6/12/2023 Route: NW gully from Queen basin Posted On: 6/12/2023, By: SnowAlien Info: Long day, skied 2,200 ft. Hauling skis is not worth it as the snow is heavily suncupped and runneled. Good conditions for climbing though - snow stayed firm late in the day as I dealt with a few issues. First, I started late because it took me longer than I thought to get from Aspen. Then I was waiting out a couple storms (first one had thunder and lightning @9.30am). Third, I got lost both ways (kinda). I skied White Rock couple years ago and I assumed White BM has the same approach. Wrong. There's pretty serious bushwhack to gain Queen basin - I went 2 different ways and both were bad and slow going. NW gully has snow almost all the way to the ridge ~13.2k. The ridge still has snow on the south side, but the ridge crest is melted out. |
|
7/21/2021 Route: Judd Falls/Copper Creek Posted On: 7/24/2021, By: JasonKline Info: Dispersed camping is banned in the Gothic Corridor June 15-August 15. https://travelcrestedbutte.com/wp-content/uploads/Gothic-Corrdidor-camping.jpg The only campground near the Judd Falls/Copper Creek trailhead is Gothic Campground, which only has 6 spots and fills up quickly. The nearest legal dispersed camping I could find was the Mt. Crested Butte Campground. https://crestedbuttenews.com/2019/07/camping-available-in-mt-crested-buttes-backyard/ It has 26 spots and is free with a porta-potty. There is no tree cover since it's just an open field, but at least it's full of beautiful sunflowers. My Hyundai Ioniq easily made it to the Judd Falls/Copper Creek parking area. |
|
7/3/2021 Route: From White Rock Mountain/Queen Basin Posted On: 7/6/2021, By: supranihilest Info: From the summit of White Rock Mountain we descended our ascent route and crossed Queen Basin to White Benchmark's south ridge. There's a trail up to the ridge, and then it's mostly Class 2 with spurts of Class 2+ and potentially Class 3 on marginal rock. To return we descended our ascent route back to Queen Basin and then went north back to the avalanche path we ascended from the Copper Creek trail, which is easier than bushwhacking through the forest. |
|
8/15/2020 Route: Brush Creek Posted On: 8/15/2020, By: Sbenfield Info: Went up the BM first and traversed down the BM to the saddle between White Rock Mtn & BM, then up White Rock Mtn. There's a lot of bushwacking & the coming off BM to the saddle is steep and super loose! I wouldn't do that again. White Rock was pretty easy until the very end which it was basically a sand castle with lots of awful choss. Good views but a considerable challenge for me! |
