2012/2013 CO Backcountry Skiing/Stoke Thread

Z-Juice · 2012-12-12 21:01:43

I really liked the information that was posted in the thread last year (link below). Anyone that heads into the BC is encouraged to post pictures, videos, or a little info about their trip in this thread. General conditions, snow patterns, accidents, weather, etc. Unlike the OP from last year's thread (who did a great job updating it), I am most likely going to get out 2-3 days max in the BC so I want to get the scoop on as much as possible before heading out! last year's thread: https://www.newschoolers.com/ns/forums/readthread/thread_id/655654/page/3/

Mike.Records

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Stoked to see this thread up and running, and I can't wait to contribute to it! I've been out for a bit with a separated shoulder, but hopefully I'll be able to get out for some mellow BC soon!

Dec 17 2012 6:08PM

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WIfreeskier

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Crazy Fool

the snowpack is pretty hairy right now, we have another depth hoar underlayer like last year... not quite as bad, but very scary at the moment. East Vail is littered with slides. I ski East Vail most days of the week so I will keep you all updated but this year has only amounted to one lap so far, most of which was for observation

Dec 22 2012 11:12AM

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mistaT

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First things first - if you haven't read the NY Times article on the Tunnel Creek Avalanche get at it!!!

http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-fall/

Also, Friends of Berthoud Pass on Facebook has some good stuff on conditions, avy courses, etc.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Friends-of-Berthoud-Pass/122939484431707

Dec 22 2012 3:51PM

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thegouda

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Pro

CAIC is a great resource to help understand what is happening with the snowpack
https://avalanche.state.co.us/index.php

Dec 22 2012 4:57PM

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Hack.The.Pow.

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anybody skied loveland pass yet this year. Checked caic and says front range/vail-summit is moderate to considerable today, but would like to know from somebody who's been up there.

Dec 23 2012 3:25PM

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Mike.Records

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Gotten out for some mellow tours lately. On Saturday we skied northwest of Crested Butte, finding a deeper snowpack and consolidated, but great snow:

Dec 24 2012 10:00PM

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Mike.Records

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Yesterday, tried to tour on Monarch Pass. Turned around after experiencing HUGE rumbling collapses and gaping shooting cracks that extended out of sight, on all aspects on the north half of the compass.

Toured Berthoud today, some collapsing and a generally thin snowpack. Skied the West Side to Current Creek, Perfect Trees, and the 110s. Found good snow in Perfect Trees. The 110s are a shallow minefield, but they should be good to go after a couple more storms.

Dec 24 2012 10:04PM

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Sklar

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hopefully doing some recon/shredding in rmnp/the front range on the 26th

Dec 25 2012 12:06AM

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doGelyst

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thars a whole buncha white stuff out dere. be careful meow.

Dec 25 2012 11:12AM

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.nasty

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most likely hitting VP with schaikovsky on this coming friday. Don't think either of us has skins so we'll be bootin around if anyone wants to join!

Dec 26 2012 11:28AM

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Sklar

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have fun post holing around

The park was pretty fun today, snowpack seemed pretty dece

Dec 26 2012 6:05PM

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DrewVG

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Wannabe

Crested Butte BC is going off!!!

Dec 27 2012 12:34AM

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Mike.Records

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Has anyone skied Buffalo Pass outside of Steamboat? gonna head up there tomorrow with the sled, never been there before in the winter though. Thanks!

Dec 28 2012 11:00PM

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WIfreeskier

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...did 4 East Vail laps the past two days... There is a ton of snow back there. Yesterday I got deeper snow than any day all last season. However, the snowpack is sketchy to say the least. Stuck to the tele park lines and got dozens and dozens of 3 feet deep blower turns. All face shots. Very stoked. Did a line in Tweeners and it was a bit more risky. Buddy set off a persistent slab halfway down in an opening in the trees, made it out safely, luckily. Be careful wherever you are, folks, this snowpack is quite sensitive especially if you are one of the first people in that zone

Dec 29 2012 1:38AM

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.nasty

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blurry pic of a good day on loveland pass yesterday. found a lot of good snow above treeline although anything steep is sure to slide, it was cracking under our feet like crazy. We didn't dig an actual pit, but while diggin to build a booter we did noticed like 3 layers of heavy condensed pow on top of a super sugary layer, be careful out there!

