Yesterday and today, West Elk Mountains. A few snow pits and terrain evaluation led us to believe that despite the overall rating of High, our chosen zone could actually be rated low, so carpe skiem. But once we got a view to the alpine, check out what we saw. Click images to enlarge.
Due to snowmobile troubles and a late start, we didn't begin making turns till sundown. I dialed up the camera ISO, set everything manually, and caught this shot of Luke as the light left us. I like the way it turned out, kind of impressionistic? Click image to enlarge.
I told James we don't publish photos of meadow skipping. But since he wasn't meadow skipping when this image was acquired, we figured the rare drop of the knee would grace WildSnow as a Christmas bonus for all you telewhackers out there who put up with our B.S.
Now, if Jamie tends to the radical with his free heel, what about Jason with this jacket? He likes his BD Justice skis, that's for sure.
From our safe zone, we could see this. Yep, the Red avalanche forecast lived up to its hype, at least up around 11,500 feet. This fracture had to have happened within 48 hours, we figured it was over a mile long and at least four feet deep, perhaps deeper. What was interesting is down below timberline where we were skiing, northerly stuff was stable, while south and east had an ice layer that we didn't like. The pictured avy happened on north aspects. This again showing how elevation played a big part in just what was dangerous during this past storm. Please click image to enlarge.
Another view of the Chair Mountain avalanche, showing most of the fracture, which is over a mile long. Click image to enlarge.
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.