Fletcher Mountain, "Hobbit's Way" Skiing 5/28/13

We parked the Toyota Travel Lodge about 100 yards from the winter TH the night before, and enjoyed a relaxing evening with a great view.

The ruins of the Boston Mine at the head of Mayflower Gulch. Fletcher is central in the back, and Drift is on the looker's right.

A panorama of the entire, amazing cirque. "Atlantic" on the left, Fletcher center, "Drift" right.

A closeup of the awesome line on "Drift's" NW face. There are multiple exit options through the lower cliff band, but route finding is certainly an issue.

A mining ruin in front of Fletcher's NW face. At this point, we decided Fletcher would be our target for the day due to some minor snowpack concerns and the fact that the line is a bit less exposed than the line on "Drift".

Although most of the guidebooks suggest booting up the wide couloir that leads to the saddle between Fletcher and Drift, we saw no valid reason not to boot directly up our intended line. This allowed us to preview both snow conditions, and the state of the entrance crux, since it appeared a bit rocky to enter the line. We found an old bootpack in the couloir from a mountaineer (no ski tracks coming down), but it weaved illogically back and forth in drunken hobbit fashion, so we elected to kick our own steps. Me setting the boot ladder. Photo: H.Flinch

The rocky section at the top of the couloir turned out to be very reasonable, so we quickly gained the summit. Here's the view south towards Drift from the summit.

Looking north towards "Atlantic Peak," which I skied a few weeks prior with Christina Vela. Pacific and Crystal are in behind.

Hans on the summit, stoked for our descent.

There was enough snow on the ridgeline to allow us to ski directly from the summit. A bit of billygoating through the rocky entrance led us to the top of the line, which we dubbed the Hobbit's Way in honor of the drunken hobbit mountaineer that climbed it before us. Me dropping in. Photo: H.Flinch

I found the snow to be surprisingly good, with firm but very edge-able snow through the choke point. Hans descends towards the choke with the rocky entrance above. I sidestepped into the upper left corner of the photo, then made a sketchy kickturn onto the angled snow ramp. Hans chose to sidestep through the rocks directly above him to enter the couloir.

Hans on the upper part of the face.

Hans again.

Me on the lower part of the face. Photo: H.Flinch

Me laying over a turn in good corn at the bottom of the line. Photo: H.Flinch

Here's our route marked in red on Fletcher's NW Face. Another great high 13er descent in the books!