Elbert, Northwest Couloirs

There are two giant gullies on the northwest side of Mt. Elbert, and Daymon Pascual, Bob Portmann, Jonathan Kriegel (middle), and Bob Salazar (highest) climbed and skied one of them on May 15, 2004. They found some icy slopes near the top (well above where this photo was taken from) and an ice ax would have been useful, but only one of the team had one. They managed to get up with no problem, and then skied the long run down (3000 feet) from the highest peak in the Rockies. The couloir they climbed and skied is the more northerly of the pair. There is another one (Route 1.2.5 in Lou Dawson's book) that starts just south of the summit and which appears to be less steep. (Photo by Daymon Pascual.)