Pearl Pass Backcountry Ski Trip

April 4 - 6, 2006

south of Aspen, Colorado

Starting from the Ashcroft Touring Center trailhead south of Aspen at

9400 ft elevation, we skied 5 miles up  to the Tagert Hut just

below treeline on our first day.  The second day found us trekking

through the beautiful Pearl Basin Oberland below Castle Peak and Pearl

Mountain that leads to Pearl Pass at 12,700 feet.

We found sunshine, snowfields and that wonderful Colorado blue sky, at least during the morning.

The wind started blowing and the cloud cover blanketed the sky: we had

trouble discerning the terrain features, with the sky grey and the

white snow Gary nearly skied over a 15 foot drop off.  Visibility

went in and out, sometimes we could barely see each other and often we

lost sight of Pearl Pass, even as we came to the final approach.

We were very happy when we arrived at Friends Hut, yet we had some

decisions to make about skiing back over Pearl Pass - the visibility,

the increased avalanche danger - or heading away from our car into

Crested Butte.

The downward trek to Crested Butte:  The snow kept falling and got wetter as our elevation dropped.