The Snake in November? Who knew? With time off from work I called Kevin Dunnett to put some sort of road trip together. We could still rock climb in places, it wasn't too cold. We could ice climb as well, Lincoln Falls was in. Skiing was possible around Castle Peak lately, anywhere else? While scouring internet sites for ice conditions, Kevin saw some pics from a San Juan guide service called Skyward Mountaineering showing what looked to be very good snow on Sneffels. So we went.

Driving the nine mile road to Blaine Basin TH, something you can't often do in the spring due to snow, was easy this time of year. From a car camp there the night before it was 2.5 hours up on foot to the continuous snow beneath Sneffles' north side. From there we skinned until about 12,500 ft. where the skis went on our backs and the crampons put on. The 'pinch' crux of the lower couloir was only about seven feet wide, barely enough room to fit a ski. Above that the deep snow was tough to ascend— I remember wet gloves and a headache as we arrived at the top of the Snake. From there it would be about fifty feet of 5th+ class climbing to the summit, commiting moves in ski boots on snowy rock. The skis were left below.

Back in 2000 I remembered looking down into the Snake Couloir where a fixed rope in place required a short rappel. Today it was neither short nor fixed and with us was no rope. In our packs were two shorter, thinner cordelettes(good) but nothing with which to build a real anchor(bad). At least we had that much. We tied the cords together and slung any horn-like features we could find, lowering ourselves back down to the skis one short section at a time, very precarious. From there the skiing was sweet.

We got back to the truck just before dark, totally psyched(as I reported to Lou here). What a day, maybe it's not the perfect aesthetic ski because it doesn't go from the exact summit but it sure was cool, if anything the scrambly finish added to the experience. Tomorrow we would head to Shelf Road for rock climbing and Lincoln Falls the following day for some ice. What a classic Colorado road trip.

Early next year Chris Davenport would begin his project to ski all of the 14ers in a single year. Early on we would ski Quandary together.