This just in: Lincoln Creek road in Colorado’s Sawatch mountains opened today. Access to routes such as the Grizzly Chute is provided by this excellent dirt track that probes deep in the Sawatch mountains of central Colorado. This is another road that the Forest Service or other ‘crats tend to keep closed and gated every spring even after it’s clear of snow — an extremely annoying situation which for years has engendered all manner of interesting innovation. Local backcountry skiers travel the closed roads with everything from bicycles to ATVs, and some elites who know the right people even have keys to the gates. Why they can’t just open the gates a few weeks earlier is a mystery of the ages (They play the “erosion” and “enviro” card quite frequently — yeah right). At any rate, that’s moot for this year and chuting the Griz is waiting for all you corn hunters out there.
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.
