2011 - 2012 Colorado BC Conditions/Stoke Thread

Skied North aspect of Whetstone Mountain today, very nice tour, no signs of instability. Conditions ranged from boiler plate, to shallow dry pow, to sun crust, and corn. My pit profile showed about a six inch wind slab sitting on top of about 18 inches of solid midpack, all of which is still resting on about 2 feet of the worst sugar if seen in years around hear. It seems like it would be pretty hard to bust through the bridging midpack, but if you did results could be devastating. Winter is disappearing rapidly in the the CB zone, so get out and get it while you still can. Sorry no pics NS is telling me my file size is too big, guess you'll have to get out and experience it for yourself.

 
Love the tracks down the center of Whetstone!

Had a great day on Mount Emmons today. Started with a lap in Red Lady Bowl, followed by Redwell Basin, and finally Wrong Chute. South aspects are definitely windblown while there is about four inches of lighter pow on north facing aspects Hard underneath even on the most protected aspects. Observed no signs of instability or even much sloughing, but was disappointed to find that its still very easy to push through to the basal facets at lower elevations.

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More on the blog.
 
there should be a few TR's on TGR if you search google well enough.

whatever you do, let me know when you go because I live right at the base of it. haha
 
what still has snow in the front range, im going to moab for a few days, but want to do some spring bc shredding when i get home
 
Got skunked by non-freezing snow the last few days. Maybe if it cools down here the next few nights?
 
yeah I figured that was the problem, didn't see any tracks. I swear when I woke up yesterday morning at 8am it was like 40 degrees
 
Haven't been up there, but I'm guessing that it is generally better than the rest of the front range. RMNP is generally favored by upslopes, so I think its probably OK up there, but I'm sure its hurting too. I've seen some TRs from Dragonstail over on TGR that looked downright fun recently. I'm sure anything that not in a sheltered bowl or couloir has been thoroughly thrashed by the wind though. Hope thats vaguely helpful...
 
Skied Augusta Mountain northwest of CB today. 3000 vert of fun south facing corn. Observed LOTS of small to huge wet slides primarily on East facing aspects at or below treeline. These seem to mostly have slid on the ground or in the nasty old basal facets. High north facing aspects here have seen very little affect from the prolonged warming period.

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Does anybody have any suggestions for a good skin/ski in the alma/breckenridge/mosquito range area? Ideally I'm looking for something that is a relatively mellow skin in terms of steepness (its gonna be my friend's dog's first time in the BC) but something that still has some turns. Any ideas?
 
Skied Wolverine Basin on the north side of Red Lady outside of CB on Wednesday. Up high on steep north facing aspects the sun has had a very marginal affect on the snow. In some places not even producing a crust yet.

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Loo like you guys still have a dece amount of snow, I just saw some pics from some of the Indian peaks/brained lake ish area stuff in the front range and it looks pretty darn thin
 
From behind frisco there a strip of trees remove from either an old power line or ski lift... gain the ridge by heading up that sucker... just follow the ridge from there. pretty straight forward....
 
Yeah, saw some pictures from up there too, looked really bare. I don't think we've gotten much more snow down here than the front range, its just so much less windy here; its nice, once the snow falls it generally sticks around.
 
im mad jealous, i was hoping to get a bunch of spring skiing in, and that area is what i know the best around here
 
Skied the SE and W faces of Mount Baldy north of Crested Butte on Thursday. Found both very smooth and bumpy corn. I'm guessing that the bumpy snow was generated by the patchy dust layer we have. There's definitely still a lot of snow left up high. The roads are starting to melt out lower down though. I'm worried there is going to be an interesting transition period where the roads are still undriveable by cars but there is a lot of dirt for snowmobiles.

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Skied the Dead Dog Couloir on Torreys yesterday. We were able to drive directly to the summer trailhead, and skinned from there to the base of Torreys itself. Then, booted up to the saddle between Grays and Torreys. There is actually less evidence of wet slides than I expected, but the Dead Dog has been hammered pretty hard by rock fall, sun, wet debris and skier traffic.

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Full TR on the blog.
 
Skied Coon Hill yesterday. Found everything from 10 inches of pow to rock-hard ice. Its good to see that the high country is holding up. Looks like we still have some skiing ahead of us!

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Full TR
 
^Great AK stuff on your blog, I was there the same time you were! We flew through ABA on the 8th and 9th, Had a big 32 foot RV at the ABA parking lot. You also beat us to Turnagain pass by about 3 days. Small world for sure.

