Breaking Trail : 101

So far, the new year has been one of discovery for myself. In the past month, my priorities have completely shifted from one focus to another. But amid all of these transitions, i have found a new energy with which i approach my undertakings. I feel like i am constantly learning new things everyday, which is actually somewhat overwhelming. But regardless of how stressed i may be, there is no doubt that i will find time for skiing.


For the beginning of this season, i have been lucky enough to follow many of the storms systems that have brought snow to the rockies. But as any powder-junkie knows, aside from stashes and remote glades, this fresh quilt of snow will be quickly eaten up by every other schmuck who is looking for a few fresh tracks on the mountain. This is why in my most recent pursuit of snow, i opted not to buy a lift ticket and instead grabbed all the gear i would need to trek into the back country. Now i have done plenty of boot-packing before, in order to access some un-touched snow. But i've never been without reach of a high-speed chairlift or ski patrol. So needless to say, i was very excited for my first opportunity to 'earn my turns' in the high-alpine terrain of Berthoud Pass.

On Wednesday, January 19th, Alex and I packed up the Subaru, and made the drive up Hwy-40 to reach the the continental divide. Al has quite a bit of experience in the back country, so i figured it would be wise to break trail for my first time with a self proclaimed ahem, 'veteran'. He is also a tenured member of the Back Country Club at CU, so thankfully we were able to grab our shovels, probes, and transceivers from their supply, free of charge. (A pair of decent avalanche transceivers will typically run you $300-$400....yikes.) With all the necessary gear and an experienced trail guide, i felt very well prepared and was absolutely STOKED to catch some seriously good snow. We left Boulder in clear skies, but as we rose in elevation the clouds boxed us in and we were looking at inches upon inches of snow accumulation. On this particular morning, there was an avalanche advisory in effect until 6 AM, but the snow was expected to slow down so it was nothing of immediate concern. But once we pulled into the parking lot of the base area, we were greeted by a park ranger who informed us that he and 40 other rangers/volunteers were currently conducting a search for a body. 3 days earlier to our arrival, a group of skiers lost one of their buddies to a huge slide in Hell's Half Acre. The mood was pretty heavy. But in less than 15 minutes we were geared up and making our first ascent on the east face. I was a little concerned about how well i would fair using climbing skins to hike myself above the tree line, but it really wasn't as difficult as i thought. Aside from my pack being way to heavy from my over-zealous water supply, i felt pretty comfortable making all of these new moves. It didn't seem like too long till we were at a good spot to make our descent...



This video is a quick edit of our first 2 runs. In the first run, you can see some of our tracks from skinning up. The terrain we were skiing was pretty mellow, but we were trying to eliminate any and all threats of an avalanche.




We crushed through 3 laps in floral park, and i was steadily nearing exhaustion. After our 3rd descent, we hiked backed to the lot to regroup/refuel with some M&M's (naturally). After much deliberation on whether or not we would push for another couple of runs, some santa-claus lookalike offered to take turns running laps with us down to a switchback on the access road. Sweet. So we played musical chairs in and out of this gentleman's Xterra for another 3 runs to end the day. Driving a standard transmission in ski boots is difficult, let alone when you are driving in a blizzard...up a mountain pass...with old man winter, his 2 hounds, and all of your gear crammed into the cabin. But i was loving absolutely every minute of it. All in all it was a very humbling and eye-opening day. When we were taking our boots off at the car, we were told by some other rangers that their search party had found the body of the missing skier. This bit of news brought along with it a very eerie sense of closure and legitimacy to the whole experience. I will definitely be back soon for more.


Aside from the videos, we don't have much photo documentation of the trip. Which is unfortunate. But we do have this one picture that alex snapped with his phone after the long haul to the top. Epic day...

 

Also, this weekend i will be celebrating my birthday....rather tastefully for that matter. We are also planning to make another trip to East Portal. Considering these two events overlap, i imagine that i will have some rather colorful material to post. Stay tuned

Safety Lesson of the Day: Frostbite

The noise made by cold snow squeaking beneath your boots is possibly the most disagreeable sound in the world. This phenomenon only occurs when ambient temperature is low enough, and there is considerable moisture in the air. Today was one of those days.

