Colorado Backcountry: Berthoud Pass - Current Creek Headwall

Current Creek Headwall 12/10 - (right click - save as)
We had huge plans to slog up to the hut after work on Friday, camp the night and ride bright and early. We got to the current creek parking area around 5:30pm and started to gear up, it was quickly apparent that there was no way we were hauling up all the firewood we brought. We cut the load in 1/2 and piled it into the duffle bag, I took first shift dragging the thing though the pow and up the trail. Dragging this US Marine corps duffle bag through the snow with 50+ lbs of firewood was not easy, we were about to give up and Alex had the idea to strap it to his snowboard. 500ft later, that wasn't working. We decide to forget the wood and try and find the hut, it's around 6:30pm, 5 degrees F, we start the hike up the trail. Navigating via GPS through waist deep snow it was a long journey. We learned a lot of things about our gear that night and never made it to the hut. We got within 300ft and decided to turn back. It was almost 8:30pm and we still had to hike out. Plan B, camp out at Mary Jane lot and have a nice fire -- attack in the morning.

Alex and I hit the trail bright and early Saturday, snowshoeing all the way back to the headwall we had plenty of lines to choose from. Lots of powder and snow everywhere, we picked a nice face and started the climb. Feet of snow in most places, and some wind blown spots it was easy to find good turns. Alex dropped first and I followed. The snow was great, the sun was warm, not a cloud in the sky - we had to take another lap. This time I dropped first and found a sweet little cornice drop line down to the basin. After a few laps we decided to head down and ski the trees on the way out. I did some follow cam filming behind Alex.

 
Sunday - Alex, Sarah and I car pooled back up to the same spot to get the goods. This time we decided to hit the south facing trees way above the lot. It was pretty ski'd out so we did a few laps and dropped down south west and picked up the skin track back up toward where we rode on Saturday. Lots of snowshoeing through deep powder and breaking trail we were at the destination. This was a north facing chute with a good amount of snow. We took a few laps here and decided to call it a day. The snow was much heavier and tracked out today vs. yesterday.. although most spots above tree line are wind blown out, it seems pretty stable. You can find nice powder stashes on the north facing chutes in the shade. All in all we had 2 great days snowboarding in the backcounty and did a good amount of touring on the snowshoes today.

Photos: Alex M.