Crazy Peak skiing

A combination of final exams, a week in colorado, weather, and moving to bozeman for my summer internship have limited the “blog worthy” outings lately.  Plenty of 3-4 hour runs but no real full-day mountain adventures. 

top of the crazy couloir

However just as the calendar turned to June and I thought I might be done skiing for the year, the stars aligned for a high pressure system to coincide with an unexpected 3-day weekend.  After weighing a number of options, I decided to head to the Crazy mountains, excited to explore a new range.

looking NW from atop crazy peak

After a great night of sleep at the half moon campground, I hit the trail slightly before first light (should have been earlier but without a partner, its easy to hit snooze a few times).  I left the trail at the 2^nd bridge and cruised through some easy bushwhacking to the basin below crazy peak’s N face.  After stashing my shoes and putting on boots/crampons, I climbed the N face directly.  A shallow overnight freeze made for fairly slow and frustrating climbing conditions. 

From the lower N summit, a short downclimb put me atop the crazy couloir.  Having not skied in a few weeks, the steep and narrow jump-turns demanded my utmost attention.  After just a few turns, the couloir opened to a wide apron, which was disappointing since I was expecting the steep angle and soaring rock walls of the upper couloir to last for most of the run. 

crazy couloir's apron on R, moderate run I ascended on L

nice E-facing run I ascended above hidden lake

SE ridge.  all the rocky walking/scrambling today did some damage to my DyNA EVO race boots.
nothing major but also not sustainable for future use on rocky terrain.  

Despite not yet being 9am, the temps were already soaring so I skied slush down to hidden lake for a water refill.  I then skinned the prominent E-facing run looker’s L of the couloir to gain the SE ridge before scrambling a few hundred feet to the higher S summit.  I took an extended break on top to eat, relax and dry my socks and liners in the sun.  Next up was the S bowl, which held good corn up top followed by slushy skiing for over 2000ft til I ran out of snow, slightly above the unnamed lake downstream from crazy lake. 

a group of skier's on the lower N summit, directly above the snowy chimney you down climb to access the saddle 

S bowl down to unnamed lake.  a portion of crazy lake is visible on far right

such a sad sight...

The skin back up the S bowl was a real scorcher and a slow grind but I persevered.  From the summit, I was little worried about figuring out how to scramble down the broken, rocky terrain to the saddle between the summits but fortunately I found some old mountain goat tracks in the occasional snow patches which helped show me the way.  Once in the saddle, I could see the W couloir became more rock than snow after a mere few hundred feet so I was denied my goal of a 4x4 tour (ski 4 runs on the 4 aspects).  Instead I scrambled up to the N summit where I again took an extended break to dry out my socks and liners before dropping in to the N face. 

W couloir.  note all the rocks 

higher S summit from the north.  note the bootprints to traverse around the rocky tower

dropping in to the N face 

Relying on my memory from the morning’s climb, I was able to forge a route down the rocky upper portion of the face before skiing 2000+ ft. of slush down to my shoes.  A ribbon of snow in the runout zone of the N face provided a nice ski egress before a short jaunt through the woods (mostly skiing) brought me to the trail.  Given it was early June, I was pretty stoked to able to ski to within a 1000 vert of the trailhead.

rocky upper portion of the N face

a lean N face of crazy peak

Less snow coverage in the range than I had hoped for and the super warm temps. prompted me to bail on more skiing the following day and instead head back to bozeman to spend the remainder of the weekend relaxing and running.

Stats:  just shy of 9k in 10.5 hours car-car

Rose: despite the heat, an all-around great day exploring the high point of a new range on skis

Thorn: with non-ski plans in place for the next 2 weekends, my ski season is most likely over…always a tough pill to shallow

Bud: running and climbing adventures in the high country for the next few months!

Thoughts: the scrambling between the 2 summits is slow and non-trivial, there appears to be an abundance of great looking ski terrain in the Crazies, a return trip is certainly warranted ideally in early spring once you could drive within a mile or 2 of the trailhead