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Old 02-05-2008, 05:39 PM   #11 (permalink)
killclimbz
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Default Tr: Pow! Bp 2-2-2008

Saturday 2-2-2008
Location:
Berthoud Pass
Participants:
Killclimbz
hikeforturns
fubuki
Cody
Originally we had planned to hit Monarch Pass on Saturday. Huge snows down there, no doubt it was amazing. Snow in Denver and along most of the drive made us bail on that plan. 3 hours of white knuckle driving just wasn't attractive. Winterpark was reporting 8" of fresh, plus they had gotten around 30" for the week. Berthoud always gets 5-10" more snow than Winterpark. So we hit it up.
There were no tracks headed up Hells Half Acre. Ale and I had gotten good tracks down North Chute. A nice 40-45 chute through the trees. We didn't get first tracks though. I figured it was time to get some. It was a cold skin up through the trees, but the light was breaking quite nicely on the west side of the pass.
The West Side cliffs are looking very filled.

Current Creek

The 110's

And everyone else making their way to Winterpark...

We put the splits together and made our way down from Hells Half Acre to North Chute. Yep first people there.
hikeforturns ripping turns.

Spending time in the whiteroom.


Fubuki enjoying his turn.


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Old 02-05-2008, 05:40 PM   #12 (permalink)
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Cody and I got to play too.

Next up Floral Park
More pow...

There he is...

hikeforturns not to be outdone.

Sam's Knob was the final run we got pix on. After that the light went to complete crap, so no pix of the 110's. Maybe I'll get some good ones there tomorrow.



The gang...

Laters...
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Old 02-05-2008, 05:47 PM   #13 (permalink)
Punkmouse
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i hate you :-P
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Old 02-09-2008, 03:07 PM   #14 (permalink)
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ya'll are spoiled with snow...
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Old 02-10-2008, 05:58 PM   #15 (permalink)
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Great pics and TR as always! What a year this has been here in the west! I am just about through my busy season and will get to go out for day trips in the backcountry soon.......provided the snow pack up here stabilizes soon. Right now the Cascades are a death trap almost everywhere.
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Old 02-11-2008, 12:05 AM   #16 (permalink)
Mr. Right
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Nice shots of Berthoud! We were at Monarch Mountain from Friday through today and left at closing. Great snow down there! Once I get all the video and pics from DrGreenThumb420 I'll post up a trip report. Not sure if we got shots on the first day when there was a good 2-4 feet all over the mountain but we still have some decent pics.
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Old 02-11-2008, 12:25 PM   #17 (permalink)
killclimbz
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I was down on Monarch Pass on Saturday. I think I saw you guys ripping it up at the area from across the valley. I'll post up the pix I took of you guys from there...
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Old 02-11-2008, 01:08 PM   #18 (permalink)
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cant wait to see the pics, grew up in basalt/carbondale
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Old 02-11-2008, 02:03 PM   #19 (permalink)
killclimbz
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Forrest put a TR from Monarch on Saturday up at Splitboard.com. I am reprinting it here. I'll add my pix later.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HikeforTurns
Monarch Pass tour
3.5 Miles, 1,600' Gain
Gary Apostolou, Forrest Thorniley
2-9-08
Google Earth
Topo
Photos



Went out for a backcountry ski tour with Killclimbz to Monarch Pass on Saturday. Also joining us for the initial skin were his friend Don and Don's friend Dave? Two tele skiers who we parted ways with after the first climb. This day could have been better considering the amazing season going on at Monarch this year. The fun started when we came down from Kenosha Pass to a crazy ground blizzard. We couldn't go faster then about 5 miles per hour due to poor visibility (and it was sunny). Gary and I were shocked they even had the road open (they closed it just after we got to Fairplay). This delayed our arrival time to Monarch considerably as we didn't arrive until about 10:30am. We decided to shorten our planned tour by a few runs.

Further hampering our tour plans was the avy forecast of Considerable on all aspects/elevations with High on S to E aspects above treeline. We dug a pit on an east aspect at about 11,400' to a depth of about 6 feet without hitting bottom. Shovel shear tests produced failures on insertion about 1 foot down, then again at 2 feet depth. Even though the run we planned on skiing was fairly protected by trees, we decided to change plans (Gary had his dog with him which has a effect on what risk is acceptable). Wind loading was significant on this aspect.

We headed back towards the radio towers and skied a fun north facing treed slope. This was my favorite part of the tour, as the trees reminded me of somewhere much farther north and west...





The snow was deep on that run! Instabilities were noticed as we skinned back towards the pass and Point 11,594':





We did our final run down the west facing trees back towards the pass.



A 1/2 hour skin brought us back to the top of the pass at around 4:15. We decided to call it a day knowing we had a bit of a drive through Canon City and the springs. Unfortunately we spent more time driving then riding this time. I guess that's why the crowds were non-existent.

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Old 02-12-2008, 10:59 AM   #20 (permalink)
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Here are a few more pix from Monarch last weekend, and hopefully a short vid.

So the drive down from Kenosha Pass to Fairplay was terrifying to say the least. White out ground blizzard with the worst visibility I have seen. I still can't believe the road was opened. It's been so bad on this stretch of road that Park County just declared a state of emergency. People are trapped in their homes by the drifting snow and are running out of food, and propane for heating. I don't doubt it.
The wind was blowing at a steady 60-80 mph the whole time. No let up what so ever. Here is what we faced.


Vid

Ok, so that sucked. We got to Fairplay and the road had been closed. It remained that way for the rest of the day. Fortunately heading south to Monarch Pass was still open.
So we finally get to the pass and this guy decides to do a fly by.


As mentioned before, after digging a snow pit we didn't feel so confident about the drop into Fooses Creek. Especially with having Cody along. So we turned around and dropped off the knob south of the Radio Tower Bowl. The trees looked like something from the PNW. Very unusual for Colorado.


The snow was freakin' deep. Well over 2 ft. Which sounds great but things had to get steep to get it on. Also skinning was a pain. With the high avy danger, action pix were not easy to get. We had to hide in well tree'd areas.
Getting ready for another skin.


Topping out on the front face trees that overlook the Monarch ski area.
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