Mosquito Peak and London's Jack the Ripper (aka The Wave)

Just to the right of Buckskin's top, in the photo of Buckskin, is an unnamed snowy summit, and to its right is the east shoulder of Mosquito Peak. These two offer good skiing with very easy access once the Mosquito Pass Road is open to their base. On June 5, 2001, Janet Jacks and I drove up the road to the London mine and headed uphill on skis. We did one run on the unnamed peak (we thought it was Mosquito). At the bottom of the run we headed west to a saddle and the real Mosquito Peak, and then skied the nice large gully heading to the NE from near its summit. When Janet and I skied it we could ski from the car to the summits and back to the car.

On the way up Mosquito Pass Road you will note a nice, steep, east-facing ski line on your left; this line is also visible from Route 9 between Alma and Fairplay. It is on London Peak, and I call it Jack the Ripper. I skied it with Katie Larson on June 23, 1999. This line is also known as The Wave.

And on May 27, 2005, I skied the same line on Mosquito semi-solo: my wife was watching from the car. I finally got to say: "Dropping in 10" on a hand-held radio. It was a little slushy, but not too terrifying. There was a little more tundra walking than I expected, but the last 800' or so was all on snow, and I could skin right to the rocks near the top of the gully. The photo below shows the descent route in the center. I skinned up the ridge/face on the left until I could just see the ski route at its top, and then I crossed the rocks to it.

On June 28, 2008, Michele Koss, Todd Beck, Dave Gidley, and I repeated what Janet and I did in 2001: two runs, finishing with the northeast face of Mosquito. Conditions were fine, and this was the last run of the great 2008 season. Getting above the cornice to connect the two lines was a little tricky, and fun; there are variations to avoid it.

Some shots from the June 28, 2008, day. Michele scales the cornice that gets us to Mosquito Peak after finishing the first warmup run.

The view back to our tracks on Mosquito Peak.

Here are some shots by David Gidley, an expert ski photographer. Michele on Mosquito's Face (Buckskin is the peak with couloirs in right rear, Democrat behind).

Todd Beck on Mosquito.

Stan Wagon on the unnamed peak SE of Mosquito. Above my head is the slope we climbed to gain Mosquito and run #2.

On June 12, 2021, Matt Wentz and I did the classic double: Repeater, and then Mosquito. The first was in very good shape. Mosquito’s NE line was very soft however (and steeper than I remembered it). Here is Matt descending.

And our tracks on Repeater.