Indy Pass Ski Descents: Blue, Deer, and Mountain Boy

With this year’s crazy snow totals still lingering in Colorado’s high country, and Independence Pass open on June 1st, it was time to head up there and do some skiing.

On Saturday the 8th Mitchell and I skied the east face of “Mountain Boy Peak”, the prominent face visible from 82 as you approach the pass from the east. I had attempted to hike Mountain Boy in summer via the long ridge from the top of the pass but turned around after reaching the summit of “Igloo Peak”. A mental note was made to return later with skis…

We started from the top of the pass and dropped into Mountain Boy Gulch, skinned up to the saddle between Mountain Boy and Igloo, and jumped up to the summit from there. With the east face corning up nicely at 9:30am, we dropped in and had a great descent. Regaining a saddle north of the peak allowed us to ski back into the basin we started in, then on down to the switchback at 11,500 ft where Mitchell hitched a ride back to the van. It was a neat little tour.

And lastly, some footage of the descent:

Next up was a solo day on June 12th to ski the east face of “Blue Peak” (aka Twining) and the west face of Deer Mountain, both bicentennial thirteeners. The idea for the combo came from an Aspen local who shall remain nameless, but like he told me, the idea seems pretty obvious once you take a hard look at the map. Indy Pass is set up perfectly for east/west combos, including the east face of the Geisslers and northwest face of “Blue Peak”, a tour which several of us did back in 2013.

From the summit of Blue I dropped in on the east face at 8am and found nearly-perfect corn. Amazing how fast things heat up at sunrise in mid-June. From the bottom of the face I contoured northeast, staying high, and managed to ski the firm snow surface all the way around to the base of Deer’s west face in a matter of minutes.

Deer took a bit longer to climb than I was anticipating, mostly due to hard west-facing snow that didn’t have the sun on it yet. Ski crampons helped out immensely, and once above 13,400′ I was able to jump out onto the rocky northwest ridge and scramble the rest of the way to the top.

I hung around on the summit for a long time, admiring the 360 degree views of the northern-Sawatch and enjoying the perfect June weather. With the sun having swung around and heated up the west face for over an hour, I dropped in at 11:30am and had perfect conditions once again. This really is a neat face to ski, as it provides around 1,500 ft of turns right in the 40 degree range.

Some footage of both descents, Blue then Deer:

The ski out of Lake Creek went quickly despite the fact that the snow was rapidly turning to mush. From the switchback I hitched a ride back up to the top of the pass then hightailed it home for a half-day of work.

This late in the year it’s hard to find a better place than Indy Pass for bang-for-your-buck summits and ski descents. I may just have to go back one more time before the fat lady finally sings. Any takers?