Upslope events are bittersweet to me. New snow on the ground at home always makes me smile. Hit-or-miss snow just over the divide? You can keep it.
4WD from my driveway to the Berthoud Pass parking lot. Snowing and only one car in the lot. Had to meet with a friend at WP, so I decided to go there first, then hit up Bert afterwards. Winter Park – while typically a fun mountain (especially on the Jane) – was gray, cold, windy and not an inch of new snow. Probably only a few miles as the crow flies to the top of the Continental Divide, but a world away on this particular morning.
2nd day on the teles: I am really digging my Volkl Gotama‘s with the Hammerheads. Even on this crusty morning, I still had fun.
after a few laps, decided it was time to head back up to Bert. My mission for this day was not to slay pow – it was actually to dig a couple pits, and explore top of West Side. As I got my gear on around 10:30 or so the sky started to break up. Winds weren’t even that bad either. Skinned up West Side on my Poacher splitboard, and poked around – checked the coverage on Russel and Pumphouse, then over to Current Creek and assessed the conditions.
I was able to dig 2 pits: a N/NE aspect at the top of Meadows, and a E aspect skier left side of Test Slope. Pretty ugly results: shallow (35-50cm total depth) and persistent weak layer right at bed surface. Test Slope was entirely ground to new snow layer facets…junk snow.
Noticed these 2 hiking Russell’s flank. leeward side dropping into Current Creek. Their travel techniques were to take off almost together. Watched rider2 drop in right above ryder1 on a 5 second delay, make two turns and then caught an edge,flipped. 123 quick. not a good situation considering the deeper snow in that lee side was actually scraped then loading with the wind shifts. I hope they come to Friends of Berthoud Pass on-snow at MaryJane next weekend ($20!). complacency is not the answer anywhere in the BC unless its over a pit fire with tasty beverage.
Overall, taking photos and exploring a bit overrides bad resort snow any day. Managed to score some pow too, along the way.
Geez, it feels like it’s been forever. Watching the jet stream do it’s Col thing is getting old. Knowing there would be new snow, but also knowing how funky and unstable the current snowpack would be with the new weight, I decided to head up to Berthoud Pass and do some exploring on lower angle terrain. Get some photos, shake out the kinks in my touring legs and, earn some pow turns. Today did not disappoint.
