Skiing Mount Trelease

The week between Christmas and the New Year is always a difficult week to work...motivation is typically at an all time low. That being said, Sean, Brian and I took the day off, threw our gear in the car, and hit the road from Colorado Springs (after Brian overslept and picked me up an hour late). Our plan was to check out the A-Basin side of Loveland Pass but as we got close to the turn off for the pass I spotted some glades on the north side of I-70 Sean and I had been scoping out from the highway on a previous trip. So we decided to ski the glades on Mount Trelease (12,477 ft). It was 18F when we got out of the car and the temperature dropped from there as a new storm system rolled on to the Continental Divide bringing some fresh snow with it. We were happily surprised to find a lot of great Colorado powder to ride and only saw two other people on the mountain.


Leaving the parking area

Looking back toward Loveland Ski Area



Brian contemplating the top of our route

Why backcountry snowboarding is a hard life: Brian, gloves off, adjusting his bindings over 12,000ft at about 0F with blowing snow. This process took about 5 min.

Sean tearin it up

Brian throwin some powder

Sean dropping into the tight trees after some great powder turns on open glades


To get there:
From the Denver/Colorado Springs areas - head west on I-70 until you are almost to the Eisenhower Tunnel. Take exit 216 where there will be a dirt parking area on the north side. Park against the cliff band, this is the base of Mount Trelease.

Route:
Leaving the parking lot is fairly obvious because there aren't many options to skin or snow shoe past the exposed dirt face. Once through the initial steep entry there is typically at least one good skin track to follow unless there has just been a fresh dump of snow. In that case, break a sweat to get first tracks! There are a lot of well spaced trees on the upper portion of the mountain but it does get a little choked as you drop close to the parking lot.

Precautions:
This area might be close to the highway but safe backcountry travel habits and gear need to be used. There is a good mix of terrain and potential avalanche danger so be prepared.