally taking 4-5 days of rest (lets be honest, "active recovery") to let the intercostal to heal up, but then its back to the grind as long as its not painful.