24 - 25 May 2008: Byers Peak (12804 ft / 3903 m)

North Ridge, moderate to steep snow

Byers Peak is a mountain near Frasier that I hadn't known about until reading the Colorado Snow Climbs book. It is located a little bit out of the way but it is still less than two hours away from Denver. The approach is a little long when snow closes the road to the trailhead so I decided to take the guidebook's advice and do the climb over two days. I hiked up most of the closed on the first day and camped at a switchback.

On summit day I finished the remaining bit of road quickly and started bushwacking through the trees up a steep slope. It was slow but the snow was in good snowshoeing shape. When I made it to the ridge the summit looked very close but that was an illusion. I think it looked close because the cornice is so large. The rest of the ascent was straightforward and directly up the ridge. There were a few humps to go over and rock outcrops to navigate then I was on the summit. This mountain has the biggest cornice that I have been on/near to date.