Skiing the East Face of Gothic

Skiing the east face of Gothic is something that I have been wanting to do for a long long time.  After skiing the spoon on the south face I knew that I wanted to ski more of this iconic peak that looms over the town of Crested Butte.  After talking to Clay we decided to ski it on Saturday with outdoor recreation professor Tom Zimmer.  Tom is also a member of the rescue team and an experienced backcountry traveler.  Fortunately on Friday night we received 5inches of new snow.  This was great because due to recent wind events carrying red sand from Moab all the snow in the Gunnison Valley was covered in this sand which increases the rate of melting and makes skiing very difficult.  This caused the snowpack to resemble a piece of carrot cake with white frosting.  Hoping that either the Washington Gulch or Snodgrass roads were open we checked both trailheads to find them closed.  We chose to come in on the Snodgrass side and take the southeast ridge to the summit.  After walking for a couple of miles on the road in our shoes we stopped to put our skis on and start the skin to the ridge.

Starting the skin up

Once to the ridge we traded our skis for crampons and began the monotonous bootpack to the summit.  We were fortunate in that there was cloud cover and the sun had not affected the snowpack.  This allowed us to kick steps into the hard dust layer without postholing.  

Tom working his way up

Tom and Clay on the ridge

Of course moments after we reached the summit the wind picked up and it quickly became very cold.  Not wasting time we got our skis ready to go, cut off a small cornice, and dropped in.  The upper bowl skied surprisingly well as the new snow provided traction above the ice layer below.  The skiing in the choke was actually even better.  As it had not been as affected by the wind or sun the snow was soft and made for great may powder skiing who would have thought?  

Tom dropping in

Making my way through the upper choke

Tom at the top of the apron

In an attempt to keep our elevation we traversed out and picked our way through the aspens and sections of dirt and rocks.  At this point the snow had begun to melt and the result was very dirty snow that concealed rocks and prevented you from gliding efficiently.  After finally making it to our shoes we again put our skis on our packs and walked out along the Snodgrass road where a well deserved lunch at  Pitas in Paradise awaited.  This day marked the eighth consecutive month that I have had very good skiing (October-May).