Photo: Michael Wirth
Michael Wirth is an interesting guy. Raised in Aspen, Colorado, I met Mike, our freshman year of college, while he was immersed in the pre-professional grind, studying economics and engineering. In four years, I have seen him change course quite radically; go abroad for a semester in Europe and Morocco which has turned into a year, and live in his van on campus so he can spend the weekends wherever he wants. Mike is now back in Colorado to pursue his dream of becoming a ski mountaineer.
Colorado is known for its alpine peaks, especially its “fourteenths,” or mountains over 14,000 feet. Seven of them are in the Elk Mountain Range near Mike’s house in Aspen. Instead of sticking to the beaten track and skiing the well-traveled fourteen, Mike decided last spring to tackle the 52 “thirteen” in the Elk Range, many of which are approaching the 14 mark anyway. 000 feet. The most interesting guy in my world ended up skiing all seven of the fourteen as well for a total of 59 peaks in 61 days. Quite impressive. He is currently working on the release of a documentary on the story (trailer below).
Mike! Good work. Let’s start with the inspiration for the project and how did it all go?
So I grew up venturing all over the Elk Mountain Range when I was a kid. This is my native mountain range, located just between Aspen and Crested Butte in Colorado. I did my first backpacking trip there and climbed my first fourteen, and always wanted to ski all seven of the fourteen in the Elks. When COVID sent us all home, I was spending a ton of time up there in the mountains, and the second season of my comeback, I decided to try and experience them on a closer level.
The Fourteen are excited because people want to climb the highest mountains. But the thirteen are definitely less well known. They’re a little shorter, but no less difficult, and there are a ton of them. And because people don’t really climb them, there is very little information on ascent and descent routes. So I saw this as a way to get to know my native mountain range and do something new at the same time. So, with the snowpack installed around the end of March, I started to go out and ski thirteen.
And you ended up doing the fourteen too?
Yeah, so there are 59 peaks above 13,000 feet in the Elks, including 52 below 14,000. As the project went on, I was dancing around fourteen, you know, getting all of them. the possible views of them from the surrounding mountains. Finally, I was like, “Yeah, I have to ski them too. ” And that’s what I did. With the additional spikes, it took 61 days in total.
Ski mountaineering means waking up at 2 a.m. to climb a mountain. Photo: Michael Wirth.
Can you give us a “day in the life” like you were there?
In the spring, the main avalanche danger concern is a wet slide avalanche when the sun is higher in the sky. Depending on the aspect, you want to reach the top around 8am or 9am to hurtle down the sun because it’s not ice anymore, but neither is it slush that’s ready to fall off the mountain. So you wake up at two o’clock, start peeling around three or four o’clock, then you climb up the face as the sun comes up, around six o’clock after going through a dark forest in the middle of the night. You arrive at the top and descend around nine o’clock, you return to town around noon. And in my case, with another mountain the next day, I ate the second I came back, dried all my stuff, got ready for the next goal and then went to bed. I felt like I was always on the move for the whole project, whether it was climbing a mountain or preparing for the next day.
Did you do a mountain a day? How did you space things out?
Yeah, that was about a mountain a day. I took a few days off here and there and then took it as one day a week in April which meant that in May I was not taking any day off. But then things started to turn out really beautifully. I understood the snowpack very well and felt really fit so I started connecting several peaks and had a really great few days like that. One of which I call the ‘Granodiorite Traverse’ where I skied four peaks above 13,000. It was a 30 mile day with 13,000 feet of elevation gain. I started with an east-facing aspect because that’s when the sun warms up first, then I went southwest, then north and west, just in following the sun as it moved through the mountains.
Start climbing before the alpenglow hits… Photo: Michael Wirth
Tell us a bit about the arc of travel. Was there a time when you felt like you weren’t going to finish it or that you were ready to give up? Or were you just made up from start to finish?
So I started with some of the peaks that I was sort of familiar with or that weren’t that hard to get to and maybe wrote a report about them. And then quite early in the project, I had a bit of a gnarly experience. There were a variety of “crux” peaks for the project, two of which are on the same ridge line as Pyramid Peak. [one of Colorado’s fourteeners]. They are right next to the famous Landry Line off Pyramid Peak, and few people have skied on these lines. I tried to ski one of them, which is called Lightning Pyramid, 10 days after the project started and got away about 300 feet from the top before I had to turn around because of the warming snow. And there were two other similar experiences where I failed to make it to the top, also quite early. But I was able to go back and ski those three failed goals, even adding another summit on the same day as I learned to play better with aspects and sun exposure later in the project.
There was a turning point where I ended up skiing the Thunder and Lightning Pyramid on the same day which are two of the toughest peaks in all of Colorado. And I made a first ascent on the northwest face of Lightning to its western corridor and that marked a pivotal moment in the project where I felt super fit, and knowing the mountains really well as being able to anticipate the snowpack and how to get through them, and it just started from there.
Summit with the sun… Photo: Michael Wirth.
Tell us a bit more about these Thunder and Lightning picks.
Totally, so Pyramid Peak and the Landry Line are super famous. Anyone who knows ski mountaineering knows the Landry line. Thunder is just south on the ridge line of Pyramid Peak, and it’s a 13,900 foot summit, so roughly fourteen. It’s also as steep as the Landry Line, and it’s the same with Lightning, it’s just a little further south than Thunder. The whole ridge line is just super knotty. There is 3000 feet of vertical relief up, so you have a pretty sustained face 50 degrees on either side of that ridge line. There is no really easy way to get up other than to climb a very steep 3000ft face and then ski back down.
What was your favorite line of the project? Something that you are particularly proud of?
I call the first run I did on Lightning “The Bolt”, and it was a super-rad line. On Precarious Peak I did another first descent on its north face which I call “Shark Fin” because of the massive granite walls hanging down above you. It was a really cool day. As for some stats on the project itself, I did six first runs, was the first person to ski all of the Elks’ 13,000-foot peaks, and I was the youngest to ski and run. climb three of the fourteen toughest in Colorado. which are the Landry Line of Pyramid Peak, the east face of Capital Peak and the north face of North Maroon. I also traveled 519 miles, racked up 220,000 vertical feet and spent 350 hours in ski boots over 61 days.
Wow, how were your feet after all of this?
They were like, pretty rude honestly. Just because they’re so wet with sweat or snow. And so if you’re out 10 hours a day, when you come back your feet look pretty bad, like you’re sitting in a hot tub for four hours, you know?
The best part? Photo: Michael Wirth.
Yuck. What did you learn on your own? Takeaways ? Words of wisdom? Nuggets of knowledge?
Yes, the project meant a lot to me, both to connect with the mountains and to really try to enjoy the beautiful moments as they arise. Waking up at 2 am every day for two months was really difficult. But then you step into the alpine environment as the sun starts to rise and all that fatigue goes away. It was about waiting for those beautiful moments, being patient and knowing that they would come, and then indulge in them when they do.
Thanks Mike! Looking forward to the next project.
Thanks man, me too!
