Crew: Frank Konsella, Jordan White, Brittany Walker, Jeremy, Kelly
Climbing route: North face couloir
Skiing Route: Summit Couloir

Well after driving down to meet Frank Konsella and friends at the TH for Lindsey on Saturday night, we awoke at 3 am on Sunday morning to clear skies and reasonable temperatures. We drove the 3 miles to the TH from our campsite and loaded up on the snowmobiles Jeremy had brought from Crested Butte. We cruised up the 4 miles to the summer TH and after a few stops we were there. We started skinning down the trail around 5:20 am.

Blanca at first light

Well after skinning up valley a ways we came to a decision point, we had to decide which one was the Iron Nipple and which valley we wanted to ski up. Well in the end we chose the one on the right which was our screw up for the day. We ended up climbing a ridge that was separated from the one we wanted by a large basin below us. But oh well, we got about 500 feet of powder skiing in (and that much more climbing).

The crestones a long way off

Dropping into some powder

Some nice ski tracks from our bad ridge.

From here we started up the ridge connecting us to Lindsey and made fairly quick time of the easy boot pack to 13,100 ft on the saddle between Lindsey and the nipple.

Taking a food break on the ridge.

From here we traversed the ridge and then skied about 200 vertical down the get to the base of where we decided to start climbing.

The red is skiing, and the green is climbing, with gb and Jeremy in the foreground.

From here we started the boot pack up the steep narrow couloir, in some very deep snow. I didn‘t last all that long up front, and Jeremy quickly took over and blazed a trail to the top of the false summit.

In the narrow gully

Topping out on the couloir

The climbing became more of a mixed variety part way up as we were climbing on rock and snow.

Frank and myself were the only ones along who had climbed this mountain previously, and neither one of us remembered the false summit as it has been over 12 years since either of us have been there. Anyway after a quick 15 minute jaunt across and up, we found ourselves…finally on the summit of Lindsey.

Frank just a few steps from the summit

Well after everyone topped out on what was still a sunny day, the weather decided to get windy on us, and so we were ready to get down and do some skiing.

Skiing off the top pics:

Myself

Kelly and Brittany

How about the ski descent now, we dropped in on about 100 feet of windhammered snow, and then enjoyed 1800 feet of powder skiing to the valley below. Frank dropped in to take a few pictures and then Jeremy ripped the line top to bottom so he could film from the bottom. I followed and stopped about 3/4 of the way down to take pics (and my legs were on fire!) Kelly came cruising by, followed by Frank and Brittany.

Jeremy:

Kelly:

Frank:

Brittany:

Jordan:

Well after skiing to the valley floor we had to climb another 600 feet back to the ridge in order to ski out. We put the skins back on and headed up the hill. Everyone seemed a little tired and we took it fairly slow. Finally reaching the ridge, the winds gave us a good punch in the face and we made a quick effort to get off the ridge and down to the valley below. Everyone clicked in and regrouped around a big rock in the valley. From here we skied the creek bed all the way to the flat valley and then climbed the 100-200 feet up to where the sleds were parked.

The last bit of the ski out was pretty flat

Kelly, Mtnbikerskierchick, and I loaded our packs onto the sleds and skied down the road as far as we could before we hit the extreme flats down lower and waited for gb and jeremy on the sleds. They showed up about 10 minutes later and we cruised the rest of the way back to the cars.

We got back to the cars around 7:15 pm. So i guess we‘ll call it a really long day. But it was awesome getting this one done, and under such good conditions. Can‘t wait to get out again! Good day guys and gals!