Yankee Boy Basin Skiing

Yankee Boy Basin

Yankee Boy Basin is an alpine basin in Ouray County, Colorado. Access is provided by a dirt 4 WD road which branches off from Camp Bird Road.
The basin is surrounded by beautiful mountain peaks, many of these frequently mentioned on SP.

Below are images from spring skiing in Yankee Boy Basin. The winter provides a difficult access and a high avalanche danger, but late spring (May/June) offers excellent conditions for skiing from the beginner level to very advance skiing of steep and narrow couloirs on surrounding peaks. You can typically drive high clearance 4 wheel drive vehicle up to the toilet trailhead during the ski season. The road continues up to Blue Lake Trailhead in the summer.

Skinning towards Gilpin Peak	Enjoying the scenery
Toilet Trailhead	Refreshment after skiing
Carrying the skis up	Skiing down one of the Kismet's Couloirs
Turns on Kismet	Ski Descent on Kismet
And more skinning up	My skis
Skiers as little dots down below	The best lunch ever
Teakettle Mountain	Duchess as a little speck and my snowtrack
View into Yankee Boy Basin from the top of Mount Emma	View from the ridge between Gilpin and Emma
Skiing down Northwest Couloir on Gilpin	Gilpin Ski Descent

List of Peaks accessible from Yankee Boy Basin

Summit	Height in Feet	Photo	A few words about the mountain
Mount Sneffels	14156		Mount Sneffels has a Nordic name meaning snowfield, which Jules Verne used in his Journey to the Centre of the Earth. It was given to the peak by Endlich and companions at the time of the 1874 first ascent. There are several routes going up Mount Sneffels, starting from Class 2+ South Slopes route to class 3 scrambles.
Kismet	13694		Kismet is the cluster of points SE of Mount Sneffels. Most people climb it either from Dyke Col between Kismet and Cirque Mountain, or a route straight from the Wright's Lake.
Gilpin Peak	13694		Gilpin Peak is usually climbed from the Yankee Boy Basin, aim for the main ridge descending south from the summit. A more complicated route is from Blue Lake Pass. My album
Cirque Mountain	13686		Cirque Mountain is 1.2 miles east of Mount Sneffels. It has a gentle west ridge. The prominent cliffs when viewed from the north give obvious significance to the mountain's name. Best climbed from Dyke Col. My album
TeakettleMountain	13819		Teakettle Mountain continues the range summits east of Mount Sneffels. The standard approach is from the little parking lot by the restroom in Yankee Boy Basin. There is no official trail, and expect a lot of loose scree. My album
Coffeepot	13568		Coffeepot is a little protruding knob named S1, today mountaineers call it comically as the Coffeepot. People often climb it together with Teakettle, or Potosi.
Potosi Peak	13786		Potosi Peak is the southeast termination of the Sneffels range crest. Potosi has a formidable looking summit block, and is more easy to climb from the east, where there is a break in the cliffs.

Images

View Yankee Boy Basin Skiing Image Gallery - 25 Images