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Lynn Durr is a peak off the Castle Creek Road out of Aspen. Once they plow the last mile or two of road, as they do every spring around this time, you can backcountry ski a quality 3,000 vertical feet from your tailgate. Our friend Bob Perlmutter got it more than once over the past week, so I figured we’d better get up there and see what was going on. Besides, nice place for son Louie’s first post-high-school backcountry skiing. The trailhead is your typical 10,000 foot elevation zone and melting out fast, but the skiing is still of good quality and the line aesthetic. It’s east facing, so be there early or you’ll have sun glopped snow to deal with.
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| Near the summit, Pearl Pass Oberland vaults to the south. That’s east and west Pearl Mountain on center horizon, with Greg Mace peak in left midground. All that is easily accessible for a day trip of backcountry skiing from your parking spot. Click image to enlarge |
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| Lynn Durr is named after a woman who was killed in an avalanche here on March 8, 1991. Durr was a somewhat of a loner who lived in a house a few miles downvalley from the peak, and nearly every winter day would ski tour up the valley road passing through the avalanche runouts. One day she was on her usual tour, a massive slide came down, and that was her end. The story is sad and teaches a lesson, because the extreme hair trigger avy conditions that day were well known, and anyone who had their ear to the ground would have thought twice about going under those paths at that particular time. |
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| Tools for the day. We usually only carry one form of crampons or the other, but with the amount of snow this year conditions vary quite a bit by elevation and exposure, so I’ve been bringing both ski and foot spikes. Those are CAMP aluminum foot cramps and the ski spikes are B&D. |
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| The graduate. Congratulations! |
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.
8 comments
congratulations Louie!
Super line for the grad! This is the best spring season ever for me. I might try to ski into July or August this year.
Congratulations Louie! My brother (Alex) lives up in Bellingham – maybe you’ll cross paths with him sometime. He loves it up there and swears he will never leave!
congrats Louie, I as well have family in Bellingham, it’s an awesome place.
I’ve wondered about this, and igure this is the place (Dynafit enthusiast central) to bring up the question. Can Dynafits handle the beating Fritschis seem to take. I’ll ski anywhere, but Dynafit’s make me nervous and I’d be afraid to take them on exposed terrain, but that may just be me. Weight isn’t really an issue for me, I ski my 193 Atomic Thugs every day and they are perfect for our terrain snow conditions. Is it worth experimenting with Dynafits?
I think you have it backward Dongshow – can Fritschi’s handle the beating the Dynafits take? 🙂 I spent 10 years on Fritschi’s and am now all Dynafit, all the time. Any Dynafit breakage I’ve seen has been related to pilot error.
I have halted skiing for the past couple of days due to the very high day and night temps. Were things frozen enough on easterly faces to feel comfortable? Jonesin over here as we were hoping for north face of La Plata but 86’d it because of weather.
It just needs to cool down a bit and that sounds like it’s coming.
Lou:
Looks like Greg Mace Peak and chutes are full of snow and ready based upon your picture. Any plans for a Pearl Pk and Greg Mace Pk double?
Best,
George
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