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The Colorado Conditions, Meet ups and General Talk Thread

644K views 8K replies 303 participants last post by  bseracka 
#1 ·
I know it's early, but damn, we need some snow.

Colorado | OpenSnow

That shit looks like a repeat of last season.
 
#1,404 ·
what do you mean early? Its October...this is early?

Per the post about tuning. I grew up on the ice coast and rode a lot of park and pipe. park board was de-tuned. Pipe board had decent edges.

Right now, out here its a bit icy so if you want to carve you'll need an edge. Later on in the season you'll have to tune to the snow. If I'm in the park I'll grab my park board or de-tune the edges for rails and boxes. Its really going to come down to the type of riding and when/where you are doing it. The conditions at Vail are going to be different (more than likely) than say the conditions at Winter Park.

So...everyone was sort of on point with their answer. CO people tune according the elements, just like everyone back east. There isnt a one size fits all, thats why people have a handful of boards.
 
#1,406 · (Edited)
^I'm waiting for Monarch :/

I should just drive up to Abay or Loveland though.

Early as in before their expected start date. Sorry I'm new to Colorado boarding and a local shop employee said that I don't need an edge at all since there's no ice. I plan on just taking my file/stone with me the first couple times to figure out a good balance but I was just curious to see other opinions.
Awesome, thanks for the answer. I plan on getting a backcountry/freeride board so I can make my Riot an only park board. I'm so pumped to start riding out here!

Thanks again man.
 
#1,407 ·
Most of the season theres enough snow that you don't need much of an edge, but this preseason stuff is 'skied off' with so many people out there it gets icy.

I usually carry a stone with me for a quick tune de-tune.

A-bay was great yesterday, sunny, quick lines, snow was decent. Copper and Keystone are opening in a week too. Soon enough my man.....soon enough.
 
#1,409 ·
I see the short bus is what takes you to the mountains which might be why you can't comprehend this "personal preference" thing we keep mentioning. Obviously you don't snowboard.

We don't have ice here as they utilize radiant flooring under the snow to keep it at a nice 36 degrees every day. Ever notice how every single mountain has one big peak? Yeah that's where they keep their nuclear boiler that provides all the steam for this. It's also where they store the moguls in the summer and is at an elevation where the deer magically turn to elk. As far as opening early, they never actually close but the marketing is so good it convinces everyone in the front range they are closed, the real locals ride 365 days a year. Hell July 4th was one of the most epic powder days EVER! Oh and chairlifts have become obsolete we ride endangered Lynx to the top of the mountains and attach GoPro's to the endanger Colorado Condor to film us for our Epic Mix!

Logic look it up!
 
#1,410 ·
I squashed my Lynx. I have to ride up on a moose, the mountain lion was too frisky and the moose was my next logical choice. I could not find a condor either. Where the fuck are they.... I use either the family of golden eagles or the one bald eagle when he is around.
 
#1,412 ·
10/22/2013 Avalanche Observation at Loveland Pass

I was just about to head out to ride this morning and even though it's just October, I decided to check the CAIC website for any new info.

I guess that the old adage hold true, "If there's enough snow to ride, there's enough snow to slide."

I know a lot of poeple like to ride there so I figured this would be a good PSA. It happened at 12,500' on the South side of the pass. I cant really picture where it is from the description:

Off the nose between the 2 bigger faces. Steep rocky chute with a midway choke over a small cliff band. Would be a rough ride.
Anyway, looks like a skier triggered it when a cornice fell onto the slab below.

Nearby ski tracks and the slab looked no more than 48 hours old as a guess. I suspect someone intentionally kicked cornice along the ridge & triggered the slab below.
I'm going over there today so I'll see if I can spot this and get a better idea of where this happened.

https://avalanche.state.co.us/obs/avi_report.php
 
#1,413 ·
Ah the old cornice test avalanche. Yeah, we've set off some fairly decent size avalanches doing this. These are the kind of avalanches you want. Not the ones when you are in the middle of the slope.

You're right though, that little window we had is gone. Time to carry gear and use avalanche eyes to make your decisions. Going for a ride right now could very easily and likely be fatal. With the thin coverage if the burial doesn't get ya the trauma probably will. I see there was a slide reported at Hoosier too. Here we go...
 
