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.

  

Picked up a 5th Generation IPOD 30GB Video last Friday night on the way back from the mountain. My mini-disc has been failing bad lately and the batteries haven’t lasted more then an hour in years. I figured it was time to upgrade and enjoy shredding to music once again. Got the shiny new IPOD home and started to load my music collection, snowboard vidoes and charge the battery. All charged up I figured I was ready to go, went riding Saturday and the damn battery only lasted 2 hours. I was pretty upset, and decided to start doing some research on the web about the IPOD battery. Apple claims I should get 14 hours of continous use. Started surfing the web and the Apple discussion forums and noticed a lot of people with the same problem. It turns out that the battery meter on the IPOD is approximate, it needs to be calibrated in many cases. To do this it is recommended to do 2-3 full charge/dis-charge cycles on the battery. This allows the battery to condition itself and the IPOD will calibrate the meter automaticly. After the first chrage/dis-charge cycle my IPOD lasted 14 hours! Running for 14 hours straight shuffling music and watching a few videos I was very impressed. Some additional tips and tricks to maximize battery life are to turn off the EG, set Backlight to 2 seconds, turn off alarms, delete clocks, and not skip/rewind tracks. Way to go Apple! I’ll be doing another cold weather battery test this weekend while snowboarding.Overall I’m very happy with the video IPOD, the sound quality rocks, videos are super crisp and fun to watch. Battery life is good once you condition the thing, the enclosure seems pretty durable. Check out the links below for battery information and other tips & tricks.

The iPod Battery FAQ : Apple Discussion Forums : The iPod Battery Unplugged

Saturday at 6:30am the pass was still closed, so we decided to head over to Arapahoe Basin where they have gotten 32″ of fresh in two days. Saturday we got 3rd chair on Pallavicini and we were graced with 14″ fresh. The riding was out of this world, deep powder everywhere. It was really fun to have another resort day, I love just messing around run after run, hitting rails, buttering down the mountain. The crowds weren’t as bad as I expected either for a huge powder day. Noon comes around and we break for lunch, Alex hooks up some killer burgers and snacks. From the basin lot I kept a close eye on the Loveland pass traffic, around 12:30 it opened up so I made my way over there.

 
The pass had been closed for 4 days while the storm dumped mass amounts of fresh powder. Most spots on the pass have 50″ or more base! I made my way down to the hitch lot on the Loveland side and was happy to see Wood, Rhett and the gang shuttling in the 4×4 van. I joined up with them and drove the first lap. The snow was awesome, fresh lines everywhere. We hit all the normal spots and didn’t have any trouble finding fresh all the way down. 8 or so laps of goodness later, Jordan, Fejj, Mark and Todd show up. I join up with them and we continue to shuttle the Loveland side. 3:30pm rolls around, we get bored and want some different terrain. The decision is made to shuttle the 5 car area on the basin side. Lucky Fejj brought a couple of extra Pieps beacons because the stuff was sketchy. Everyone gears up, does a beacon check and we head to the drop off point. Virtually no tracks, we drop off the first large switch back on the basin side near the Professor. The snow was very deep, we duck into the trees and get in some real steep terrain. Sluffing all around we drop one at a time from a safer location near a group of trees. Back down at the road, it’s 4pm so we decide for one more lap. Fejj wants to hit this sick gulley and cliff line a bit further down the road. We agree on that and head back up. Jordan and Fejj drop first, followed by Mark and I. About half way down Mark and I come up on the first part of the gulley, I drop and make a couple of turns and a good chunk of the snow pack broke above me. I was starting to see lots and lots of sluff coming past and I didn’t even try to look back, pointed the stick and straight lined it down through the trees. It was a moderate slide that broke, probably 40ft wide by 20ft with a 1 foot crown. This was NE aspect around 11,500ft, steep gulley with a slope angle of 37 degrees. After checking out our lines from the road we decided to call it a day and head over to Frisco for some beer and wings at the Blue Spruce.

Sunday I met Mike, and JJ at the pass around 6:45am. 6″ new over night on top of the goodness all week, it was looking to be another great day. We started hitching the first couple of laps. Snow was a little bit heavyer and more wind blown, but really really good. We hit first triangles, second triangles and the deadwood area. The snowboarding was great, unlimited lines of deep powder. You could ride as fast as you wanted and rip huge rooster tails. I love riding powder more then anything, its the most free feeling. Listening to the IPOD and ripping huge backside slashes, 10am rolls around and rides start to suck. We decide to shuttle and hit some new areas below deadwood. It was a good choice, these were the best runs of the day. These areas get very little skier traffic so the snow was perfect. I was really starting to get tired after 3 days of deep pow riding so we decided to chill out a little bit and dig a snow pit below deadwood. Near deadwood drainage we found a nice N facing slope in sparse trees at elevation 11,892ft. The slope angle was 37 degrees. There were 5-6 destinct lays in the snow, 18-20″ of depth hoar and rotted snow at the bottom. On top of that rotten layer is an even worse layer about 3″ thick. This is completely rotten and less the pencil hardness. We got very very easy shears on most layers with clean breaks and lots of energy. Large slabs everywhere in the backcountry. Compression tests were a bit more positive, but the shear and ruestchblock tests were scary. We were able to make every layer fail with minimal effort. Be very careful in the backcountry.

Sorry about the video quality, it was -5 degrees or something outside and filming was pretty difficult. Not to mention the 3 feet of pow pow. And the rad pictures again, by Alex M.

Loveland Pass Video 12/03 - (right click - save as)

Copper Mountain Snow Report
Wow, today was sick. Got up to Copper super early because the pass was closed and was it worth it! 12″ new this morning on top of 8-10″ they got yesterday, we got 3rd chair on the Super Bee lift as it was opening for the season. Lots of deep powder all around the mountain and tons of terrain open. Spalding Bowl is open and Resolution lift is running. The T-Bar and most other lifts are running and more openings coming soon. It snowed off and on most of the day today, forecasts are calling for another 4-8″ by tomorrow morning. Heading up to the pass (if it opens) to do some backcountry tomorrow and probably over to Keystone for some night jibbin. Will update after this weekend with some pictures and video hopefully.