Deming Peak: The Deming Drop, and the South Face

Deming Peak (12906 feet) is the prominent summit on the other side of Eccles Pass from Buffalo Mountain, and 129 feet higher. It is easily approached by the Meadow Creek trail from I-70: As you near Eccles Pass, veer left and skin straight up the south face. That face offers excellent wide-open skiing, but there is a very steep couloir dropping straight off the summit to the north, straight as a drop of water would fall! I call the couloir the “Deming Drop”, and the name has stuck. Katie Larson and I skied it in 1999. It can be a bit mushy at the very top, where it sees the sun, but in the couloir it should be firm all season. Return by traversing east and climbing a shallow couloir to regain Deming’s south side about halfway down.

also skied it (with Bob Portmann and Sherman Blake) on May 18, 2002. It was in good shape (though very little else was in this bad spring). The central throat was very narrow and I had to side-slip through it, but the rest was excellent and exciting. Using an inclinometer, we measured the upper 200 feet at 45˚. In the Dawson rating system this line is a D-10.

The Drop drops from just north of the summit. This view shows the mellow but fun south face route on the right, and part of the saddle area that one uses for return after dropping, The pass at far right is Seldom Pass.
Deming viewed from Valhalla.
The line was skiable in the poor snow season of spring 2012 (May 3: snow depths are at 20% of average in the area). Here’s a shot from April 22, 2012, by Nate Delorey who reported excellent conditions. The skier pictured is Jeffrey Schneider, who dropped in from where he is standing.
On April 27, 2008, Dan and Melanie Hendershott and Joe Biebel skied this line and the photos indicate the gully was fat with snow. This photo is by Dan.
One more view of the drop.
On May 12, 2007, the Drop was skied by Dave Reed, Luke Kroiss, and Brian Kalet, who started their day by ascending Red Peak and skiing its south side. I believe this is the fourth descent, as Khim Beiers from Montezuma did it solo a few years ago. Here is a photo of Brian, taken by Dave Reed. The narrowest part of the couloir is behind him.

This can provide a reasonable winter tour. On a warm March 15, 2015, Jonathan Kriegel, Bob Salazar, and I went to the summit and skied the south face. Approach via Meadow Creek trail (9100 to 12900 feet). Five hours up, two hours down. We ascended to the summit by the slopes out of frame on the right. Descent was by the broad slope a small bit right of center. And on March 24, 2021, Matt Wentz and I did the same route and were rewarded with excellent powder conditions for the descent. 4.75 hours up; 1.5 hours down. Here are our tracks on the main pitch from very close to the summit.