Usually, i pride myself on my ability to cope with cold weather. Today, i couldn't get warm for the life of me. A cold front has recently blown over the frontrange, bringing with it some exceptionally light-particle snow. However, the trade-off for this fresh cover has been single digit temps and wind chills around -20. Regardless of the possible tundra like conditions we might face, a friend and i committed to the idea of playing hooky yesterday to catch some of this snow before our spring semester starts.

The previous night had given us around 11 inches of snow in Boulder, so we were anxious to see what conditions were like past the divide. Unfortunately, we didn't quite get the totals that we were looking for in A-Basin but we decided to give it a shot anyway. Snow had stopped falling at around 3AM, but strong wind and cold conditions were enough to create some pillowy drifts and clear tracks from previous days. We had an awesome day testing out some new camera equipment and building a small feature off of Baldy's Traverse, but my feet were numb, wet, and cold from about noon onward. We had the mountain to ourselves all day and consequently had a phenomenal time skiing some pow, but i never realized how cold my feet actually were. After taking our boots off in the parking lot and trying to warm up in the car, my feet were BURNING. I remembered how badly it would hurt to thaw my feet after a long day of subzero racing in Minnesota, and quickly detected some early signs of frostbite. As warmth and feeling slowly returned to my feet, i could tell that my right big toe was really sore and considerably swollen. My hasty diagnosis of frostbite was confirmed when i took my sock off at home, and with it pulled away a layer of skin. Yikes. In reality, it's a mild case of frostbite. But nonetheless...it sucks.

Today, i arrived at work for instructor lineup at 8:30. Air temperature was around 8 degrees, and wind gusts were consistently hitting 30 MPH. NOT where i want to be with a blistering big toe. Fortunately for us, no one was crazy enough to bring their child to Eldora on this hellish morning and we were sent home due to lack of work. Thank the lord. On my way out i had ski patrol look at my toe and once again confirmed the validity of frostbite. This particular patroller felt obliged to share with me, the imminent dangers of frostbite. Which is why i chose to share it with you today, as our safety awareness lesson.




This isn't my first bout with frostbite, and usually i'm much  better prepared in conditions like this. But i think i can attribute this particular instance to being slightly hypothermic while we were skiing. After hiking to get above the tree line, gale force winds were quickly freezing any moisture on my body, including in my boots. This is something i clearly need to be better prepared for if i'm touring  any backcountry terrain in harsh conditions. Anyways...it seems to be healing well but i hope it won't get in the way of things i have been planning recently.

In the next two weeks i plan to:

• Begin my PSIA Cert. 1 Instructor Training Course
• Teach my first series private lessons
• Spend a few days in Berthoud testing out new touring gear
• Spend a few more days in Vail with my girlfriend and her family
• Gather some more footage from said days of skiing
• Develop a gnarly goggle-tan
• Fill out my beard

Accompanying this to-do list is my new spring class schedule. I'm going to be very busy and exhausted these coming weeks...but i've never been more excited to start spring semester. 

There is LOTS more snow forecasted next week as well...so i'll be sure to update the blog with some more photos and, possibly, some HD video courtesy of my very gracious girlfriend. But for now, here are some photos from more current happenings.

Alex after a traverse into Montezuma's Bowl

Our so called 'feature' on Baldy's. This drop didn't have a solid approach so we spent about a half hour boot-packing a lane to reach it. A little more snow and we'll head back to film it!

Our last run of the day. As you can see...the weather was showing up.

Beard-cicles: A true testament to how cold it was this day....and also a personal first haha



I recently 're-purposed' our garage while my roommates were gone. These next two photos are from before the renovation. I would like to point out how someone has positioned MY extension cord conveniently atop the bike pile. Thank you to them...

These are the post-renovation photos. I'm very proud of my hand-built ski tuning table. After cleaning the mess up in the garage, i found enough scrap to anchor an old sink cabinet to the wall and mount a hardwood surface on top. Needless to say i felt very crafty.

The view i was greeted with after landing in Denver Dec. 26th.