Dec 29 2012 10:42AM

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Mike.Records

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Skied Buffalo Pass last weekend. I've never been there before and I was very impressed. Its a huge zone, and we barely scratched the surface. No huge vertical to be had there, but lots of variety of terrain and great sled access. Deepest snowpack I've seen this year in CO.

Jan 2 2013 10:24PM

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HappyTreez

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Loner

recent slide in cb

Jan 3 2013 12:35AM

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HappyTreez

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Loner

link since imbed didnt work http://youtu.be/-iUM5KmW3gE

Jan 3 2013 12:37AM

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Mike.Records

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Last tuesday we skied a great south facing line northwest of crested butte. Didn't experience any instability associated with the depth hoar, and probably the best snow I've ever skied on a southern aspect in CO. The snowpack was shallow, but a supportable crust under the new snow made for some great skiing

Jan 6 2013 10:17PM

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Sklar

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I've been getting up in the BC a little bit,
I had a couple awesome days up in RMNP, the snowpack seems very stable, especially compared to the rest of CO. Some great pillows to be slayed.

I went on a hut trip earlier this week at Polar Star hut out of Eagle, the snowpack SUCKED. We dug a pit on a slope that was about 30 degrees at the steepest, pretty treed, I stomped above the pit, and the snowpack in about a 15' radius of me cracked on the bottom layer of facets. Scary stuff. Pretty much the same thing happened when I was stompting out the inrun to a jump (about 10-15 degrees max) we built after abandoning skiing

Jan 6 2013 10:25PM

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Mike.Records

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Good to hear about RMNP. Had hoped to get up and ski Corral Coulior today, but ended up skiing inbounds cause of a cold that I've been battling. Lets get out and ski sometime man! If nothing else, I'll probably roll through Bozeman in March.

Jan 6 2013 11:13PM

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hockdy13

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Where in RMNP? The terrain park? I was thinking about heading up there sometime soon...

Jan 7 2013 1:52PM

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Sklar

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yeup, had some fun laps in the terrain park/dream lake chutes/around lake hiyaha

Jan 7 2013 2:02PM

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hockdy13

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Sweet, good to know.

Jan 8 2013 5:27PM

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Mike.Records

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Headed up Trelease yesterday hoping to ski the mellow SE facing slopes. Especially down low, the snowpack was WAY thinner than I expected, like 6 inches deep. Surprised to find facets almost top to bottom at 11,500 feet on SE aspects in open areas. Ended up dropping into Dry Gulch and skiing some of the north facing shots that are normally awesome. Truly challenging skiing conditions back there, better coverage but really bad breakable crust.

Jan 19 2013 7:02PM

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Mike.Records

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Headed southwest to CB for the weekend. On Saturday skied a great south facing line north of town on Gothic Mountain. Kinda felt like spring.

Jan 22 2013 11:28PM

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Sklar

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looks like it, too. Yikes!

Jan 22 2013 11:30PM

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ThaLorax

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@th1337

Anybody wanna Tour around Vail Pass area on Thursday?

Jan 23 2013 1:38AM

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DAPSKI

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anyone looking for touring partners our someone to get out with in steamboat let me know

Jan 25 2013 5:13PM

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Mike.Records

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Went deep into the BC west of CB last Sunday. Quite good snow all things considered, a little wind affected up high.

Jan 26 2013 10:03PM

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ThaLorax

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@th1337

Are you in the RMU catalog?

Jan 27 2013 1:36AM

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Mike.Records

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Nope! You make it up to VP last week?

