Colorado Backcountry: 10.26.06-10.29.06 - Colorado or Mars?

Front Range Colorado
10.26.06-10.29.06
JP, iskibc, kya, D-Side11

PHOTOG/Trip Report by: iskibc
Shot w/ Olympus E300 D-SLR (wide and telephoto lens)

iskibc's TGR Report

Colorado or Mars?

A wet and heavy storm dropped 2' of new snow and blanketed most of the northern and central mountains. The storm checked-in and checked-out rather quickly, dumping anywhere from 24"-33" along the front range mountains. Throw in some high winds and varying temps and you got yourself a rather tricky snowpack.

Early morning light from 12K:

jonpierre waking up:

Indian Peaks waking up:

Waiting for the sun:

Below treeline the new snow wasn't all that effected by the high winds, so that is where the best skiing was found. Winds blasted out of the NW and cross-loaded most E-SE-NE slopes, making up to 4' wind slabs in places. We spotted two natural slides on NE aspects which ran on the old snow layer. These slides didn't run very far, but were wide and fairly deep. Both were hard slab releases.

Since most easterly facing terrain was heavily loaded, we decided to stick with some fun south facing shots off the upper ridge:

D-Side dropping in for the first lap of the day:

killin' it:

Climbing back up:

Next up, jonpierre:

jp, white room:

Essence of a dawn patrol:

Not bad for a slowboarder...;)

iski:

kya:

Friday brought nice wind-buffed conditions up high, and deep PNW-style creamy pow down low and in the trees. Winds kept up for a good 36 hours and absolutely blasted the higher ridges and peaks. The usual gullies and terrain traps got loaded up deep and most ridgelines and peak tops were swept clean. Poking around on Sunday we found anything from boilerplate to knee deep wind buff (rare). Anything above treeline has a knife hard wind crust/slab sitting on top of somewhat consolidated snow. Looks like this week this layer will only strengthen as it looks like we'll have some mild weather and cold nights.