Despite the great winter we’ve had in Colorado, here in the central mountains the snow has mainly stayed at higher elevations. In town, it’s been mostly dry. I’ve been riding what has felt like dusty, dry August trails for the last month.
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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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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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Ski season! We made our first trip up to Monarch this season to check out the conditions.
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I was doing a gravel ride the other day when I encountered a problem that I’ve only seen happen in the mountains. A first-world mountain problem, if you will. No one’s going to starve, get hurt, or die but it did sort of mess up my plans for the day.
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