jp's blog

Colorado Backcountry: Mt. Trelease and The Citadel

Submitted by jp on Sat, 05/13/2006 - 19:47

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JP - Citadel

Met up with Fritz, Joe, Jeremy and Mir near the Loveland Pass turn off. We decided to bushwhack straight up Trelease and avoid the access road. The goals of the trip were to summit Mt. Trelease and hit the North Face and Ridge, from there slog to Citadel and hike the ridge to the saddle for our 2nd run. Beautiful bluebird day and good friends made the tough climbs easy. I was very surpised at the snow conditions on the North face of Trelease. Fritz picked out a technical line and dropped first into some nice powder turns. He kicked off a small slide near the choke of the couloir as I was filming from a cliff high above. The rest of the crew dropped in and made it down to the safe zone, from there we geared up and started the climb to Citadel.

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JP - Citadel

The climb up the ridge to Citadel was brutal after summiting Trelease and ripping down, but we knew what awaited us and we forced each other to go on. Fritz lost his lunch about half way up, and I was pretty close. We reached the saddle just below the summit of Citadel and geared up. Shera dropped first and made some turns down the left side of the chute, Fritz next. At least 1500' of wide open spring turns under bluebird skies everyone wanted another lap. I'll let the pictures and video finish the story.

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Trelease N. Face - Jeremy & Fritz

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Citadel Cornice - Joe

Colorado Update: Arapahoe Basin

Submitted by jp on Sat, 05/06/2006 - 07:25


Arapahoe Basin - Live

Quick update from Arapahoe Basin. AKD and I made our way up yesterday and we were happy to see bluebird conditions most of the morning. Partly cloudy by noon, the snow was nice and slushy by 10:30. 65" inch base. Top to bottom skiing and snowboarding open along with hiking access to all of the east wall terrain. Around 2:30pm the lightning started up and the lifts shutdown. I've gotten four days of riding here since I've been back on the board after the back injury and I've gotta say this might be the only resort I buy a pass at next season. They are always open early, get great snow, stay open late into the summer, one of the only places with free parking, good terrain, good backcountry access, and there is a great vibe at the beach. Another little piece that made this weeks trip much more enjoyable was the installation of the Kenwood KCA-iP500 Ipod Interface into the SnowUV's Kenwood DDX7015 head unit. This little black box interfaces perfectly with my 2 year old double din dvd/cd/mp3 player providing a direct connection (no FM transmit) to the head unit and ipod. Allows you to control the ipod from the head unit and also view track names, artists, etc. Really great sound. More on the SnowUV Landcruiser mods later.

This site is sick, check it out: afterbang.co.uk - afterbang

PS. Here are some weknowsnow.com web traffic stats you might find interesting:

Analyzed requests from Thu, Jan 12 2006 at 8:05 AM to Sat, May 06 2006 at 12:38 AM (113.69 days).

Successful requests: 414,165 (30,708)
Average successful requests per day: 3,642 (4,386)
Successful requests for pages: 192,034 (17,707)

Project Update: Colorado Dashboard

Submitted by jp on Wed, 05/03/2006 - 19:28


Check out EYE ON COLORADO, it's quick page I wrote to view the current conditions around Colorado. I was able to pull all kinds of data from sites I visit daily and dump it all on one page. I'm harvesting data from the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), Colorado's Ski & Snowboard Resorts, The Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC), The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), MesoNet, SnoTel, and the National Weather Service.

Colorado Backcountry: East Portal to S. Arapahoe Lakes

Submitted by jp on Mon, 04/24/2006 - 19:38

Rollins Pass - East Portal
April 23rd, 2006

Click Here for Interactive Map of Route

Waterfall - RP

Alex and I got a late start, so we decided it might be a good idea to bushwhack our way up the mountain toward Arapahoe Lakes. The first surprise of the day came when we ran straight into this waterfall and we were unable to cross.

Alex - Waterfall

We took a quick break here and headed further up stream to find a good place to cross. Just above the top of the waterfall there is a fallen tree with a nice snow bridge making a safe place to cross. Here Alex gets a fix on our location.

JP - Above Waterfall

JP continues to slog up the steep face toward the lakes. The snow was melting quickly and the temperatures are rising forcing us to switch between snowshoes and our boots often.

The Couloir

Backcountry Update: Embedded Backcountry Maps & AvalancheData.com

Submitted by jp on Mon, 04/17/2006 - 19:39

BackcountryMaps.com is really coming along, we just added features to allow users of the "My Maps" module the option of embedding custom maps on to their own site. Above is an example of a public My Map created by JP and linked from a 3rd party site. We've also added some new features which allow much easier map marker creation. My Map users can now click anywhere on the map and create a marker from that point.

AvalancheData.com was launched 4/16/2006. Happy Easter. AvalancheData.com provides a service and home on the web for Avalanche Forecast Centers and Backcountry Observers. Create custom maps with any type of data, embed those maps on your Avalanche Center's homepage, collaborate with other forecasters, and use our tools and data layers for a complete view of any location.

New Hampshire Backcountry: Tuckerman’s Revine

Submitted by jp on Mon, 04/10/2006 - 07:16

I'm stoked to annouce our first guest trip report and author, Seth Beck from badcolonies.org. SBC is out killing it in the east coast backcountry and representing with the Illunimati. His post below from Tuckerman's Revine, New Hampshire looks like a great time with good friends. Keep an eye out for more trip reports from Seth and other guest authors in the future. Please pay SBC a visit at badcolonies.org -- sponsor them in the Mongol Rally 2006!

New Hampshire Backcountry: Tuckerman's Revine

I am not dead, just lame



These are the two runs we managed to get in. Afterwards, Carrie stated that “Tuckermans is more about hiking than riding, huh.” For a larger unmarked photo of the ravine click here


In 1996, I made my first trip to Tuckerman’s, it was my second year riding and I came completely unequipped for the steep slopes, lacking any real skills and riding a 151 Morrow Revert, the same model TR took the Open with in 1994. However, it would prove an experience that would influence the following years greatly.

Ten years later and a lot has changed, I entered the year with high hopes for the season. Unfortunately, a combination of bad weather, bad colonies, added job responsibilities, and a house under the constant attack of a one year old, left me with one of my worst years on the mountain ever.

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