We’re getting nuked here in Colorado. Our dry spell is a distant memory. More snow is piled up around our house here in the “downvalley banana belt” than I think I’ve ever seen. But the avy danger is too high for my taste, what with two recent deaths in this region — and just a few days ago a snowcat tour client being partially buried on a mellow slope. Sure, we’ve been getting our stashes of low angled backcountry fluff. But knowing that the inbounds pow stashes of Aspen Highlands were prime, we headed up there yesterday. Result, face shots on an untracked line in Highland bowl, with desert being a series of virgin pow stashes on the lower mountain.
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.