Jan 29 2013 4:49PM

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ThaLorax

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Nope! My buddy couldn't make it up from Denver and nobody up here wanted to go (understandably). I went back and looked at the RMU catalog. It was Mike Reed, not Records. I saw an NS name with Mike and got confused haha.

Jan 30 2013 12:20AM

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WIfreeskier

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...been up in East Vail everyday this past week, been getting deeper and deeper. 3 feet fresh yesterday, no joke. stability is becoming an issue with all this new snow.

heading up in an hour for the most mellow line i know up there, time for more time in the white room!

eyeing up a 50 footer to send once this storm clears out, getting stoked!

Jan 31 2013 11:57AM

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ThaLorax

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@th1337

I was up in the Unita area of Vail Pass today on some low angle stuff. It was really deep, probably over a foot of fresh today, but definitely not 3 feet deep.

Jan 31 2013 7:37PM

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ThaLorax

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@th1337

Feb 1 2013 12:38AM

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Mike.Records

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Skied Buff Pass on Sunday, we were hoping to go deeper today, but bailed due to the persistent deep instabilities. Found an incredibly heavy slab from last week's first storm underlying 8 inches of settled pow. Just couldn't get into the strong over weak thing.

Feb 4 2013 10:44PM

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Mike.Records

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Spent deep three days exploring the pillows, cliffs, and trees of Buffalo Pass last weekend:

Steamboating from Nick Matisse on Vimeo.

Feb 23 2013 1:00AM

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Mike.Records

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Had a great sleeper day north of Crested Butte today. Wind and sun affected snow in many areas, but ended up finding some fun drops and creamy consolidated pow on protected north aspects. Evidence of big natural avalanches on many aspects and elevations out there today.

Mar 3 2013 8:44PM

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Mike.Records

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Welp, I'm heading up to AK for March and April. I'm hoping you guys can keep me up to date about whats going on back in CO though!

Mar 5 2013 11:05PM

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Sklar

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anyone know anything about the mt. zirkel wilderness area? or want to come with on saturday?

Mar 19 2013 12:19AM

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ThaLorax

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Busy Saturday, but I definitely want to get out during the week next week if anybody is down. I don't have many BC partners round me in Summit County.

Mar 19 2013 9:34PM

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Bertrand

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Ridiculous

I had a friend go out and hit Dragons Tail this weekend. Just thought I'd let you all know. No idea what the snow was like.

Mar 20 2013 1:44AM

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npease

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Anybody got some suggestions for good spots to build booters/hips/step ups in summit county?

Mar 20 2013 8:46PM

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Mike.Records

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Loveland pass has some great spots for step ups and hips, booters if you time it right, although many of the booter zones can get cooked by the sun.

Mar 23 2013 10:11PM

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.nasty

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I've hiked zirkel multiple times during the summer, probably way different in the winter though... haha

Mar 23 2013 11:02PM

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Sklar

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road to the zone my buddy had scoped out was closed, so it was a no go

Mar 23 2013 11:03PM

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Z-Juice

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Bump. My friends and I want to build a decent size jump that will last us through mid May. So we're looking for something fairly high up and something that faces North or at least East.

I've been on Google Earth a fair amount and I'm having trouble finding somewhere that has the criteria above, isn't on private land, and is road-accesible.

Summit County, Eagle County, Clear Creek, and Jefferson County are ideal. I know Loveland Pass is a good bet, but I drove up there a couple weeks ago and I didn't really see anywhere I was too crazy about. And there's always the possibility of some poachers ruining everything around there.

I doubt there is a perfect location that anyone would disclose on here, but anything that is doable into May would be great!

Apr 4 2013 8:19PM

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Mike.Records

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Hey CO folks! Back in town for a bit. Got out and skied Frozen Elk last Wednesday. One of my all time favorite lines. Steep & exposed skiing with some fun mixed climbing in the middle. Plus huge rock walls and easy access.