Upper Hidden Valley 052210

Greetings Friends,

The hot weather in Denver did not deter us from carving some velvety corn snow at RMNP.

Naoki, Cathy, Cheryl, and Wendy at the trailhead.

Cheryl, Cathy, and I met up with Naoki and Wendy in Boulder at a leisurely 7:30 for the drive up to Estes Park. We paid the toll and continued up the road past the turnoff for the old Hidden Valley lodge. Naoki guided us to the parking spot on the newly cleared portion of Trail Ridge Rd at the curve below the upper slopes. Hopping out of the car, the baking sun had already raised the temperature to 48 degrees as we switched from sandals to tele boots.

Naoki led us straight up the bowl to about 11,400', where the slopes alternated between good snow coverage and melted off rock piles. We managed to keep a firm grip on skins, hats, and ourselves as gusty winds intermittently pelted us with ice pellets that had been lifted from the softening surface. 

Wendy and Cathy hang on to their hats, and

Naoki ducks to get out of the wind.

 The upper slopes had about an inch of white corn, with some abrupt transitions to deeper brown corn where the dust layers were exposed at the surface. This variability in the steeper sections combined with the gusty winds had some of us working on our equilibrium, but eventually we got dialed in to the conditions and started linking turns in earnest. Halfway down, we decided to head up for a second run on a more north facing aspect, zigzagging our way towards the top. 

Cheryl steps into her bindings.

A quick snack before the second descent.

Cheryl is ready to drop in.

Photo by Naoki.

Wendy, Tom, and Cathy frame the scenic view.

Photo by Naoki.

Tom heads down as Cheryl watches.

Photo by Naoki.

Again pelted with sporadic winds and pellets, we stopped at 11,300' and enjoyed additional corn depth on the wide, unskiied slopes. Again stopping halfway down, the temptation to do a third run was at odds with the clock, so we finished the descent to the trailhead. At the bottom, we were pleasantly surprised by the applause of tourists gathering along the highway.  After straightening out some footwear confusion, we hopped in the cars.

Footwear choices abound in the spring.

After slogging through the swelling traffic of Trail Ridge Rd, we stopped in Estes Park at the appropriately named Sushi Yama 山 (mountain), for udon noodle bowls and Staggering Elk lager.


Stats: 2 mi / 1300' / 2 runs / 3 hours.


Maps attached, and pictures / movies at the link below:


http://picasaweb.google.com/tbrez53/HiddenValley052210/

Topo slopes map.

3D topo slopes map facing west.

Next week Cheryl and I are off to the desert to visit Canyonlands, and we are looking forward to more skiing in June.


Happy turns,
Tom

Current Creek 051510 - Upper 110s

Greeting Friends,


With the storms arriving late last week, we had our hopes up for some good skiing, and we weren't disappointed.

Bob and Wendy at the trailhead.

Joel, Bob, Cheryl, and Tom met at 4th and Union at 7:30, and we flew up I-70 to Downieville to meet Judi and Wendy at 8:00. The weather was fair and warm at the unplowed trailhead, where we found a few inches of powder sitting on a deeper base. 


We quickly skinned up and headed up to the Upper 110s at the saddle between Current Creek and Second Creek. As the altitude increased, the top layer improved to 6 - 8 inches of new snow, though the warm temperatures turned it to a heavier consistency. We did hear some whoompfing on the flats below the aqueduct, but the slopes remained stable.


Once we reached the saddle, we climbed higher up the ridge to the south. Despite the calendar claiming that it was mid May, the weather was more like winter with gray clouds, swirling snow, and gusty winds. 

Bob, Judi, and Wendy de-skin at the saddle.

Judi, Wendy, and Cheryl in the wind and snow at the saddle.

We quickly de-skinned and gingerly pushed our turns through the heaviest snow of the year. At first the snow was grabby, with turns resembling short straight lines instead of smooth curves, but by the end of the first run we had the conditions dialed in, and Joel broke a new up-track to get us straight to the ridge. This time we headed further south, but stayed in the trees below the top of the ridge to avoid some of the winds. The steeper slopes through the trees were more of a challenge, because there was no way to make quick turns with the heavier consistency of the snow. With a compensatory fudge factor for the turning radius and a heavier foot at the crux of each turn, the lines opened up and the smiles reappeared. 

Joel skins up as the snow falls.

Judi follows suit with her skins.

Bob skins up as Wendy demonstrates 

the correct way to strap on her beacon.

