Mayflower Gulch 041010

Greetings friends,

On Saturday Apr 10, 2010 I went on Dave Callais' tele ski trip to Mayflower Gulch with Diane W, Judi, Wendy, Cheryl, Naoki, Will, Norm, Bob A, Phil, and of course Dave Callais.  

Cheryl heads up the road.

We met most of the group at 4th and Union at 6:30, then continued on to Downieville where we met up with the Boulder car pools at about 7:25.  Then it is on to the tunnel, then south from Copper Mountain to the Mayflower trail head.  Traffic was light once again.  Apparently there is a mental switch in the group consciousness of the front range that turns off the urge to ski at the end of March. 

We made it to the trial head about 8:45, skinned up, and crunched our way across the frozen parking lot.  The weather was warm and mostly sunny, but the trail up to the cabins was hard packed and icy.  At the cabins we turned right and climbed up the ridge.  Most stayed below the ridgeline but Will climbed to the top.  The exposed areas were still hard packed boilerplate, so we header into the trees, where we found a mix of crust and powder.  Norm was the guinea pig leading the way and calling out crust or powder.  As the trees got tighter, the powder increased.  It was slow going through the closely spaced trees, and tree wells beckoned to the unwary. 

After a snack, Dave's attempt to rally the troops for a second run was greeted with massive indifference.  Nonetheless, we headed up the up-track with the group splitting off into two; half headed for a repeat of the first run, while the other half had a crust clinic on the open slopes along the up-track with mixed success, but no injuries.  The two groups met up on the trail below the tree run, and when the allure of hoppy beverages was greater than desire to do another run, we decided to head back to the car. 

Stats: 5.1 miles / 1400' / 6 hours

More pictures of the group climbing or standing around.

Next weekend we'll be heading out on Sunday.  The current weather forecasts predict cloudy and warm weather with a chance of snowshoeing. B-) This makes planning difficult; not enough new powder, not enough sun for corn. Check the CMC schedule for last minute trip additions.

 Close up view of ski track (red).  Older trips in orange and green. Blue contours indicate slopes 25-30°, red = 30-35°.  TH upper left off map.

3D view of ski slopes looking southwest.

Current Creek 040310

On Saturday, April 3, I led a CMC ski trip to Current Creek. 

 
Three of the four runs.  TH at bottom right.

We met at 4th and Union where we picked up an extra skier orphaned from another trip. After packing up the cars we left the sunny and relatively warm weather of Denver and zipped up the highway without any of that annoying ski traffic encountered on previous weeks. We stopped at Downieville where we rendezvoused with the Boulder car pool, then it was off to the pass. It was still sunny in Empire, but we could see the gray snow clouds clustered along the divide. By the time we got to the pass, it was cloudy and snowing. There was a good 6" of snow in the parking lot a the trail head, which caused a good bit of excitement. Our blood must be thinning with the warm temperatures in Denver because the winter conditions seemed awfully cold! Nonetheless, we stayed pretty warm by climbing at a good pace. Under the powder we detected some icy sun crust caused by the hot temperatures during the week, but the crust made for a firm base, and the powder was wonderful. 


We proceeded to the Upper 110's at the saddle between Current and Second Creeks, but stayed below the ridge line to shelter from the wind. It was so windy that there were some cornices along the ridge at the saddle. We played it safe and crossed one-by-one under them. Then it was time to de-skin and sail down the hill. We did some of the steeper runs to the skier's right of our usual spot, and the snow let us make our way down with smiles for all. After two runs we stopped for lunch at the bottom of the ski hill, then it was up to the saddle for a third run, this time on the skier's left. That was so much fun that the group voted to do a fourth run. I may have had some influence on that fourth run, since I decreed that those who did not do a fourth run had to do at least half a run to stay warm. Needless to say, everyone opted to climb the entire way to the saddle. Then it was down again along the edge of the trees, then a big traverse to the far edge of the slopes, then down through the aspen funnel to a fun glide out.
 

Stats: about 3.5 miles, 2000', in 6 hours. Afterwards, it was back to Tommyknockers for the mussels and some brews.

No pictures from me this week, but maybe others will post some pictures. I have attached a map and a Google Earth view of a partial track. The GPS batteries did not last the entire trip, even though they were charged the night before. Probably time for new ones.

Google Earth 3D view looking south to the runs.

Next week: Mayflower Gulch thanks to Dave Callais' trip in the CMC.