Talk about a stint of high pressure. We haven't seen any snow in a couple of weeks but with the nice weather we have been seeing some stabilizing within the snowpack. Time to get up into the alpine and manage some steeper terrain before more snow comes. I had a line on Buffalo Mountain in mind and the night before Greg Hansen hit me up wanting to get out. Him along with Creston Doverspike joined in on the venture and a tour plan was set into motion. Creston had a meeting in the morning and so we met up at the Lily Pad TH at 9:30 and set off. We weren't too worried about a later start as we wanted the line to soften up a bit. We worked our way up the Lakeview path towards treeline. A couple hours later and we found ourselves at our objective for the day. As always the plan was to assess our situation throughout as the day went on. We discussed and dropped our packs to walk down to our line and check out the snow conditions. Worth noting is that although green-lighted through CAIC, you still have to be cautious about slides. Ask yourself 1.) Is there layers in the snowpack? 2.) Is the slope I am on or will be on steep enough to slide? And so although while still being aware about avalanche concern, our primary concern throughout the day was the quality of snow. Were we going to find edge-able softer snow or were we going to encounter bulletproof windslab? Initially I walked out onto the slope to find somewhat variable conditions towards the top of the line with a big windslab but softer snow bypassing on skiers left. From there we kept walking down the line assessing. Softer snow throughout the rest of the line from what I could tell and then a rollover near the bottom. Again we then walked down to check the rollover and assessed from there. This is where group dynamics are key. As always on a tour, everybody needs to know that they have the power to veto. Hopefully, you have partners who are on the same page. This was one of those times when a partner in the group wasn't feeling it, spoke up, and immediately from there there was no argument to go with our alternate planned route. I was thoroughly pleased with our group dynamics on this tour! Its all about the experience. From there we hiked back up to our packs, grabbed a quick snack, and pushed onward and up to the summit. These views never get old! We soaked in the views, snapped a few pics, and then transitioned to ride. From there we dropped ones towards treeline and all experienced some excellent turns. Back down to treeline we enjoyed some good turns down to the bottom of the Lakeview path. A quick transition into split-ski mode and we were able to ski all the way back to the truck. Another great day in the books. By choosing good partners we had great dynamics today and in return enjoyed a most excellent day in the backyard!
It's been a great few days of touring. Feeling the mileage and vert from the past few days we wanted a little more mellow of a tour today. Ideas were tossed around and we settled on checking out the SKY chutes. I ran into Zack Novak at City Market the night prior who wanted to join in on a mission and then Frank made it a 3rd. Upon taking the 91 exit and scoping our lines we noticed that Gasoline Alley looked to be holding a good amount of snow. As we approached the bridge to hit the S chute we noticed a skin-track and tracks already in the chute and so decided to go for the Alley instead. We ended up finding pretty decent conditions in the chute. There were 2 other tracks coming down the chute but no skin-track up. Anyways, we skinned up about 1600ft until the snow started to get a bit firm and it started to be a bit of a pain to skin. We then enjoyed 1600ft of nice and mellow turns down the chute all the way back to the trucks! A great mellow tour indeed.
After putting in a pretty big day in the Gore yesterday touring to Bloodshaw I was definitely feeling it this morning. Almost 4000' vert and 15 miles in the Gore will do that to you. Well the weather was calling for a sunny day and so we had to take advantage of it. Frank's friend Kate wanted to get out and they were planning on a Vail Pass to Frisco traverse with their pups and so I jumped on board. It sounded fun and I had a pretty good idea of where to drop into N Tenmile Creek and was stoked on the tour. A beautiful day it was! Day Totals: 2,000' vert. 10 miles. 5hrs After a couple of hours we made our way down the ridge and to our drop-in point. I was up there a couple of weeks ago and so had a good idea of where to drop from. We had toyed with the idea of dropping into the basin, then re-ascending the ridge where we would then head N, NE down the ridge until we would then finally drop down a North facing line into N Tenmile creek. Then finally out to Frisco. By the time we had made it down our first line the dogs were already pretty tired and so from there we just went down valley to the Tenmile drainage and then out rather than re-ascending the ridge. This worked out pleasantly as we enjoyed some nice soft turns all the way to the creek from the ridge. From there we skied down the valley until we eventually reached N Tenmile Creek and then all the way out to Frisco. Another great day out in the books!
