Short trip to heaven for us this morning as had to get home for a celebrity dog visiting this afternoon. About 25 cars at upper hairpin on Western Slope side, =50+ souls but you’d never know it; the vast wilderness swallows everyone up like ants lost on the sands of the Sahara.
Blue Peak as viewed from the west. We'll be at the trailhead from 10:00 am tomorrow for some BBQ action. Show up and meet backcountry skiers. Tell some lies. Give me a hard time about my worst blog post of the winter. Or just eat a brat. We're bringing a few things up there to share but potluck if you can.
Snow Report: About twice the snowpack as last year, which makes sense since they’re reporting around 100% of normal, while last year hovered around 50% (I recall, anyway.) Dreaded dust layer is lurking underneath, showing up in places. Snow above about 12,000 feet elevation is still white covering the dust layer. My advice would be to stay with the higher elevation skiing, with the shorter approaches. More here: BackcountrySkiingCO.com
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.
