Mountain Boy Peak: East Face

Type: Backcountry or Sidecountry

The East Face of Mountain Boy Peak offers amazing east-facing turns that are fairly easily accessible from the summit of Independence Pass once the road opens in the spring.

Follow the busy skintrack leading up Heartbreak Hill from the summit parking lot of Independence Pass. Either skin and hike/climb your way all the way across the ridge to the summit of Mountain Boy Peak (this requires some easy scrambling and scree walking), or take an early lap down Snowfence Ridge or the Cosmic Couloir, into the Mountain Boy Basin, and then skin back up the low point of the NW saddle to the summit hill of Mountain Boy (there will likely also be an established skintrack here at the low point of the saddle).

From the summit of Mountain Boy, looking east, the entire east face offers endless lines. Choose your line and ski down. You'll likely want to head due north towards the end of the line, in order to reconnoiter with the east ridge of Mountain Boy, which offers an easy skin back into Mountain Boy Park/Basin. Skin back to the summit of the pass, or ski down to the switchbacks and get a ride back to the top.

This is an east-facing spring line, you'll want to get laps done here early in the day.