Starting off December the right way, by a long ass tour into the Gore Range.
Another storm came and has graced us with a few more feet of snow within just a few days. 3 days. 3 different zones. 10 thousand vertical feet of pow! Enjoy the pics - they are mostly by Frank! Time to hang out with the fam and eat some turkey.. Happy Thanksgiving!It's hard to express how great it feels to be back into the winter season. Actions speak louder than words as my fellow ski partners and I have been trying to get out and enjoy it as much as we can and what a great week it has been. We had 3 waves of snow make their way across the state dropping over two feet in some places. A lot of wind came with it and the past couple of days the visibility has kept our tours short. Before this week we literally had no base besides some Northerly aspects so we have still been having to keep most of the skiing above treeline. By next week that will hopefully change as we are now starting to get a nice base in lower elevations. The forecast for yesterday showed a break in the system for the first half of the day and so Gary Fondl and I decided to head to a local zone in the Gore in search of some fresh snow. Its always nice when you can drive 5 minutes from your house to the TH. Skinning from the truck we found ourselves grinning as we make our way through all the fresh new snow. Winter sure came fast. We were just ahead of the third wave of snow and found ourselves in a perfect donut hole. The winds though kept ripping throughout the day with gusts up to 40mph. A little over 4 hours from the TH we find ourselves on our summit and atop of our line. We didn't hang out up there long due to the howling winds and the next front nipping at our heels. A quick summit register sign-in and transition and we enjoyed over 1500ft of excellent turns. As we made our way back down valley the everything got socked in and the flakes started falling. Great timing. We were able to ski/skin all the way back to the truck. It felt pretty damn good to put a decent day in again. 3000ft a day keeps the doctor away!
With a strong aroma of wood-burning stoves and an Artic chill in the air, it seems as if winter is finally here! After a relatively dry start to the season we are now starting to see a series of low pressure storms and precipitation make their way through and across the state. Along with it came a cold Artic air. With clear skies in the forecast today we chose a zone, grabbed out gear and headed out for some fresh fun. Cheers and thanks Greg for some awesome pics today! Mostly clear throughout the day but winds howled with gusts of +60mph. The architect at work. Then we made it to our zone. Especially with all the wind-loading we made sure to assess the new snow and stay somewhat cautious. We dug a small pit and did a few hand sheers in the lower slope and didn't find anything too reactive. We then did a first lap in the gully on the left of the below picture. Feeling good in the gully I decided to ski the main face in the pic. A bit steeper but we both talked it over and decided on me giving her a go. Second turn in and I initiated a small slide R1D1 on this NE face. Shortly after, Greg dropped the gully again and we assessed from there. We both decided to hike up and take a closer look at the slide. The slide was a soft 30cm windslab of new snow that slid on a pencil hard 5cm thick old Fall crust. The slope angle was about 36-38 degrees. While we somewhat expected that this might happen, we both felt the risks weren't that high if it did. It was a good indicator of how the wind has helped the new snow bond poorly to the old North facing Fall crusts. After that we decided to keep it low angle the rest of the day. We ended up heading up higher to the summit bench and skied a couple more low angle lines before finishing off with one last ski down the first gully. A super windy day but it feels good to be in the doorway of winter!! Next bout of snow is due to make its was through here tomorrow!!
After a day of running errands and being lazy it was time to get back out. I got a message from Scott Bellow a few days ago looking to get out and so we decided on a zone to ski and headed out. A beautiful day out for a couple of laps in the high country! We found some good turns but you could definitely see how the architect of the snow has been doing some work around the area. We didn't see any recent activity around the area but there is a crust formed and forming with the ever-so present faceting going on below. Oh Colorado. Thanks for the pics Scott!
A little cold front came through yesterday producing a few inches of snow with the white stuff falling down all the way to 7500ft. Time to search for some pow turns! Gary was looking to get out today for some birthday turns and so along with Eric, Fritz, and Allison we decided to head up to a perfect zone for some early season pow turns! And boy did it not disappoint!! We ended up the day with 3 laps and almost 3k vert. And smiles on our faces from ear to ear! Finally, some good snow!! The first lap we skied from the saddle and then headed over to Pt 12,700 for the rest of the day which held about a 1k ft line of fresh. It felt great to finally lay in some deep turns today. First face shots of the season and a Happy Birthday to Old Man Fondl!! :)
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Justin Ibarra
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