One of the best things about living IN the mountains, as opposed to NEAR the mountains or, god forbid, AWAY FROM the mountains, is that every now and then Mother Nature offers up a little gift in the way of weather that you can partake of only if you’re here to experience it first-hand.
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It was time. After weeks of studying topo maps, watching the weather and checking the avalanche forecast; after one reconnaissance mission and numerous prayers to the snow gods, it was time. Time to ski Clover Mountain.
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I just liked the name of this antique piece of equipment parked at the top of Monarch Pass. There’s snow, let’s go!
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I’m still experimenting with the GoPro. A few days ago, I took it out for my first attempt at using it for backcountry skiing. Looking at the footage it captured I learned a couple of things.
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On the final day of the avalanche course I took back in January 2023, armed with our newly acquired backcountry knowledge and excited to start exploring, me and my classmates spent a good half hour peppering our instructor Katie for suggestions on places to ski in the area. One of the locations she mentioned was a place called Chalk Creek.
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Ever since I skied Mt. Shavano last spring I’ve been thinking about my next mountain. There’s no shortage of mountains around here. It’s sort of our thing. The question is, which one?
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Around here there are certain distinctly recognizable events that mark the changing of the seasons. Spring is the explosion of wildflowers in the mountains. It’s fall when the surrounding hillsides are covered in aspen gold. And you know its summer when highway 50 is jammed with campers with out-of-state plates.
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Do you ever get a thought or idea in your head that just won’t go away? One of those brain worms that burrows in to your subconscious and persists over months, popping into your head at the weirdest times? Over the past couple of years, for me it has been the thought of skiing the Angel of Shavano.
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