050312 AC#1 - Kelly Mountain Ski

Here's a map of the route (red = hiking blue = skiing). Bullion and Democrat are out Croy Canyon west of Hailey, ID.

The old house out Bulliion Gulch in Oct 2009. I guess some vandals tore some wood off the structure sometime later that fall.

The same structure in 2012. I had heard it was destroyed, but apparently they just took some boards off the bottom left of the house.

6:01 PM - Greg V. strapping skis to the pack

Ready to go, Exploring Sun Valley map book in hand.

We drove 4 miles up Bullion before the encroaching willows blocked the road. Greg ducks his ski tips underneath the trees.

A long ribbon of snow extended down the north side for about 800-feet to the old mining road.

We started hiking in a light drizzle, but the storm broke and let enough sunlight through to make a small rainbow.

Dramatic light and clouds were blowing over the top of the ridge.

I kicked steps in hard books so Greg has a little more purchase in his tennies, but the climb was consistend and steady.

The Colorado Gulch "massif" and Hailey through the clouds.

7:08 PM - Looking west from our first "summit" pt 8435. We skiied one of the lines down this face.

A another pulse of the storm started to roll in as Greg descended from Pt 8435

Greg and Croy tak a break to look at the next easy ridge.

More clouds rolled in shutting down the visibility a bit.

Greg walks the wind drift towards pt 8575.

Colorful rocks and sage branch...

Beginning transition #1 as Greg takes the skis off his pack.

Changing into ski boots. A hard book was definately nice for walking up the firm snow.

The skiing off the top was pretty good. A dusting of an inch of new on the old supportable surface. We had to traverse out to a ridge and side step this small bit to connect the line.

We were able to ski about 1000 feet. Some of it was rough slide debris in the gut. Towards the bottom we had to weave through the trees but made it almost all the way to the Red Cloud/Pass Group mine road in the Deer Creek drainage.

7:58 PM - Transition #2 - back to hiking shoes.

Strapped and ready to go. Croy was smiling at this stage in the day.

Skis on, boots in, lets go.

We followed the road back to the 7600-foot saddle betwen Bullion and Deer Creek and then started back up the ridge towards pt 8435 for second lap down the ribbon we hiked up. By this time the moon was high in the sky. This view is down Bullion Gulch.

Croy contemplates the evening. He never likes to look at me when I am taking his photo.

Hiking the ridge toward pt 8435.

Greg mugging for the camera.

It ended up being a beautiful evening with the storm clearing and a few clouds hanging onto the higer peaks.

We climbed onto a wind loaded ribbon of snow for the last 200 feet to our second time atop pt 8435

Croy and Greg.

9:09 PM - we caught some of the last light in the west as we topped out.

Geg looks toward the lights of Hailey.

A cold wind had picked up so we quickly moved into Transition #3 back to ski books. Greg left that orange strap up there so if anyone needs a ski strap...

9:23 PM - There was a narrow wind roll that we skiied down the SE ridge for about 200 feet before dropping down the face to our ascent gully.

Night skiing by the moonlight. No need for the headlamps even though this photo makes it look much darker than it was. More good corn skiing, but it was getting cold.

We had to traverse across an open sage slope to connect to our descent ribbon in the gully.

Hey Greg, "Have I told you how happy I am to be here today?"

The snow in the top of the gully was sill nice soft corn so we set up for a moon skiing shot.

Things had refrozen in the gully so most of this line was firm and bumpy but still quite fun.

9:41 PM - Working out the kinks in transition #4.

9:54 PM - Toasting a successful completion to the innaugural outing of the "Adventure Club." **Note: the smile on Greg's face was before he realized the car was dead from leaving his headlights on. An hour long coasting descent with no power steering down Bullion Gulch ensued. We had to push the truck up three small hills to make it all the way to Croy Canyon road. It was a pretty hilarious trip with both of us sticking out bodies out the doors for the moonlit descent. Will this kind of finish be considered "normal" for future Adventure Club outings?