Cheryl is ready to climb.

After a quick bite for lunch, we scooted up the skin track for the third run, this time taking a more northerly route through the trees on the opposite side of the open space. 

Judi, Joel, and Wendy at the top of the third run.

Our target was to stay above the aqueduct until reaching the up-track leading to the Middle 110s near Teacup Bowl. Finally we dropped down the slopes one-by-one, enjoying the variety of steep and gentle slopes, trees and open spaces, until we wound our way through the short luge run to the trailhead.

Bob, Judi, and Joel scope out their lines above the highway.

Judi heads down to the aqueduct.

Cheryl, Judi, Bob, Joel, and Wendy contemplate

the final slope to the trailhead.

Stats: 3 runs / 1800' / 3.5 miles / 5 hours


Pictures and movies are posted here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/tbrez53/CurrentCreek051510

Simple topo map of the trip route.

Next Saturday I'm taking a break from leading, but not from skiing. A new (to me) locale is the planned destination.

Current Creek 050810 - True Corn at the Middle 110s

Greetings Friends,

There was just enough sun at the Middle 110s for a great corn day on Saturday.

Naoki is looking good on the way up to the Middle 110s.

Springtime means later meet times, and I met Dave and Norm at the 4th and Union lot at 7:30.  The light rail bridge over 6th Ave rolled out successfully last weekend , but construction on the tunnel under Union made access to the lot a bit slow.  I love the I-70 traffic at this time of the year, because there's hardly any, and 30 minutes later we were in Downieville to meet up with Diane, Judi, and Naoki who carpooled from Boulder.  It was only at Downieville that we finalized our destination at the reliable Current Creek, but this time we chose the Middle and Lower 110s to start, hoping the east-facing aspect would favor us with good conditions.  The sun was shining at the trailhead, with some dust on crust on the few cars parked sideways in the parking lot.  The valley route paralleling the creek had already been "broken" earlier in the morning, but the firm crust supported our skis with just enough softness to give our edges something to hold on to.  We headed north to 11,721', with a brief stop for a snow pit.  The dust layers lurked a few inches below the surface, and they slid easily with some light pressure.

Diane, Tom, and Judi enjoy the sun during the climb.

We finished the steepest parts of the climb and eased into the gentle rounded portion at the top.  Upon reaching the unassuming rocks jutting a few feet above the snow at the summit, we de-skinned and headed down to the east.  

Diane, Naoki, Dave, Judi, and Norm get ready for the descent.

The upper section was still rather firm crust with an inch or two of give to make the turns easier, but things really got good in the steeper section just above the aqueduct.  The extra slope must have been more perpendicular to the rising sun to soak up the warmth, and the lower elevation out of the wind reinforced the effect.  

Diane and Naoki make some turns.

Naoki makes his turns.

We descended 150' below the aqueduct for a total of 500' below the peak and stopped, while Norm, Judi, and Diane explored another 100' of the lower section where the trees got a bit tighter.  

Dave makes a turn in the trees below the aqueduct.

The rest of us snacked in the sun and re-skinned, and we all headed up to the top for a second run.  By this time the high clouds had given way to ones of the heavier variety, and the winds cooled down the upper gentle slopes enough that they provided less purchase than on the first run down.  However, the steeper slopes were out of the wind, thereby maintaining the same 4 - 6" of corn that we had seen the first time.  At the bottom we were all grins again, so after a few bites to eat, we headed up for another one, stopping short of the summit to focus on the lower slopes.  Again we enjoyed a great run with stable corn conditions, and that was enough for most, but not all.  After the fourth run, we gathered at the bottom and picked our way down through a couple of nice open gullies below the rocky cliffs.  Unfortunately, we were too low and below the elevation of the trailhead, so it was a slow, side-stepping slog through the tight trees back to the cars.  Still, it was totally worth it to hit the Middle and Lower 110s.

It's pretty melted out at the trailhead.

Stats: 3 - 4 runs / 3.5 miles / 1800 - 2000'  / 5.5 hours.

Pictures here:
  http://picasaweb.google.com/tbrez53/CurrentCreek050810/

Maps and 3D attached.

Uptrack to the left, yo-yos and down track to the right..

3D view of today's trip in red, 

older trip to Upper 110s in blue.

I have added another Leader's Choice Mod III to the CMC schedule for Saturday May 15.  The Middle 110s will be beckoning, but there are lots of good choices for Saturday.  Hope to see you on the slopes.

Tom

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.