Exploratory Ski to Homestake Peak

The 2020/2021 ski season in Northern Colorado has been off to a slow start. Not too many storms have come through, and the snow that has fallen seems to have been blown off most of the peaks. Mid-way through January it seemed to be building a bit, and Shelby and I had been looking to ski Homestake peak within the Sawatch sometime this Winter. What we found was a long mellow approach to some surprisingly good skiing, but thin access to the summit turned us around early.

We began with a drive to the trailhead off highway 24 near leadville. The eastern slopes of Homestake are visible from the highway, pretty snowy but with a thinner snowpack closer to the summit.

There is parking immediately after turning off the highway, labeled for users accessing the hut, however we followed the road further to a parking area a mile or so down the road. It was a cold morning - the temperatures combined with the low likelihood of a summit certainly had us considering alternatives, but we were excited to explore a new area so we transitioned and were heading up at around 8AM.

The first several miles of the trail are very gradual and rolling, and we discussed where we would need to put skins back on during our exit. An excellent skin track exists providing access to the 10th Mountain Division Hut accessed from the same trailhead. We followed the trail through forests and meadows, slowly working our way towards the hut.

We eventually climb to the hut, and meet some of the previous night's occupants heading back to the trailhead. They share some beta on the lower slopes of Homestake, and we share some beta on the incline of the skin track we had just climbed, recommending they transition and ski while they can.

We stopped by the hut, took advantage of the backcountry facilities, and discussed a plan for our ascent. Weather was moving in (as forecast), and we could no longer see the summit of Homestake. Whenever we are traveling in a new area reduced visibility carries an additional risk, both in our navigation ability, and changes to the snowpack.

While we had a Plan B for skiing, with the beta from the hut users combined with what we were seeing on some of the nearby slopes, we decided to continue with an ascent up Homestake. We found a skin track heading towards the base of the peak and began climbing.

Eventually we hit treeline and were on the eastern slopes of Homestake. Breaching treeline, we were surprised to still find soft snow, and started up the ridge. While we hadn't seen anyone this morning, we suspected others were above us on the slopes, based on the minimal impacts of weather on the skin track.

We made our way up approximately a third of ridge, but saw decreasing snow coverage above. The snow became more wind affected and our motives slowly migrated from reaching the summit towards getting some decent skiing in on the lower slopes. Once the slab thickened, we made the call to transition.

We transitioned and took a couple of laps on the lower aspects of the East ridge of Homestake. The snow was soft, and with a nice firm base skied very well.

After two runs we continued back down the skin track. The party above us skied down the slopes and cruised down the skin track out of sight. Most of the exit involved skiing the skin track in an effort to avoid transitioning back to skins. Getting our shoulder workout, we poled and sidestepped where necessary back to the hut.

Near the hut, we caught back up to the party of three who we had followed up on the skin track. Speaking briefly we realized it was a friend from the CMC. Small world. They had summited but had to do some careful skiing through the rocks to get back to the lower slopes. Oh well - will give us an excuse to come back in better conditions.

We flip flopped back and fourth during the exit, where some of us attempted to keep the skins in the pack, while the others (maybe smarter) did fewer transitions and kept their skins on. Shelby and I opted to keep the skins off until we hit the road at the base of the valley, and skinned back to the car from there.

As we made it back to the car, the snow had picked up and was coming down thick. We hoped that the heavy snowfall would better represent what we would see for the rest of the winter.

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