Kings Peak, Did it in a day

The Idea

Our initial intent was to drive to the trail head after work, then with light packs we would travel a few hours, under a partial moon, and bivy. After arriving late at the trail head, we decided to camp there and get an early start in the morning. We were on the trail at 4:30am.

Mixed Bag

The first few miles were mixed skiing and walking. Skis off, skis on became the theme of the morning, we soon caught a glimpse of the peak.

The Crossing

Staying to the right of the creek brought us to Elk Horn Crossing (I think its called), fortunately the crossing was made easily over a snow bridge as the creek was raging with melt off.

Easy Travel

Travel was easy on nice frozen snow, not to be later in the day. A closer look at the peak showed that the winds were strong up high.

Gun Sight Pass or Anderson Pass?

Initially the intent was to try and save a few miles by approaching through Anderson pass, unfortunately the snow conditions were not optimum for it. If we would of had crampons we would have felt better about that route.
The route taken was through Gun Sight Pass, a relatively easy skin through the pass allows access to the East face of Kings Peak. There was no wind where this photo was taken, however at the pass they were nuking!

Gaining the Ridge

Access to the ridge was gained via a long bootpack on snow varying from completely frozen to breakable crust, not looking good for the ski down.

The Finish

After enjoying the Summit for 30 min., we skied the East face. Then after a short skin and a fun, steep traverse to Gun Sight Pass, we were able to coast back to Elk Horn Crossing (with a few good corn turns mixed in). From the crossing it was interesting skiing back to the trail head. Round trip 30 miles, 14 hours 45 min.

Images

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