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#19 Horseshoe Mountain – 13,898 ft.

Date: Oct. 31, 2009
Team: Christy, Ted
Route: Boudoir Couloir

[Christy and Ted skied Horseshoe Mountain back in 2009. Here’s an earlier blog post from that day]

After climbing the Boudoir Couloir, Christy makes her way to the summit ridge.
After climbing the Boudoir Couloir, Christy makes her way to the summit ridge.

After a string of fall storms brought snow to much of the state, winter has been on everyone’s mind. Usually we’re excited to pull the gear out of the closet and head up to Castle Peak’s Montezuma Basin for some early season skiing but for some reason we weren’t feeling too motivated by the prospect. We wanted to do something different.

Christy’s goal of climbing the 100 tallest peaks in Colorado is in its homestretch. The weekend before last she got one more behind her by slogging up Mount Silverheels, leaving her with only three to go. We figured that of the three remaining, Horseshoe Mountain might make a good weekend/Halloween outing so off we went. Horseshoe Mountain is in the Mosquito Range, between the towns of Leadville and Fairplay and just south of the 14er Mount Sherman.

Unfortunately, there have been an unusually high number of reported avalanche accidents and incidents this season already. We hoped to stay off that list so we weren’t looking for anything too spicy and thought Horseshoe, with a couple of routes to pick from, would be a reasonably safe outing. And since it was the summit we were after and not a thrilling ski descent, we could bring the skis and see what we found and make the call then. If it was too thin we could leave them behind. Horseshoe was on the receiving end of recent storms but it’s also famous for high winds, and we weren’t sure if the new snow had been blown all the way to Nebraska, as is often the case. In sum– we wanted some snow, but not too much. And that’s exactly what we found, so we went skiing.

The route up through the enormous horseshoe-shaped cirque.
Approaching the thinly covered couloir.
Booting up the Boudoir Couloir.
On the summit.
Super-windy around here, which usually creates a ribbon of snow from the summit to the entrance of the couloir.
Not bad for October.
At the exit of the Boudoir Couloir.
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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