Colorado Backcountry: Mt. Trelease and The Citadel

JP - Citadel
Met up with Fritz, Joe, Jeremy and Mir near the Loveland Pass turn off. We decided to bushwhack straight up Trelease and avoid the access road. The goals of the trip were to summit Mt. Trelease and hit the North Face and Ridge, from there slog to Citadel and hike the ridge to the saddle for our 2nd run. Beautiful bluebird day and good friends made the tough climbs easy. I was very surpised at the snow conditions on the North face of Trelease. Fritz picked out a technical line and dropped first into some nice powder turns. He kicked off a small slide near the choke of the couloir as I was filming from a cliff high above. The rest of the crew dropped in and made it down to the safe zone, from there we geared up and started the climb to Citadel.

JP - Citadel
The climb up the ridge to Citadel was brutal after summiting Trelease and ripping down, but we knew what awaited us and we forced each other to go on. Fritz lost his lunch about half way up, and I was pretty close. We reached the saddle just below the summit of Citadel and geared up. Shera dropped first and made some turns down the left side of the chute, Fritz next. At least 1500' of wide open spring turns under bluebird skies everyone wanted another lap. I'll let the pictures and video finish the story.

Trelease N. Face - Jeremy & Fritz

Citadel Cornice - Joe
 

Trelease N. Face - JP Filming
Mt. Trelease and Citadel Video (right click - save as)
Fritz's TGR Report & Pics