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#18 Emerald Mountain 13,904 ft.

Date: May 24, 2013
Team: Dav, Ted, Christy, Scott Rinckenberger
Route: East Face

After skiing Ice Mountain and North Apostle, we decided to keep our RV camp on Clear Creek Road near Buena Vista for another night. We were parked right at the trailhead for Emerald Peak, 13,904 ft., another Colorado Centennial on our list, so we didn’t have much reason not to hit that next. From what we knew of Emerald it seemed like it would be a bit of a slog and didn’t offer any interesting ski lines that we knew of, so we schemed up a way to spice up the day. We’d throw a fourteener in the mix.

emerald mountain, centennial skiers
We always try to walk the firm spring snow with skis and boots on our back as far as we can. Today we made it all the way to Elkhead Pass, 13,200 ft., before putting our skis on to descend the back side of the pass.
emerald mountain, centennial skiers
Dropping in/off Elkhead Pass. Emerald is the rounded summit out to the left.

Emerald Mountain is just 1.3 miles south of the fourteener Missouri Mountain, so we figured rather than just climb over Elkhead Pass twice in a day, maybe we should head home via the summit of Missouri. Both peaks delivered. Emerald actually had a few adventurous couloirs to ski and being surrounded by fourteeners, offered incredible views in every direction. Missouri’s north couloirs were in perfect corn condition for our second ski of the day and reminded us of how much this Sawatch peak has to offer.

emerald mountain, centennial skiers
On final approach.
emerald mountain, centennial skiers
The ridge to the summit shows a cool bowl dropping off the east (left) side.

Between the beautiful morning hike up in the valley and the epic spring skiing, we came back to the RV super-psyched to have checked Emerald off in style. Now we’re headed down to the Sangres to see what we’ll find.

–Christy

emerald mountain, centennial skiers
Dav skis the east facing couloirs.
emerald mountain, centennial skiers
From Emerald we realized we could head home via a ski descent of the North Face of Missouri Mountain. So rather than backtrack over Elkhead Pass again, that’s what we did. The route from Emerald up Missouri is marked in the photo.
emerald mountain, centennial skiers
Atop Missouri, 14,067 ft., not a high 13er but a Centennial Peak like the others.
emerald mountain, centennial skiers
It was corn o’clock– to use a Scott R. quote– on the north side of Missouri. The photo show the ribbons of snow that took us a good way back to the trailhead.
emerald mountain, centennial skiers
Dav was loving it. It’s been quite a good spring.
Ski the Centennial 13ers trip reports

Pages

  • #1 Grizzly Peak – 13,988 ft.
  • #2 Stewart Peak -13,983 ft.
  • #3 Columbia Point – 13,980 ft.
  • #4 Pigeon Peak – 13,972 ft.
  • #5 Mount Ouray – 13,971 ft.
  • #6 Ice Mountain – 13,951 ft.
  • #7 Fletcher Mountain – 13,951 ft.
  • #8 Pacific Peak – 13,950 ft.
  • #9 Cathedral Peak – 13,943 ft.
  • #10 French Mountain – 13,940 ft.
  • #11 Mount Hope – 13,933 ft.
  • #12 Thunder Pyramid – 13,932 ft.
  • #13 Mount Adams – 13,931 ft.
  • #14 Gladstone Peak – 13,913 ft.
  • #15 Mount Meeker – 13,911 ft.
  • #16 Casco Peak – 13,908 ft.
  • #17 Red Mountain – 13,908 ft.
  • #18 Emerald Mountain – 13,904 ft.
  • #19 Horseshoe Mtn. – 13,898 ft.
  • #20 “Phoenix Peak” – 13,895 ft.
  • #21 Vermillion Peak – 13,894 ft.
  • #22 Cronin Peak – 13,870 ft.
  • #23 Mount Buckskin – 13,865 ft.
  • #24 Vestal Peak – 13,864 ft.
  • #25 Jones Mountain – 13,860 ft.
  • #26 North Apostle – 13,860 ft.
  • #27 Clinton Peak – 13,857 ft.
  • #28 Dyer Mountain – 13,855 ft.
  • #29 Crystal Peak – 13,852 ft.
  • #30 Mount Edwards – 13,850 ft.
  • #31 California Peak – 13,849 ft.
  • #32 Mount Oklahoma – 13,845 ft.
  • #33 Half Peak – 13,841 ft.
  • #34 Atlantic Peak – 13,841 ft.
  • #35 Hagerman Peak – 13,841 ft.
  • #36 Turret Peak – 13,835 ft.
  • #37 PT 13,832
  • #38 Holy Cross Ridge – 13,831 ft.
  • #39 Jupiter Mountain- 13,830 ft.
  • #40 “Huerfano Peak” – 13,828 ft.
  • #41 Jagged Mountain – 13,824 ft.
  • #42 “Lackawanna” – 13,823 ft.
  • #43 Mount SiIverheels – 13,822 ft.
  • #44 Rio Grande Pyramid – 13,821 ft.
  • #45 Teakettle Mountain – 13,819 ft.
  • #46 PT 13,811 – 13,811 ft.
  • #47 Dallas Peak – 13,809 ft.

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