It maybe heavy and wet, but I guarantee it's a lot more supportable than the snowpack out here. If you were riding in the same conditions say on Berthoud Pass and got stuck in the same sort of said ravine, it could take you hours to get out if at all. It's ridiculous how much the snow collapses around here. Once it warms up and we get a freeze thaw cycle it's not so bad, but December through January it rarely gets above freezing. Hence all the problems we have with unstable snow. When I was last out in Utah I can lead everyone on a great run that ended up with a long flat run out along a creek. Figuring that Utah had a Continental snowpack much like Colorado, I went to great lengths to traverse high so we could keep riding along it. Finally we had to go down to the creek bed trail and post hole. Surprisingly the snowpack firmed up at about ankle to calf deep for the most part. I guess a slightly more stable snowpack does that. It took us a bit to get out of Lefties creek but if we had of done the same thing in Colorado, we could have easily of doubled the time do to the snow collapsing up to your waste or deeper. At least in the Rockies you don't don't get as soaked as you would at Hood.
Either way, wallowing around in super deep snow sucks. I've done plenty on the West Coast and in the Rocky Mountain states. It's always sucked not matter what.
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