It's September 30th and the first major snowstorm of the season graces us with her presence. Jonesing to get out and into the first snow of the season I call up Frank Bowman and we decide on an agenda for the day. Frank had to work by 10am but that still left us time to get out and get in our first turns of the season. We met up at 6am along with Frank's friends Jamie and Will and off we went for some early season fun. The winds were howling a steady 30mph+ as we made our way up to find our intended line. It felt so good to get out into the crisp cold air and step foot into the first real snowfall of the season. With the wind came an extreme amount of wind loading as we found up to 3ft drifts in places. Overcast and more snow in the immediate forecast, we had a few breaks in the clouds that lent to some amazing lighting for pics as the sun rose. The clouds eventually engulfed us as we worked our way around and found our intended line of about 500ft vert or so of freshies on top of old. We all transitioned over and dropped in on the first 1/3 of the line. As we made our way through a choke and onto a very nice and big open line, our thoughts quickly shifted. As Frank dropped 3rd through the choke we noticed a fair amount of slab sluffing. Now on top of an open face and already on about a 35 or so degree slope and looking down at about a 38 degree rollover we stopped and assessed our situation. We dug a few hand sheer pits to find that all the new snow had ever so quickly developed into a thick 12" windslab on top of the old snow. A clean sheer and a good amount of energy on a few hand sheers where all we needed to decide to turn around. The first bail of the 14/15 season in the books. If there is enough snow to ride there is enough snow to slide. It was an easy decision to bail on this one and we were all glad just to be out. And so that pretty much concluded our first day of riding for the season leading to also the first bail. We battled the winds on our way back to the trucks and on our way driving back home we also saw a few crowns both on the same aspect we were skiing. Needless to say, we all felt very good about our decision. Im supremely stoked. Winter is here!!!
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Headed up to RMNP with Greg Hansen to check off the calander year of couloir skiing on Lambslide Couloir. A beautiful day out and perfectly sun-cupped and runnelled alpine ice and snow. My first ski in the park and I can't wait to get back when there is some snow! |
Justin Ibarra
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