more about the up than the down, though there was a lot of that too

backcountry skiing isn't always about ripping turns on blissful powder filled days. sometimes its more about the long walk (or more appropriately, a long shuffle) in the woods, exploration, and the adventure that comes along with that. last saturday was on of those days. the idea was to undertake a tour/route that would include the summits of 3 local peaks. all of which i'd never been on top of, one of which i'd never even seen. now that may not be saying much since i haven't been at this a super long time. but when one of your partners has been skiing cp for 20 years and HE's never seen some of this stuff ... well you know you are in relatively uncharted territory. we didn't even know if there were ski-able lines off of each summit or if we'd have to reverse course at some point. we just kind of went for it. and it worked out pretty well.

breakfast for the long haul

alpineglow

iron mountain

"this must be just like livin' in paradise"

american lakes/thunder pass

thunder and lulu mtns.

approaching thunder pass

frozen tundra; winter park ski resort in the background (40 miles away)

zoomed in on winter park

big horn sheep chillin' above 11,000', summit of lulu mtn.

mt. richthofen (l) and static peak (r) from the summit of lulu mtn.

western edge of rmnp - mt. cumulus, mt. stratus, and mt. cirrus waaaay in the background

summit of longs peak (center-left, from summit of lulu mtn.)

the desolations

crown point and comanche peak off in the distance

n. and s. diamond peaks from lulu mtn.

here is the route we took off of lulu mtn. with some points for reference (image shot from the summit of mt. neota)

wp again, from the summit of mt. neota

another view of the crags/paradise

looking for a skiable line off of the summit of mt. neota (summit no. 2 for the day)

climbing up for the third summit of the day - thunder mountain (center right)

the last bit of approach to the saddle between mt. neota and thunder. we actually did do a fair amount of walking near each summit

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after that last one the camera stayed put away, so no more images. you get the idea though.

all told the numbers were as such:
- 3 good buddies
- 3 cool summits
- 6 big horns sited
- about 7 hours of movement
- 6000 feet of vertical gain/loss
- 17 miles covered according to timmy's gps (this should be confirmed it seems long to me)
- 12 beers waiting in the car upon our return (this number was indisputable)
- zero whammies

oh purdy good