Dust storms have ruined our snowpack in the Laplata's so local Nordic coach, Gary Colliander and I decided to head north in search of "clean" snow. Sven Brunso suggested 13,661' Lookout Mt just north of Silverton. We drove for an hour, breaking my self-imposed rule of not traveling long distanes to backcountry ski (flying to France and Canada may have broken that rule....) The snow started looking good just out of Silverton and by Chattangoa Curve it looked skiable. We started bootpacking from the car followed by a fast, one hour skin to Columbine Lake. This put us to the East of Lookout Mt. Great powder skiing followed by marginal powder skiing took us down to the lake. A high altitude skate across the lake, a skin up a ridge, a 3,000' descent passing through a coulior, some smooth corn and we were back at the car. Still time to mountain bike with the boys in the afternoon. Gotta love Spring!
