jp's blog

I think I took a total of 15 pictures this whole trip, normally I average around 200 per outing.. it was that good yesterday. Logged 10,000 vertical feet of completely untracked fresh powder. STE, Kya, Trevor, Rob, Andrew and myself took the widetrack, the mtn lite and the skidoo 1000 up for some hard work breaking trail and sick powder riding. Took 5 hours to build the road in the morning! It was worth it.

Trevor:

Crew ready to drop:

Slide kicked off by pow4brains and Kya:

Conditions in the trees were pretty stable, lots of windloading above and near tree line. We saw a few natural release slides and a couple of snowmobiler triggered runs as well. Be safe out in the backcountry. run beacon drills, check conditions, dig pits and watch out for the white death. N-NE facing, +30 degrees, below treeline.

TR: Bookend Couloir, North Traverse Peak (13,035’), Gore Range, 2.9.07
Trip Report: iskibc
JP, iskibc

Aerial view of the Gore Range in October:

Photo taken by John Spencer.

The Gore Range was named after Sir St. George Gore, a wealthy Irishman who organized a hunting expedition through the Colorado Rockies in the mid 1880s. He was guided by the famous mountain man and storybook frontier Jim Bridger, who showed St. George the beautiful and awe inspiring peaks of the southern Gore Range and lush greens covering the Vail Valley. During their hunting and trapping expedition, they encountered many challenges, with one of them being travel through the Gore Range.

One of the first documented maps of the Gore, 1933:

There is nothing “easy” about this mountain range. Nothing. Long in-and-out approaches with little-to-no trail system and lots of vertical gain (8K-13K+) through rugged and steep terrain make any trip into the Gore a challenging yet rewarding experience. There are 13 trailheads that access the Gore Range. For a small area you think the place would be overrun by skiers, climbers, backpackers, day hikers, peak baggers, etc. That’s not quite the case. Most trails dissipate after the first 2 miles or so, leaving one with a thick and adventurous bushwhack the rest of the way.

GPS Tracks and waypoints in blue and skin track in yellow. Some good turns on a cold cold day. I think wind chill was -30 and the top recorded wind gust was 109 mph. Then we had bluebird with more wind, snow was almost too deep. Very wind blown and loaded in the trees. Bring the pow guns......

Pay Day:

20" Fresh:

Snowmobiling in 70+ MPH wind:

STE kills mom's chile:

JP and STE riding canada style: