Ssssh!
Yeah, its the Stanbury’s, but as you can see they are totally unappealing and highly overrated 😉

@WhitePine wrote:

How did you manage the approach? The is a long dirt road in the summer and I’m almost positive its not plowed. Snowmobiles?

Its not that far IMO and I’m not much of a motorhead, so no sleds for me (TETO). Its about four miles on the approach plus whatever you decide to skin/ride.
Snovol’s party took almost an entire day to do the North Col, whereas I poked around and did multiple lines on two occasions. In both cases I was back at my car by 3PM (starting at 6am and 7am respectively).

Perhaps I see this as “not that far” because I do significant trail runs up to eight hours at a time. On the other hand I’m not that fit, I’m middle aged and have lots of injuries. Any young buck ought to be able to have a good time up there without much fuss.
It is however, REALLY FAR FROM HELP. So self sufficiency, and the ability to balance confidence with the humility to back down is crucial.

All to often I think people feel obligated to push safety for challenging objectives having put in such an effort to get to it. I tend not to tour with singular objectives, but rather I look at zones and let the landscape, light, shadow, contours and snowpack dictate what I ride. Sorry to get philosophical, but I really believe that our sense of entitlement often clouds our better judgement (e.g. I walked all F’n day and I earned this line, etc…).

Anyways if you’re ever interested in going up there let me know and I will PM you. Unfortuantely, I’m thinking the quality of snow after today/tomorrow will rapidly decline 😥