Colorado Backcountry: South East Rabbit Ears - 01.20.2007

iskibc, Kya, SurfTheEarth and I spent Saturday putting in some work at a new find in the Rabbit Ears pass zone. With the lack of fresh snow, we were all set on spending the day doing recon, mapping and scouting. We were surprised to find really good snow and lots of it. Seems like the wind hasn't been as bad up in this zone and the snow was some of the deepest I've seen lately with the lack of any new major snowfall. A couple of hours mapping roads, and breaking trail we started a skin track up one of the ridges and we found some nice 1200ft powder runs through trees and old avalanche path gullies. It's clear this newest spot has great potential, it just takes time to develop and learn all you can about a new area.

New Terrain - Avy Path 1:

New Terrain - North Face Trees:

Views:

Find iskibc:

SurfTheEarth - Avy Path 2:

Colorado Update: Winter Park

Alex and I spent a day riding inbounds and hut hunting at Winter Park. A trace of new snow on crust we had to duck a few ropes and find the goods. Photos by: Alex

Ridin' dirty:

We got bored and started to jump ropes, creeks and huck front side spinnys off rocks onto cat tracks. It was a nice change from the deepness of the backcountry. Ya right.

Creek rope gap:

Then off to hang out at the Mesa Verde hut, built high into the cliffs.

Colorado Backcountry: Recon and Road Building

Work:

SurfTheEarth and I spent all day Saturday doing recon work and building roads at one of our new finds. Majority of the day was spent making roads, checking out different drainages, and breaking trail in the backcountry with the widetrack. Got some good GPS data and waypoints we can later use inside Google Earth.

New Terrain:

Colorado Backcountry: Colorado SNOTEL At A Glance


New feature on weknowsnow.com, This page updates hourly with harvested values from Colorado SNOTEL stations. Each graph represents a Colorado zone and each graph has 6 SNOTEL stations related to that zone. Mouseover any value on the graphs below to get current snow depth data or other data points. The charts below allow the user to quickly glance and determine snow depth and general information about the zone. The graph legend displays the SNOTEL station name and Station ID. Note: There is an hour or so lag behind the current time as we wait for new SNOTEL data to filter down. New data around :20 past each hour.

[weknowsnow.com] Colorado SNOTEL Reports

I'm still working out some bugs and a few data issues but generally things are working properly. Lots of additions and tweaks coming in the future.

Colorado Backcountry: Sled Recovery - 01.07.2007

My friend Andrew gave me a call and needed help getting his sled (blown engine) out of the backcountry. We used the Mountain Lite to tow his sled down and back to the trailhead. It was much easier then we anticipated as we were battling 80 mph winds and lots of blowing snow. Here are a few shots. Photos by Alex.

Hook it up:

Slow at first:

Last leg:

A shot from Saturday at a new recon spot. Way cold and very windy we were forced to build a huge snow cave and setup the black diamond megamid.

JP and SurfTheEarth:

Colorado Backcountry: More Pictures - 01.02.07

A couple of more pictures from all the adventures over the long holiday.

Scenics:

Powder Snow:

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