Tag Archives: Yankee Boy Basin

Winter’s End – Part 2, Cirque and Gilpin

After driving in from Denver and climbing Mt Emma the prior day, I awoke just before 4 and headed up the shelf road to Yankee Boy Basin at 4:15. Right after making the turn onto the YBB road, I passed two hikers who told me they had turned their Toyota Tundra around about a half mile beyond, at a point where running water had rutted out the road and made it more a stream than a road. Keep reading…

Winter’s End – Part 1, Mt Emma

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I lucked out and the weather held so that I could climb Emma on the afternoon of my arrival. Some cloud cover, but no thunderheads. After securing my campsite at Thistledown, I revved up the shelf road and past the turn for Yankee Boy. I didn’t get much farther, though. At a point where a private road heads straight into the lower basin, the road makes a wide switchback south and then east. Keep reading…

The Snake and The Naked Lady

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On Thursday Brian, Rick, and I got a 4am start from the Camp Bird gate closure, intent on giving the Snake Couloir on Mt. Sneffels a go. Any hope of getting a reasonable amount of sleep was dashed when we tried to plow through a snow bank blocking access to Angel Creek Campground a few hours prior, resulting in a high centered vehicle and a ninety minute effort to free it. With a day like the Snake ahead of us we knew we could’t afford to push back our start time, so we did our best to suck it up and began the long zombie walk up the dry road on schedule. Read more…

Yankee Boy Basin 13er Ski Descents

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With several feet of new snow falling up north and the ensuing avalanche issues still fresh in our minds, our group decided to head down south to ski in Yankee Boy this past weekend. With good coverage and a low CAIC rating, the excellent weather forecast is what put us over the edge. The San Juans are indeed a commitment to drive to from Denver, but with a combination of factors as perfect as we had, pulling the trigger was an easy call. For years Brian and I have looked forward to skiing some of the lessar-known lines in the basin. Keep reading…