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Seems there’s always something up with me these days. Friday the plan was to ski El Diente but the winds had their way with that plan. I ended up having a great day anyway. Saturday provided more good times thanks to the San Juans and new friends. After skiing Handies again I headed up to the Ice Mountain trailhead and car camped. In the morning me and Brian Lindahl wheeled up to the actual trailhead. I must have gotten into some bad food the night before because as soon as we arrived at the trailhead I puked my guts out. All the water I had in the morning and dinner from the night before. It was harsh. I wasn’t feeling up for heading 4 miles into wilderness without being able to keep hydration down. A new plan had to be made. We decided on Indy Pass with the actual peak destination to be determined.

Once at the pass we decided on Twining Peak. Once en-route we decided to see what the summit of Unnamed 13,500′ had to offer. On the way up we were treated to some really great bouldering on beautiful granite. The summit reminds me alot of the area around Sunlight Peak though not as intense. The rounded granite is very cool. We were surprised to find a really nice looking line and went for it. There was about an inch of new snow and this smoothed things out nicely. At the bottom we traversed over to the base of the saddle. From here we made our way back to the ridge and upward to Twining Peak. We weren’t sure if the Northeast Bowl was in but with the way everything else was covered we thought that it probably was. We had a back up plan to ski the mellow couloir on the southeast side of the peak if our first choice wasn’t in.

At the top we were pleased that our hunch was correct and away we went. The corn was perfectly ripe and we both skied it fast, with a confidence that great conditions instill. Linking snow patches we skied out for about 2300′ of vertical and then switched to shoes for the descent to the car we had stashed at the lower valley corner. Great day Brian, always a blast skiing with you my friend. Sorry about the mess I made at the other trailhead.

Enjoy the pics.

Heading up from Indy Pass

Still plenty of snow on the north faces

An odd cornice

From the top of Unnamed 13,500 Pearl and West Pearl still looking good

Castle East Face doesn't appear to be in anymore

At the top of a nice surprise

A bit of new on spring firm. It skied pretty nice

Though it was a bit sluffy

The lower section was kind of like a slalom course

Brian's turn

This was a fun section

You always hear about the higher peaks

Some of the lower peaks have decent lines too

Time to head back up for more

The ridge to Twining. South faces are gone already

One of the Williams Mountains. Not sure which one.

An unnamed peak that looks alot like "American Peak"

Panorama of the north facing terrain from La Plata to Grizzly

Ready set dropping

I've been wanting that line for a while

The corn was perfect

Fast skiing by Brian

Moving

Such a fun line

I think I'd do this one again

A little debris to get around

Then more cruising

Pretty decent for a food poisoning day

Too bad it got too warm for more

Unnamed 13,500'

Twining Peak

Time to go. Later

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