Silver Couloir, Buffalo Mountain, Eagles Nest Wilderness, Silverthorne, Colorado
I hadn’t skied Silver Couloir in a few years. It’s probably the most skied line in Summit County, and I typically look for more solitude when I go backcountry skiing, but Mike and I found ourselves interested in skiing it mid-week when we were hoping it wouldn’t be too busy.
We parked at the Buffalo Mountain Trailhead and took the winter route up to the top of Buffalo. One of my favorite things about going up Buffalo Mountain are the views you get of Lake Dillon when you stop to catch your breath and turn around. One of my least favorite things about going up Buffalo Mountain is the wind we always seem to find at the top. Thankfully, we made pretty good time and after a short walk over some rocks, found ourselves transitioning at the top of the line. We were going to be the first tracks in the couloir that morning. One of the benefits of the wind up there is that it typically smooths out the couloir with windblown snow pretty well overnight. The negative of this is that I’m always on alert for wind slab on this line. Thankfully, no wind slab appeared to be present and one at a time, we headed down the line. We found a variety of conditions with some wind affected snow up top, some old powder in the middle, and some mostly frozen corn at the bottom.
Once we made it to the bottom of the line, we traversed to the east until we couldn’t go downhill anymore and put our skins back on. We followed an existing skin track back out to the trailhead, and we were home before lunch. It’s hard to beat a morning like that!
Total Stats: 5 miles, 3050 ft of elevation gain
