The Indian Peaks Wilderness covers a string of peaks along the Continental Divide in Northern Colorado. It stretches from the southern tip of Rocky Mountain National Park to James Peak Wilderness, just north of I-70. Notably, it contains seven peaks above 13,000′, but for this adventure I set my eyes on a ski descent of a peak that just falls short of this designation – Mount Toll (12,979′).
Within the Indian Peaks skyline viewed from the Front Range, Toll thrusts out back and left of the broad Mt. Audubon (13,223′). Mount Toll is a much more distinguished mountain compared to its rounded neighbors, with a vertical north face and a stellar, steep but wide ski descent down its southeast face. For this reason, I chose this as my first big splitboard mountaineering descent.
Watch my video of splitboarding Mount Toll
Bike Approach – Gateway to Mitchell Lake Trailhead
I began my day at the Gateway Trailhead and approached the Mitchell Lake Trailhead by bike – yes, full pack and splitboard on my back! Biking with gear at 10,000 ft makes for a sudden warm up! Although 90% of the road was melted out, the gate to Brainard Lake was still closed, so this was the quickest option to cover the 3 miles to the trailhead. Even when the gate is open, I prefer this approach to the Brainard Lake area since it means you don’t have to pay an entrance fee or worry about a reservation.
I stashed my bike in the woods just before the bridge and intersection with Mitchell Lake Road and switched to boot packing. Once I reached the official trailhead at Mitchell Lake (still very snowed in), I switched to skinning through the forest.
Skinning Mitchell Lake to Blue Lake
Since it was my first time in the area, the best path wasn’t always clear to me, especially after passing Mitchell Lake on my right. I worked my way directly west through the forest, but I think in retrospect I would have hung a bit more to the southwest to avoid a few extra rolling ups and downs.
Once I reached Blue Lake, my objective was clear in sight. And the views of the cirque from here are incredible in their own right. I hung left around the lake and skinned up between the rocks and a low angle couloir before reaching the wide bowl at 12,000 ft. At this point, you only have a 45 min to an hour hike up to the summit. A couple of skiers had just come down and confirmed that conditions were still stable and worth climbing up for. It was a getting a bit later in the day than I had hoped, so I was stoked that there was only about 1,000 ft to go and I would make it.
Blue Lake to Mount Toll Summit
I switched back to bootpacking and left my skins to dry out on some rocks at the base of the final climb. Strangely, there was a convergence of about 5 of us slow-pokers (4 or 5 were splitboarders, hah!) that climbed up together.
A solidly formed staircase made the bootpacking secure and easy, although consistently steep. The slope is about 40+ degrees on average, so it’s a steady trudge to the top. I didn’t need my ice axe, but in less ideal conditions it would be very handy. It’s worth mentioning that you can barely tell how close you are to the top until suddenly… you’re there. When you see a bunch of rocks leading to a small summit, that’s it! Despite this being a solo outing, it was fun to share the summit with a few other liked-minded folks.
Mount Toll’s summit provides outstanding views of the Indian Peaks, especially of Apache and Navajo peaks to the south. Everything feels tremendously close and in reach. It’s also great place to get a view of other ski lines (Crooked Couloir, Queen’s Way, etc). Definitely one of the best views I’ve had in the Rockies!
Ski Descent of Mount Toll to Mitchell Lake Trailhead
If there weren’t building clouds to the west and the prospect of soft snow through the forest, I would have hung out on the summit a lot longer. I was the second of the group to descend. The descent was steep with soft turns and an absolute blast to ride! After all my years mountaineering I was ecstatic to finally ride off a summit on my snowboard. There’s nothing like it.
The climb from the bowl to the summit took about 1 hour and it probably took less than 5 min to ride back down. I grabbed my skins and kept on rolling through the rocks above Blue Lake. I tried to stay as high as reasonable on skiers right to avoid rolling terrain. I made it solidly to about halfway between Blue Lake and Mitchell Lake before needing to boot a bit. From the top of Toll you have 2 miles or so at least of continuous downhill, which I consider well worth it as a split boarder.
After a few more ups and downs, I switched back to skins near Mitchell Lake and slogged my way through the forest, doing my very best impression of a skiier. That lasted until about a half mile from the trailhead where I gave up and started booting my way out. With backcountry splitboarding, there’s always the dilemna of leaving too early that the snow is too hard and leaving too late that you get a soft descent but also the misery of post-holing if you need to boot it. So it goes in the mountains, and sometimes it’s just a sufferfest. Snacks help morale – today Sour Patch Kids and a Cherry Coke awaiting me in the car kept my spirits high.
Bike Ride Back to Gateway
I reached the trailhead and then my bike in mild delirium and dehydration. Fantasies of the Cherry Coke I stashed in my car and of a stop at McDonalds on the way back to Fort Collins carried me through. The bike ride out was easy though – it’s mostly downhill for 3 miles back to Gateway and the weight of backcountry gear on your back means it goes by fast. It was a blast to zoom past all the day hikers along the road, riding with my snowboarding boots still on (not the most efficient pedaling) and board and gear on my back. Note that stopping when you are 40lbs or so heavier with gear takes more breaking in advance and there’s a sharp, steeper turn right before reaching the gate at the end. You’ve been warned!
In all honesty, this was one of my harder days in the mountains at 9 miles skinning/climbing with 4,000+ ft of climbing and 5.5ish miles with 500 ft of gain on the bike. Skiing through the rolling hills back to the trailhead was mentally fatiguing and frustrating as a splitboarder. In many ways, the route and many areas in the Indian Peaks in general are not the greatest for splitboarders, but the ride and the views were absolutely worth it. This journey left me beaming. And for that reason, I would absolutely do this climb again.
VIDEO: Splitboarding Mount Toll
May 23, 2020
FURTHER ALONG 