Loveland, Wolf Creek, Monarch, Berthoud Pass - CO

[salida]

Pictures only! Loveland, Wolf Creek, Monarch (in that order) - http://bentley.facebook.com/album.ph...8e&id=18600756
Berthoud Pass - http://middlebury.facebook.com/album...a3e&id=4402453

[Grassi21]

Originally Posted by salida

Pictures only! Loveland, Wolf Creek, Monarch (in that order) - http://bentley.facebook.com/album.ph...8e&id=18600756
Berthoud Pass - http://middlebury.facebook.com/album...a3e&id=4402453

Pic 2 from the first link is sick. If you click Next thru the albums fast enough it looks like slow mo. Great pics.

[koreshot]

NIce pics and impressive airs, Porter. Looks like you got some fresh snow.

Heading out to CO on January 17 to meet up with a buddy. Can you comment on how the various resorts were filling in? We haven't committed to any specific resorts so far and will ski wherever the snow is best...

Wolf Creek has been on my list for a while, but every time I am in the area I get distracted by the gravitational pull of Silverton. Is WC worth the effort? Heard the snow is great, low crowds, but the vertical and mountain layout is a real pain. Is this true?

[dmc]

How was the snowpack in the pass?
I heard there was a funky layer that could cause potential issues...

[salida]

Originally Posted by koreshot

NIce pics and impressive airs, Porter. Looks like you got some fresh snow.

Heading out to CO on January 17 to meet up with a buddy. Can you comment on how the various resorts were filling in? We haven't committed to any specific resorts so far and will ski wherever the snow is best...

Wolf Creek has been on my list for a while, but every time I am in the area I get distracted by the gravitational pull of Silverton. Is WC worth the effort? Heard the snow is great, low crowds, but the vertical and mountain layout is a real pain. Is this true?

A-basin - Pali is filling in, just opened when we got there. There is still quite a bit of mank kicking around, but should be filled well enough after another foot or two. East wall is not open yet, we heard another few weeks (3 more feet of snow I would imagine).

Loveland - Chair 9 is still quite sparce. Only about a 1/3 of the southern ridge is open and maybe half of the Northern ridge. We found nice wind loaded knee deep pow on the boundary of the Northern ridge. Chair 1 is still pretty manky, much like Pali slope at A-basin. Chair 8 is filling in nicely.

Breck - Almost everything is open. The new imperial chair is cool. We skied the newly opened lake chutes, about a dozen patrolers were looking at it from afar with binocs, they looked extra concerned that someone was going to biff the cornice in and hit some rocks. I wouldn't be suprised if someone got hurt there. Skied it and people could have gotten hurt had they botched it. Still quite a few show stopping rocks hanging about right under the surface.

Monarch - Mirkwood basin had just opened, lots of rocks kicking around. Just enough fresh on top that you could float right above the rocks... Could use another storm to legitimize all the open terrain. Skied pistes hesitantly at first.

Wolf Creek - Really didn't hit any rocks. Snagged one jumping off the cliffs off of Alberta Ridge, but it was only because we were being bone heads and going to big. Sliced and diced my bases. More than enough snow up there to do almost anything you want though. The mountain lay out is a pain. I would only say that it is worth it during the heat of the storm. We hit it right at the end of the storm and skied face deep snow all day. It really was epic. The traverses however are a huge pain in the ass (especially with a core shot killing my glide). Its a fun mountain with no crowds and lots of snow, but don't do it if the snow isnt fresh.

Porter

[salida]

Originally Posted by dmc

How was the snowpack in the pass?
I heard there was a funky layer that could cause potential issues...

Berthoud seemed OK to me. I am however not highly educated on snow safety issues. Word in the pass was it had condensed about 5 inches in the past few days and that it was stable. People were skiing most shallow slopes and some steeper ones. After digging a rough pit we found that below 24 or so inches of snow was a crusty layer followed by well consolidated snow to the ground. The 24 inches of snow did not sheer on top of the crusty layer in our tests/skiing. Just my experience/uneducated opinions. We skied from tree island to tree island. In retrospect probably should have been more careful. The statement, "There are bold climbers and old climbers, but there are no old and bold climbers" rings in the back of my mind when I ski out of bounds. Be careful out there... Have some DOC classes lined up for later in the winter.

Porter