Bike, Hike, Skin and Climb to the summit of Mt. Toll

Late season ski descent of Mt. Toll from the Brainard Lake winter trailhead,
requiring a bike ride in, plenty of postholing, and some pretty darn good
skiing.

It was nearing the end of the ski season, and with a good weather window, Shelby and I were looking for an adventure. Mt. Toll had been on our list, but the road to the trailhead doesn't open beyond the Brainard Gateway Trailhead until July. This adds about 3 miles onto the approach to the Mitchell Lake trailhead. Fortunately the road is open to bicycling. We arrived at the Brainard Gateway Trailhead around 4:30AM, loaded the skis and boots onto the backpacks and started in under headlamp.

Biking uphill with the full load was tougher than we expected. In about a half hour we arrived at the trailhead, locked up the bikes, and began hiking up the trail from the Mitchell Lake Trailhead. As the snow began , navigation was tricky and progress slowed. The transition between dry hiking and skinning is always challenging to navigate, with a lot of post-holing and climbing through deadfall. Before long we are able to transition to ski boots and begin skinning up the valley towards the mountain.

After a few miles of skinning we arrived at the base of the climb. The snow was softening, and we were approaching our turnaround time after too much time spent navigating earlier in the day. We transferred the skis to our packs and quickly worked our way up the peak.

The snow was soft, and slope not too steep, so crampons stayed in the bag.After a short break at the top and some photos, we began the ski down Mt. Toll. The descent was not too steep, and soft smooth snow allowed for nice turns down the face. The snow was slightly overcooked, but still a lot of fun and not too grippy.

Once back at the base, we traversed around the north side of the lake and picked our way back to our trailrunners. We hiked down into the ever-increasing crowds walking in from the trailhead. The way out on the bike was a breeze, mostly downhill with enough momentum gained for the short climbs. Were we to skill Toll again, we would likely go earlier in the season for more continuous skinning from the trailhead. The section between the bike ride in and continuous snow was tricky to navigate, and filled with deadfall. Nevertheless, Toll was an aesthetic and fun ski descent with great views, and fun to include the bike ride in from the Winter trailhead.

Video of the trip: