Horseshoe Mountain

April 19-20, 2019

Horseshoe Mountain 13,905'

It has been a great snow year here in Colorado but spring and couloir climbing season has finally arrived. Once the snow consolidates, the inset gullies, or couloirs, are the most direct line to summits. This year they’ll last well into June!  Isaac, Laura and I had plans for Easter weekend and Ryan decided to join in, driving out from Nebraska to get some snow under his feet before heading to Mt Rainier. Friday morning we all met in Idaho Springs and loaded up into one car before driving the 20 minutes to the Mt. Bancroft trailhead. Getting a late start, having soft snow on the approach, windy conditions and Ryan moving slowly coming from just a few hundred feet of elevation the day before, we reached the notch roughly half way up the mountain and made the decision to bail out and head to Beau Jo’s for pizza and beer. Ryan wasn’t sure if an XL would be enough for the four of us but after an interesting discussion with the waitress, he agreed and we ordered a single pie that ended up being plenty!

The next day we would go to Horseshoe Mountain at 13,905’, so our destination for the evening was the cabin just over Hoosier Pass. We relaxed through the evening and got an early start to Fairplay and over to Horseshoe and the Boudoir couloir. We left the trailhead just before 7 am and were at the apron of the couloir 1.5 hours later. Isaac wasn’t feeling great with his ankle so he headed out to explore while

Ryan, Laura and I took off up the 35 degree snow slope. The scenery of Horseshoe Mountain is amazing and as I climbed I couldn’t help but pick out other lines that I would like to climb there in the future. Slowly and steadily we made our way to the upper portions of the couloir, past the old building nearing the summit and topped out at 11 am. We relaxed on the summit and chatted, taking in the outstanding views surrounding us on this blue sky day. We glissaded down the steep slope and what took us 2 hours to climb was once again above us in just 10 minutes of butt sliding time. We all met up at the car and agreed that it was a great day and we would all enjoy returning someday soon!