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
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