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Route:
Quartzville TH 11,200'
Lincoln East Shoulder Ascent
Ski Descent of Lincoln East Side Summit Cone
Climb back to Lincoln, traverse to Cameron
Ski Descent of Cameron Ampitheater
After 8 hours of sleep in Fairplay, Prakash and I headed for the Quartzville TH. We were ready for an quick day after our climb on Saturday and these mountains provide easy access and short grassy vert. Finding a place to park was not trivial as the forest service road for the last quarter mile is not drivable and no parking signs are spread about. We found a plow out in a switchback which got us well off the road. Our start time of 8:45 was a faux pas for spring skiing, but a gentle breeze blew which if we were lucky would hold off the melting for just long enough. We followed the jeep trail up to tree line, then made a bee line for the east shoulder.
Up the jeep road and over to the east shoulder
A short drop was required to cross Putnam Gulch were we found some lovely postholing through willows. The grassy slopes up to the summit cone made the hiking easy.
Ascending the East Shoulder of Lincoln
As Prakash climbed the final snow slope to the summit as I contoured south and west to check out the snow near the Russian Couloir, my hoped for ski descent. As I booted out onto the face, I was pleasantly surprised to find solid refreeze below 2 inches of corn. I knew a good deal of fresh snow had fallen recently and only recently temps had risen, so other dangers could be present. A shear test was in store. I dug out a mini pit to the old consolidated bomber pack below. The top 6 inches of the new snow had gone through a melt freeze, but the lower 6 had not. As I inserted my shovel behind the block, it popped out at me with tons of energy with a clean sheer. The new snow sat on top of the old with little bonding, the snow was set for a big release. No way was I getting out on that warming slope with the cliff bands below me.
Bad Snow
Together, Prakash and I finished the remaining climb to the summit.
Lincoln East Shoulder Ski Descent:
My only choice of descent from the true summit was to drop onto the east shoulder and ski the nice moderate snowfield. Prakash produced some nice pics of this, thanks dude!
Skiing Lincoln's Summit Cone
I skied the upper 400' of the mountain which provided for great corn turns then climbed back up to the summit as Prakash made his way over to Cameron.
Looking back up at the summit after some fun turns
Traverse to Cameron:
The traverse can be made almost completely on dry ground. The weather was outstanding.
Lincoln from Cameron
Prakash had some time to lounge on Cameron before I got over there.
Cameron Amphitheater Ski Descent:
The turns off the summit of this beastly mountain were sick, just sick!
Getting it done
Okay, seriously, this ski is simple but a good one... Is the mix of white snow, blue sky and spring clouds not memorizing in these shots. Damn...
Skiing off the summit of Cameron, nice shots Prakash!
This face is due east, it was pretty wet but still stable. Prakash got in some nice glissading while I skied. The day was going really well. I love the mountains.
Prakash gets in some Glissading
Skiing the Cameron Amphitheater
Prakash finishes the face
Looking back up at our descent route
Russian Couloir beta, looks like it's a go if you get to the summit earlier than I did. Its not very steep through the cliff bands, maybe 45 at the top but only high 30s through the middle.
The Quartzville drainage had continous snow all the way back to the truck. Descent was quick and easy...
Making way down to the truck on easy snow
Round trip of 5.5 hours. Finally, a day that didn't take 12+ hours, ahh what a relief.
Looks like you had 3 guys out there shooting for you. Man, you are a machine lately. And you've got to get Prakash to stop butt-sliding down through your lines!
ski pics... you hike with a professional camera team now? . We sure did smoke that mountain eh?
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. We sure did smoke that mountain eh?