Lou and his new Nomex Dynafit shell — high altitude burger flipping has never been this safe.
Backcountry skiing on Independence Pass, Colorado is better then we expected the severe drought winter to provide. A bit more walking on dirt than normal, but this in places that are only “access” trails anyway. Quite a few of the good skiing lines are in, only most are narrower and some not starting from normal high points. Some lines are not in. I’d predict it is not going to last much longer — a few more days unless we receive more cold weather and perhaps snowfall. Facet piles lurk everywhere so if temperatures warm be careful of your slope angles and sun exposures. Snowpack was quite supportive this weekend, not sure how much of that was “eggshell effect” from the cold night before. Perhaps we’ll find out over the next few days.
Lisa Dawson on East Geissler (1) this past Saturday, Independence Pass area, Colorado. Looking easterly, Blue (Twining) peak to right. DOT reports the snowpack up here is ‘zero percent of normal.’ Definitely thin, but not zed. Click to enlarge.
Yesterday, Wildsnow Girl on Geissler Zero (Continental Divide east of Lost Man Pass, Independence Pass area, Colorado. She’s testing Black Diamond Element skis for our upcoming Ultimate Quiver ski review.
We BBQ’d as well. As expected, not a whole lot of people ski touring. Saturday, we hung out at the trailhead with about a dozen worthy souls who were rewarded with burgers.
Well, the skiing was good Saturday and so was the trailhead barbecue BBQ, so we headed back up there yesterday (Sunday) and did a repeat since we had plenty of burger patties, buns and cooker fuel left over from Saturday. Much to our surprise, more people showed up and we had quite a soiree.
What struck me about everyone, is what a wonderful, friendly and interesting bunch of people our Colorado backcountry skiing devotees are, and how appreciative of what we’ve got.
We do have it good around here in central Colorado. Not too crowded, zillions of acres of legal Wilderness where we are the privileged ones allowed to go there with our chosen mode of transport, and a wonderful springtime corn snow season nearly every year due to our high altitudes. While winter access to non-resort high country is indeed limited, once our passes and highcountry become more accessible in spring we have an amazing window of opportunity, sometimes for up to 8 weeks, when the quality of our backcountry skiing experience rivals that of anywhere in the world.
The informal springtime BBQ barbecue on Independence Pass is becoming quite the tradition. Looking forward to next year!
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.
