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.
Continue readingAs the 2022/23 ski season winds down, I’d be remiss in not mentioning this. History was made.
Approaching the top of Monarch Pass from Salida, a high ridge rises above the highway from across the drainage on the left side of the road. The ridge runs northeast to southwest and ties into the Continental Divide above the Monarch Crest parking lot where the tourist gondola runs in the summer.
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It’s been two whole weeks of recovering from the Covid. I’ve been lying around the house doing nothing more strenuous than reading and the occasional coughing fit. My test went negative on day 13 and I was feeling mostly back to normal. I was dying to get outside.
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For the past several years we have made it a tradition to take a mid-winter ski trip with members of our extended family. Over the years the location and participants and have changed but we’ve been consistent with an annual trip to somewhere in the mountains. This year we chose Winter Park.
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The key factor in staying safe when going out into the backcountry in winter is understanding what is going on with the snow. And what is going on with the snow, you might be asking? Well, as I learned in a recent avalanche course, a whole lot.
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To start off 2023 Mother Nature gifted the Sawatch range and indeed, most of Colorado, with a major dump of new snow. The Colorado Avalanche Information Center map went red overnight. High avalanche danger = great skiing. Just make sure you stay inbounds.
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