“The Fly” South Face Ski

A beautiful morning with the The Fly dead ahead.

A few weeks back Brando and I took the morning off from work to climb and ski “The Fly” (12,550 ft) up Booth Creek. It’s a somewhat reclusive Gore peak with a bit of an approach to get to, but the neat climb up its summit ridge and the south face ski route are well worth the price of admission. For me, The Fly had long been on the wish list and was fun to finally pay a visit.

One of the best parts about this peak is its short but sweet summit ridge climb. Just watch out for cornices on both sides, as Brandon can attest to from the first time he skied this route a few years ago.

We hit conditions pretty much perfectly on this day with a hard freeze locking things up nice and tight. Cold snow allowed for efficient travel all the way up the drainage to the summit of the peak, which was getting baked and corning up nicely by the time we got there. It was the first day for me that truly felt like spring out there.

The summit is near, with the ski route falling away to the left. Photo by Brandon.

We topped out on the nearly windless summit at 10am and admired the 360 degree Gore pano, which simply never gets old. The traverse between The Fly and The Spider looked interesting and one I’ll have to come back for in summer for sure.

Summit views towards Vail. That’s Bald’s northeast face in the foreground.

We took turns dropping in and skied to the bottom of the face in two pitches. The turns right off the top are steep enough to get the heart going but quickly relent into a nice mid-30 degree pitch.

South face corn much more reminiscent of spring than winter. Photo by Brandon.

Brando dropping the knee lower down.

Time to head home!

Four hours up and an hour down, then it was off to work for both of us. Always nice to break up the work week a little bit, especially these days. Let’s do it again soon Brando…