The Castle Creek Valley,
outside of Aspen Colorado, holds a special place in my heart.
Several summers ago I had the privilege of residing in Ol’Jack Leahy’s Cabin, a
historical structure that is on the outskirts of the Ghost Town of Ashcroft. My
cost for “living the good life,” was helping caretakr the historic town and leading
naturalist guided tours for Aspen
Center for Environmental
Studies (ACES). For three months mice, hummingbirds, occasional lost tourist
and the Star Peak massif were my companions.
I had a morning ritual of sitting with the cabin door wide
open and sipping steaming coffee. Frequently a friendly hummingbird drinking nectar
from a gooseberry bush would fly into
the cabin and inspect the place for hidden food. Mice would creep up to the
door jam where they would meet the first object I could find to throw at them.
The cabin door framed the white gullied ridges of the Star Peak
perfectly. The town’s silver had dried
up almost a hundred years ago but I had still managed to strike it rich.
When my buddy Brian told me about the Three Pass Ski Tour
over Pearl, Star and Taylor Pass
I was elated. There is no better way to
pay respect to the striking Star
Peak range then to circumambulate
the mountain. Logistically the tour is an ideal counterclockwise loop begins and
ending in the same spot, brilliant. There is no need to shuttle a car and no
back tracking on any terrain. Just forward progressive sliding steps on skis.
Overall the Three
Pass ski tour is very
mellow with simple route finding, especially on a bluebird day. Occasionally loaded
avalanche prone snow slopes threaten from above. Avalanche danger is
ameliorated by swift progress. Unfortunately our 2011/2012 winter has left a shallow
snow pack that has proved extremely sensitive with persisting weak layers of
snow near the surface. This concern combined with extremely warm days made
afternoon snow pack instability our primary concern. Our goal was to descent Star Pass,
the steepest section of the tour, before late morning to avoid threatening wet
slides and slab avalanche activity.
We started from Toklat (9498 feet) at about 0645am crusty
eyed with stale coffee breath. Lindsay, Brian and I were on ultra light ski
mountaineering set ups. Jamie was skiing heavy metal with over 5lbs per foot
heavier gear. Brian even had a one piece spandex race suit on for European
Style points. It is worthy to note that within a day of completing the tour
Jamie had put an order in for ultra light skis. Skiers are skeptical of skinny
ultra light skis due to the mass market movement towards fatter and fatter boards.
The truth is ultralight skis work and make tours like the Three Pass Loop
extremely enjoyable.
Within an hour and a half we were at the Tagert (11,240ft)
and Green-Wilson hut. Skiers spending the night in the Green-Wilson Hut stepped
onto the hut deck confused as Brian buzzed by in a single layer of spandex. As
we passed the Tagert Hut I couldn’t help but think what a mellow journey ours
was compared to Old Billy Tagert as he traveled the same passes running a stage
line and delivering mail a century ago.
From the huts we headed into a blazing morning sun towards the
summit of Pearl Pass (12,713 feet). Solar winds blew
loose crystallized snow across a frozen sastrugied surface in a beautiful
display of dancing flakes. From Pearl Pass we descended in minutes to the
Friends Hut. From the Friends Hut we were now on the Elk Mountain Grand
Traverse Course (EMGT). The EMGT is a forty mile back country race that starts
in Crested Butte and finishes in Aspen.
The snow on the first climb from the Friends Hut abruptly ended in a grassy
slope. We all questioned if this could really be March due to the lack of snow coverage
and unseasonably warm temperatures.
After cresting Star
Pass ( 12,303 feet) we
found ourselves on a steep east facing slope. The slope had already soaked up
the morning sun’s rays and was turning into a sloppy mess of punchy snow. I
nervously scanned the surrounded sloped and saw the scars from previous point release
avalanches, wet slides and slab avalanches. It was time to get moving. From the
top of Star Pass
the EMGT race currently takes a conservative line into the Mt Tilton Trail
valley, a contributory of the Taylor
River. We decided to
follow the historic EMGT course and take a high line slightly north following
the old Taylor Pass Divide Road.
This route puts skiers shoulder to shoulder with the breathtaking gendarms of east ridge of Star
Peak. It was awesome to
see these grand gendarms so close. For years I have looked at them from the
town of Ashcroft
with curiosity. From Ashcroft the gendarms are just barely perceptible as slivers
piercing the sky. What hidden climbing routes might they hold?
The historic Taylor
Pass Divide Road requires careful route finding
through steep avalanche terrain traps and then gently rises into Taylor Basin. We arrived at base of Taylor Pass
to find a patchwork of small receding snow clusters barely connected enough to
skin up. The Pass was hemorrhaging snow fast. From the top of Taylor Pass
(11,928 feet) one can continue north along Richmond Ridge all the way to Ajax
Mountain in Aspen.
We chose to turn northwest into the express creek drainage. Luckily the Express Creek Road was still covered with
skiable snow and we casually slide under the clutches of gravity all the was
back to Castle Creek. Somewhere around
1pm we were back at the car sipping frothy PBRs.
