Skiing Mount Emma
Don't tell the San Gabriels, but wow is it easy to get stunning video in Colorado's San Juan Mountains—you can just point your camera in any direction and the range pretty much does the rest.
This is Mount Emma, 13,581' high, one of Colorado's "Bicentennial" peaks—#197 or #194 depending on your prominence preferences—possibly named after Emma Woodruff, whose husband Ferdinand Hayden surveyed the San Juan Mountains for the USGS in the 1870's (hat tip: "turn off your javascript before visiting" summitpost).
Thanks to many, many years spent in the San G's and the Sierra, I have a lot of confidence in my wet-snow assessment skills, but when it comes to continental snowpacks with ubiquitous persistent rotten layers at ground, I am but a learner.
This year's terrible winter in southwest Colorado paradoxically allowed me to jump on a snowpack I felt more or less familiar with—at least on sunny aspects—and, for the first time, explore some bona-fide big lines in the San Juan backcountry.
I like to imagine none of the locals would ever climb this far to get to snow. You're too picky! My advantage is I have much, much lower standards than you. :)
Yes, I wish the wind had been a tad less psycho so those south aspects would have softened a bit, but in hindsight, the wind kept things squeaky-clean on the stability front, allowing us to occasionally wander off-course without compromising timing.
Emma is one of the area's giants—a big peak with a gorgeous south/southeast bowl, prominently visible from the top of Chair 9. The mountain rises directly over the town of Telluride, and is easily accessible from the center of town via the not-messing-around Liberty Bell Trail.
But for the wind I think we could have skied Emma from very near her summit; as it was, we topped out about 100 vertical feet below, and skied what I'm calling Emma's southeast couloir—a slightly west-facing entry into the main south drainage. Enjoy the views!
— March 27, 2026
Andy Lewicky is the author and creator of SierraDescents