Feb 14, 2009, Red Mountain

Time was short so a close tour was necessary and we decided to hit up Red Mt. to see if it held any powder from the recent storms.  The weather was beautiful with intermittent views of the surrounding peaks and the tracks were plentiful in Commonwealth Basin. 

As we got to the base of Red, all the tracks kept going up towards Kendall and we headed west to the south ridge of Red.  Following some down tracks got us to the gully up for some steep tricky skinning on a few new inches on some old crust.  As we got up towards the base we headed up the southwest face where the skinning got too tricky so we threw the skis on the backs and booted up the rest.  It was a fun climb with some small rock scrambles and a few areas where only the tips of your boot dug in, crampons or an ice ax wouldn't have hurt here.

Once at the top, we got some good views and dropped in.  The ski down was variable, but overall really fun, with a consistent steep pitch and some nice pockets of powder, I think there was even one face shot (It's good we have low expectations!)  Overall, better than expected and a great day to be out.