I just bought a truck camper, planing to drive up next year with the sleds. AK is so much gnarlier than anything I've ever experienced, you can't even describe it...you just have to go there.
 
^Great AK stuff on your blog, I was there the same time you were! We flew through ABA on the 8th and 9th, Had a big 32 foot RV at the ABA parking lot. You also beat us to Turnagain pass by about 3 days. Small world for sure.

Did you ski anything on the other side of Thompson pass? We skinned all the way from the lot to the top of Berlin Wall. By far the craziest big mtn line I've done, all 50 degree rollovers.

I just bought a truck camper, planing to drive up next year with the sleds. AK is so much gnarlier than anything I've ever experienced, you can't even describe it...you just have to go there.

 
Haha, thats funny. Definitely a small world. I actually had a friend from college randomly walk into my RV while I was sleeping at Thompson Pass. The 8th and 9th were incredible days, I'd love to see some of your pics/footage from it.

Only skied one day on the other side of Thompson Pass. Got up under the Berlin wall in a complete whiteout and turned around, looks like some amazing terrain over there though, I'm jealous you got to hit it! Would love to ski Turnagain with good snow, looks like there is some great terrain there. Had a fun tour there, but really just made me want to go back when its good.

Sick to hear about the camper, I definitely was wishing I had my sled up there, it would make things so so much better. And I agree, AK is like nothing else. Actually looking for a job in Anchorage. If I don't move up there, I'll definitely be taking a trip up there next year!

Lets get out for a tour this spring. I've been thinking about taking my sled up to Loveland now that its closed for some laps up on the ridge.
 
I skied the south face of Ruby on Sunday, summitted around 10:30 after hiking the south ridge from the campground and was able to ski all the way back to the truck. The north side looked awesome down into green lake, but hadn't softened up enough to make it desirable. by the time we started the descent of the south face it had softened up nicely and we were skiing a crazy weird snow condition somewhere between the consistencies of windslab, pow, and corn. needless to say it was awesome!
 
Skied Hagar and Citadel on Wednesday. Found some great Sierra Cement-esque snow in the protected north bowl of Citadel. Snow level is rising fast though, walked the first mile and a half in and out of Dry Gulch.

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Hahaha, well better keep with the trend then...

Skied Grizzly Peak to Dave's Wave on Friday. A pretty long tour for the reward, but fun nonetheless.

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I think im gonna bike halfway up Peak 9 at breck, ski the headwall and bike back down.....but seriously if anyone wants to do any more missions around park and summit, I would be glad to join, I cant find anyone up here and I'm not goin solo. Thanks.
 
After hearing about 6 inches of fresh on Saturday in Stevens Gulch we headed out on Sunday to ski Coon Hill. Don't know where the snow went, but it wasn't there! Skied about an inch on top of a not very frozen base. Unfortunately our day was cut short by lightning, still good to be out though.

Flat light for most of the day:

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Skied Big Elvis on Buffalo yesterday. Started the descent around 11AMish and the snow was great corn all the way down. The very last section is pretty shitty but still worth it atleast 2000 feet of good vert
 
Dead Dog, Coon Hill (E face isn't really in, but the N face is fun and can be lapped a couple times), Fletcher has a fun N coulior, I think Wheeler does too. Theres always Buffalo too.
 
if you've got room for one more I'd love to come along. sold my touring set up recently but I don't think it should be too hard to get around on bootpack with the snowpack the way it is. lemme know! been too long not being on skis already...
 
Skied the backside of Baldy Mountain. Highest line from the summit - lookers left dogleging chute. It was cloudy the whole way down until we got down the bottom and snap this picture. Local Dave G lead the way. Coverage was great, snow was okay, would have been better if we had that sun!

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Skied off of Current Creek at Berthoud Pass Saturday. Snow was great, pretty firm but soft and skiable, and extremely stable until noon, when it got hot and wet slides were becoming a possibility. Still plenty of snow above treeline, and it loked like of Jones' pass there are is an abundance of large snowfields. It was a great time!
 
Skied Mt. Evans last Saturday and there really was not much snow left. I won't be going there again this year. Anyone still finding good snow out there?

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getting pretty stoked for this ski season. ordered a new beacon, and waiting for the BD clinic to get some pro forms for a pack and skins.

going to be getting some guardians and not sure what skis yet.

hopefully this is an awesome year and I can get out a bunch.
 
wish i could do that this year nyles...

I have a hut on red mountain pass booked for a couple days in january, though.

Anyone been down there much?
 
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