Into Red Territory

It has been an interesting season to say the least, we get hammered on for a week and then it feels like April or even May for two. Rain in Aspen and sunny skies meant ice and bumps all over our regular stomping grounds. And then we heard the call of Red Mountain Pass, we heard it was sick so just packed up and went. Luckily for us going with no beta was fine, you could pretty much just look out the car window and say, "hmm that looks pretty sick," and then Fred would say, "Whoa look at that," and I would be like "Damn, lets ski that." Then we would just pull over and start hiking. Avalanche conditions were feeling super solid, due to a lack of snow and a a lot of sun so we felt comfortable getting on some decently steep stuff and to say the least it was sick.

Day One: We woke up early at our hospitable friend Colin Osborne's house stoked about what we had seen on the drive over. So we (as quickly as possible) rummaged in a sink full of dirty dishes, found what we needed, cooked some eggs, mixed some tuna fish and jumped in the car not quite sure what lay ahead of us that day. It was not a matter of if we were gonna ski some sickness but what sickness we were going to ski. Ah the oh so painful decision making required in life. Actually it wasn't that hard, or that painful because really it didn't matter every mountain we looked at was begging for our turns. We picked one out, slapped on our skins and just went for it.


Yes, the skinning and boot packing did eventually lead us to the top of one of the numerous summits. We picked one out that had a narrow, technical chute for entrance into an open field of butter (si, quiere ahogarme con montecilla y me come cuando yo vivo, how did you guess?), and then into couloir.
Squished and soggy tunafish sandwhiches sure taste good when you have a view like this, a long hike behind you and a ski run like that below you.

Yours truly getting smothered in the butter of the moment. Those are Fred's tracks to my right.

Dropping into the couliour

Fred airing the exit cliff after skiing a hairy line.

After a long skin and some truly epic turns we still had some more energy (and huck) in us so we stopped at some cliffs we had scoped out on the way up. The cliffs were clean and tall and the landing steep and luscious (but short enough to nullify avalanche danger).

Here is Fred on the line he chose, this first cliff landed on a short and steep pad that led you right into this:

Stomp!

Yes that little spec busting off the lip is me, standing up perhaps the biggest cliff I have hit this lifetime.

A fun chute.

Day Two: Our day started off with a Denny's breakfast, which would normally be out of our normal diet of eggs, rice and beans and out of our price range but, IT WAS FREE! It just so happened that Denny's was serving free breakfast all over the USA that day, can't complain...

First turns off the top of our summit that day. Our stomachs were aching a little because we left all of our fuel in the car. But that all goes away when the cruising starts!

Fred tearing up some snow on our descent. Don't you wish you were a retired ski racer?

mmm, well maybe we didn't bring lunch but I'll eat that up all day!
The extremely long run out. Having made turns like these, I never want to ski the resort again!

It's a bird, its a plane, Its Shred the Gnarquest! Busting it huge...

Me on a double line after a tricky boot pack, this hit then a few turns into...

That's Dangerous......

You may not be able to see it, but you would have a hard time ripping that smile off of Fred's face.

All in all it was an incredible trip and we definitely blew our own minds and became addicted to the backcountry. (An addiction somewhere in between crack and heroin...). As the sun went down and we loaded up our car for the long journey home we dreamed of someday returning, and burritos........

-Jake Sakson