Colorado Backcountry: Berthoud Pass

 
Berthoud Video 11/24 - (right click - save as)
Got to the summit of Berthoud Pass yesterday around 6:45am, bluebird conditions as the sun was rising. No one else around, I geared up and started hiking the boot pack west from the summit parking lot. After 30 minutes or so of hiking I reached the west ridge summit where the old lift towers used to stand. I decided I was going to drop into the first creek area and hitch hike back up to the summit. Above tree line, there is still plenty of little powder stashes and fun spots to rip. I dropped down northwest into the first creek drainage, the snow was good and I found nice spots in the trees with a foot or so of pow untracked. Good coverage almost everywhere, 6-8" pow in most spots still, foot or more in the trees. Once you get back into tree line you need to head skiers right and follow the tracks or you end up dead end at a nice cliff line. The snow below tree line was really tracked out and hard pack, so I made my way to the hitch hike point and waited for my friend Sarah on her way up from the Winter Park side.

 
Sarah picked me up and we headed back to the summit, from there we dropped her car back down at the first creek pull out for shuttle use later. Back at the Berthoud Pass summit we dawned our gear, did a beacon check and started hiking west from the summit lot. We reached the west summit and the old lift area and decided to continue on up the next mountain and make our way to some sweet powder stashes up on the cirque. We scoped out a line and made our way over to dig a snowpit, lucky someone else had already done this so most of the work was complete. We dug a pit at 12,300ft, North facing aspect, with a slope angle of 32 degrees. I was unable to reach the gound after digging almost 6 ft down, tested the shear and compression on the top layers and noticed a small weak layer about 18" below the surface. The snow pack up there is pretty much one large hard slab. We decided to play it a little safer and drop a mellow slope with less wind load. We made our way down into the upper part of first creek basin and it was great shreddin. The sun was out and we had our choice of what lines to hit, we made nice mellow roller turns down the basin to another spot we saw during the hike. We stopped at this smaller ridge and did a few more laps before following the creek back down to the hitch spot. The snow in the trees is still quite nice, although its feeling more like spring snow and pow. Fast and wet.

The snow was pretty stable in most spots, but the conditions vary greatly from area to area. Depending how the next storm sets up we could be in for some exterme Avalanche danger.

The video is mostly of the route, peaks and lines we hit. Also, some local booter action from a dedicated group of skiers.