#1,414 ·
Went up to Loveland pass today. Got to snap some pictures, enjoy the weather, and get some riding in. :D

Mountainous landforms Mountain Snow Geological phenomenon Mountain range

I think this is the avalanche I mentioned earlier. Fits the description; above Pass Lake. It's in the middle of the picture, I know it's kind of hard to see.

Mountainous landforms Sky Mountain Snow Mountain range

Walking up the ridge, plenty of untracked snow.

Vehicle door Light Automotive exterior Purple Automotive lighting

12,400' looking North

Snow Sky Winter Cloud Mountain

Looking up at my tracks

Mountainous landforms Mountain Sky Snow Nature

Looking back up from halfway down.

Snow Sky Mountain Natural landscape Mountainous landforms

Gets pretty thin after this. Had to unstrap and walk a short section little lower down next to the creek.
 
#1,419 ·
Thanks. It was 40 degrees at 2:00PM when I was leaving

So, out of curiosity, what is the scale? I can't tell from the photo, but that doesn't look big to my untrained eye. What would you estimate the vertical to be in that photo?
It started in a narrow chute, got wider as it went down. Avalanche observation report says it slid about 200 vertical feet.
 
#1,423 · (Edited)
What was it, a couple of years ago that a tiny avalanche killed a guy I want to say down in the San Juans? They had no gear and were planning on playing it safe, but a tiny little drainage slope slid on him and buried him deep in a terrain trap. I can't find the details on it right now.

Not related to that incident, but here's a good article on the subject:

http://www.wildsnow.com/10713/small-avalanche-safety/

Ah, even better, found a video on the subject. It's the second video.

http://www.wildsnow.com/6640/small-avalanches/
 
#1,425 ·
Took a pretty good trek of north-central CO today starting with a quick hike in Staunton State Park then continuing out 285 and up across Hoosier Pass, through Breck, and finally across Loveland Pass before heading home. It was getting close to sunset, but I figured I'd take the opportunity to make the quick hike out to where that group got slid last season unfortunately taking the lives of five.

Friends and family have built a small memorial for them at the bottom of the slope. Walking out the trail, it's easy to see how you could be lulled into a false sense of security. The "trail" is actually a service road that's a good 20' wide. You're in heavy trees, but upon closer examination, you're in avalanche terrain from virtually the moment you step off the asphalt. The terrain to your right and left is easily over 30 degrees. You can see the obvious huge avalanche slope looming through the trees, but when you get to the bottom of the trail, you've found yourself standing on the edge of a huge avalanche path quite suddenly. You knew it was there, you could see it coming down the trail, but it seems much more distant when coming down the trail. That's where the memorial has been built. What makes this one tricky is that at the bottom of the slide path, the terrain mellows out. You're a pretty good distance from 30 degree terrain as relates to the slide path, but quite clearly you're in the slide path. I could see how one could doubt their ability to remotely trigger a slide on this slope from where the trail intersects the slide path. In short, having visited the site, I can see how a group of experience backcountry travelers got caught here. I don't know what the avalanche conditions were at the time, but I suspect the group wasn't concerned about remotely triggering an avalanche on this slope from this point and that they assumed that the risk of a natural avalanche was low.

Here are some quick pics I snapped with my phone

Approaching the slope:



The memorial and, though it's hard to ascertain in this pic, the huge terrain trap of a good 30' deep gully at the bottom of the massive slide path:



Looking up the slide path from the memorial. Notice how the terrain mellows out into a kind of bench at this point. Like I said, you're a considerable ways from 30 degree terrain in terms of the actual slide path. It's steeper than it looks in this pic, but it definitely doesn't scream "you're gonna trigger a massive killer avalanche from here":



Finally, a couple of pics I snapped of trouble brewing on the quick hike back to the car. There's some massive surface hoar that has formed in the trees adjacent to the obvious slide path. Not sure if it's present on the actual slide path or not, but this stuff is nasty. At least an inch to an inch and a half deep and like I said, though this terrain is pretty heavily treed, it's definitely steeper than 30 degrees and this new snow coming next week is going to fall on a very bad weak layer.



 
#1,426 ·
I still have yet to hike out that ridge. I've thought about doing it a few times. It is basically a huge funnel, aka trap like you said. I think anytime you are going out that way there is a small measure of risk. That damn slab was just such a bitch last year. I've never ridden that line, not so sure that I am ever interested in doing it.
 
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