Day 1 – Emily and I headed to the Clark Peak Yurt with our Newfie Tippet for a weekend of skiing and fun with friends. After working a half-day we made the drive from Fort Collins to the Medicine Bows and we left the car around 5:30. We were carrying comically large and heavy backpacks because we brought loads of comfort items, including a gallon of soup, a quart of egg whites, two packs of cookies, crackers, a loaf of banana bread, five types of cheese, beer, whiskey, snowshoes, snow boots, and our ski packs strapped to the outside. Wearing our backcountry skis and boots, we trudged the two-mile approach. Emily’s ski boots are too small so she was suffering the whole way in, but Tippet had the time of her life frolicking in the snow, and I just battled with my behemoth of a backpack. We made it to the yurt an hour before dark and made ourselves at home. The yurt is pretty sweet, with a large deck with a picnic table, a full propane tank and loads of wood under the yurt, a three-burner stove, and a very inefficient wood stove. Our friends didn’t get in til about 11pm.
Day 2 – The sun came up early and we were all up before 7. We made a big breakfast of bagels, eggs, and bacon, then strapped on skis and snowshoes and headed up the canyon. We made it to the end of the road and Emily, Katrina, and the dogs headed back down to the yurt while Jim and I skinned up to some skiing. We followed a mellow gully up to a large west-facing bowl and gained the ridge overlooking Ruby Jewel Lake. We found a sweet north-west facing chute and I motored up to the highest point of snow, then quickly booted to the ridge to get a view of the Wilderness area. I then skied down to the chute where Jim was transferring. The chute skied quite well, with slightly grabby snow at the top and classic corn snow for the bottom half. We then had to push about half a mile of flats before skiing through extremely sticky snow to the road. The mile and a half back to the yurt was slow, but certainly easier on my skis than Jim’s splitboard.
We made it back to the yurt, ate charcuterie, and enjoyed the sun on the deck for a while before the wind picked up and clouds rolled in. We all took a long nap, then played some card games in the yurt while it rained a bit. The rain slowly picked up and turned to snow as the sun started setting, and a few hours later is was dumping heavy wet snow as our friends made delicious steak tacos. We spend the night talking and playing more games, having a lovely night, then went to bed while Emily read some Harry Potter aloud.
Day 3 – The next morning we woke up to 8-10″ of extremely heavy snow, and worried about getting stuck we quickly packed up and headed out. The hike out was difficult. It snowed nearly the whole time, and we were soaked as we broke trail through almost a foot of thick cream cheese snow. The downhill parts went okay, but it’s not steep enough to keep momentum unless the snow is packed down. Once we made it to the car, we ate some breakfast cookies and luckily had no trouble driving the road out.
Details:
Day 1 – 2 miles and 600′ into the yurt.
Day 2 – 2,600′
Day 3 – 2 miles flat and downhill to the car.
I highly recommend the Clark Peak and nearby Ruby Jewel yurts for winter and spring ski adventures! The terrain is incredible (if you’re okay with 2 miles of flat skinning to access it), and offers more varied aspects than the typical Cameron Pass and RMNP spots, with great skiing on West and South aspects. Most good winter weekends are booked up a year and a half in advance, so plan way ahead, or shoot for the shoulder season. Early May was an excellent time for us!
The Skientist 