It really sucked.
The snow was too soft and not edgeable. There were no high speed quads. There were lots of terrain features to worry about. The base sucked, couldn't even buy a cup of hot chocolate. I just didn't get it.
Anyway, here goes the report.
The Operator and Location:
The cat ski operator is El Diabo. They operate in the mountains above Molas Pass in the San Juans, south western Colorado. The meeting place was, as the owner explained it to me "mile marker 65 on 550".
The Day:
Friday, January 19th, we skied Wolf Creek all day and then headed over Silverton, CO. I love this town, I really really love it. Tiny outpost with loads of character and history. Best ski town ever, mainly because everyone there is all about skiing. There are no fancy restaurants, no designer jeans with ugg boots, no Porsche SUVs... just skiers/riders there strictly because of the great terrain and good snow.
Saturday morning, woke up at 6am, grabbed breakfast, geared up and was at mile marker 65 by 8:30 in the morning. Todd, the cat skiing operator got there as we were pulling into a small parking lot with a tent, a few snowmobiles and two snowcats. We signed our lives away, got the beacons, heard The Speech about safety and backcountry travel and loaded into the cat. Amazingly, the cat was pretty much empty as there were only 3 paying clients, us. With 3 guides (plus a couple of the friends they invited given the cat was running half empty) it was a one to one ratio of guides and paying clients.
The guides were very cool - friendly, liberal about where and how we skied and encouraged us to get after the fresh tracks. Where ever possible, and avalanche conditions allowed, they would give the clients first tracks. Initially, they tried to temper us and talked us out of doing anything too aggressive, but by the 3rd run, we had the go ahead to jump cornices and straightline to our hearts content.
The Skiing:
We skied 9am to 4pm, with a 30 minute lunch break. Runs were about 1000 vertical feet each and we did about 10 different routes. I would say about 80% of that vertical was in untracked powder.
The snow was varied. It seems the area gets a lot of wind as exposed ridges and faces were either suffering from low cover or wind crust. Further down, where the wind was not a factor the snow was creamy, fluffy and boot top to thigh deep. Overall, the snow conditions would get a 4 on a 5 scale.
The terrain was pretty good, but not as challenging as I would have liked. I like skiing steep lines at high speed and minimal turns. I was hoping for small cliffs to huck and steep chutes to straighline, but most of the terrain available was of the medium steep and wide open type. I am not good with judging steepness, but I would normally call the pump house and saddle in Jay pretty steep. The majority of the vertical here was about as steep as the Jet, with some isolated shots of steeper stuff. Terrain size gets a 4 out of 5, and the level of challenge gets a 2 out of 5. (AHM warned me about this, and was right on the money on this). SIlverton Mountain definitely offers much better terrain IMO, but the snow is harder to get to, requires hiking and is more tracked out.
I would do it again, as El Diablo is very reasonably priced for a cat skiing operation ($220). The guides are super friend and liberal. Even though the terrain is not the best, the snow was great and it was still the best single day of skiing I have done in a long time.
Pictures in the next post...
The snow was too soft and not edgeable. There were no high speed quads. There were lots of terrain features to worry about. The base sucked, couldn't even buy a cup of hot chocolate. I just didn't get it.
Anyway, here goes the report.
The Operator and Location:
The cat ski operator is El Diabo. They operate in the mountains above Molas Pass in the San Juans, south western Colorado. The meeting place was, as the owner explained it to me "mile marker 65 on 550".
The Day:
Friday, January 19th, we skied Wolf Creek all day and then headed over Silverton, CO. I love this town, I really really love it. Tiny outpost with loads of character and history. Best ski town ever, mainly because everyone there is all about skiing. There are no fancy restaurants, no designer jeans with ugg boots, no Porsche SUVs... just skiers/riders there strictly because of the great terrain and good snow.
Saturday morning, woke up at 6am, grabbed breakfast, geared up and was at mile marker 65 by 8:30 in the morning. Todd, the cat skiing operator got there as we were pulling into a small parking lot with a tent, a few snowmobiles and two snowcats. We signed our lives away, got the beacons, heard The Speech about safety and backcountry travel and loaded into the cat. Amazingly, the cat was pretty much empty as there were only 3 paying clients, us. With 3 guides (plus a couple of the friends they invited given the cat was running half empty) it was a one to one ratio of guides and paying clients.
The guides were very cool - friendly, liberal about where and how we skied and encouraged us to get after the fresh tracks. Where ever possible, and avalanche conditions allowed, they would give the clients first tracks. Initially, they tried to temper us and talked us out of doing anything too aggressive, but by the 3rd run, we had the go ahead to jump cornices and straightline to our hearts content.
The Skiing:
We skied 9am to 4pm, with a 30 minute lunch break. Runs were about 1000 vertical feet each and we did about 10 different routes. I would say about 80% of that vertical was in untracked powder.
The snow was varied. It seems the area gets a lot of wind as exposed ridges and faces were either suffering from low cover or wind crust. Further down, where the wind was not a factor the snow was creamy, fluffy and boot top to thigh deep. Overall, the snow conditions would get a 4 on a 5 scale.
The terrain was pretty good, but not as challenging as I would have liked. I like skiing steep lines at high speed and minimal turns. I was hoping for small cliffs to huck and steep chutes to straighline, but most of the terrain available was of the medium steep and wide open type. I am not good with judging steepness, but I would normally call the pump house and saddle in Jay pretty steep. The majority of the vertical here was about as steep as the Jet, with some isolated shots of steeper stuff. Terrain size gets a 4 out of 5, and the level of challenge gets a 2 out of 5. (AHM warned me about this, and was right on the money on this). SIlverton Mountain definitely offers much better terrain IMO, but the snow is harder to get to, requires hiking and is more tracked out.
I would do it again, as El Diablo is very reasonably priced for a cat skiing operation ($220). The guides are super friend and liberal. Even though the terrain is not the best, the snow was great and it was still the best single day of skiing I have done in a long time.
Pictures in the next post...
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