Thread: Berthoud Photo/Conditions Thread (2009-2010)

From CAIC: 2 people ct & partially buried Floral Park/Bert Pass today 2X50X200 W aspect 32*

Talked to a guy last night who said two of his buddies set off a slide in Floral yesterday, in the thick trees just above the bald spot.

Easy to let the guard down in there...

We found good conditions on north facing aspects yesterday, though you can tell it's still an overall shitty snowpack. Lots of whumpfing on solar aspects - as we were skinning up in multiple drainages.

The SAR's were up there because a kid in a green jacket went hiking tuesday some time and never met up with his group later. They didn't give me alot of information but said to look out for him.

But i was up at 110's today with dirt around 9:45. Sun baked but still nice once you broke through the top layer.

I got some huge whumpfs today. As in, when the flat spot I was standing on collapsed, it shook my knees and affected my balance. It was on Hidden Knob, and it appeared to fail on an old, large surface hoar.

There were definitely bad places to ski today, and good places. My wife and I got good turns down the skiers right side of Russel's north chute. The skiers left side had a big wind board on it that we stayed away from.

About the rescue...I talked to SAR. It was a guy from Michigan who started hiking to the peak on the east side of the pass at around 7 PM. He went solo, without his friends who waited in the car (I guess). He was only wearing hiking boots, jeans and a jacket. On the way down form the summit he got lost and went down through the woods on the north side of the pass. He spent the night in a tree, and walked out to the road at about 2:30 PM today.

[rant]Let me first start by saying that I'm very glad he is ok. This is a great example of the naivete of many people in the mountains. For someone with ANY sort of mountain savvy, this probably wouldn't have happened. He made a long list of errors. It makes me concerned that this type of behavior on the pass is what will lead to absurd regulations once lawyers get involved. I love me some 'Merica, but I wish our policies on personal responsibility in the mountains were more like Europe.[/rant]

Originally Posted by jbski

[rant]Let me first start by saying that I'm very glad he is ok. This is a great example of the naivete of many people in the mountains. For someone with ANY sort of mountain savvy, this probably wouldn't have happened. He made a long list of errors. It makes me concerned that this type of behavior on the pass is what will lead to absurd regulations once lawyers get involved. I love me some 'Merica, but I wish our policies on personal responsibility in the mountains were more like Europe.[/rant]

I feel like this is an unending problem in all easily accessible backcountry areas summer and winter and always will be, I certainly hope it doesn't lead to any sort of regulation. But, in his defense I could see myself getting over my head in an area like surfing that I know nothing about. Although I probably wouldn't go surfing in the dark in my jeans.

I actually mentioned the exact same scenario today to my wife with surfing. I completely agree that I could easily get in over my head. I just don't want my mistakes to lead to any sort of legislation.

Of course, when I do go surfing, it will be in jeans...cut-off jeans. I don't want to look like an idiot with pants on!

Originally Posted by jbski

I actually mentioned the exact same scenario today to my wife with surfing. I completely agree that I could easily get in over my head. I just don't want my mistakes to lead to any sort of legislation.

Of course, when I do go surfing, it will be in jeans...cut-off jeans. I don't want to look like an idiot with pants on!

Great minds think alike! Hahaha. Good points all, I wish everyone had that level of awareness of the consequences of their actions(I certainly don't usually!), but good call on the cut-offs!

Good times to be had on Tuesday. Skied with BelowZero, Poop Ghost and meet a slew of other maggots. Hope to meet up with you guys again soon.

Josh

Originally Posted by jbski

About the rescue...I talked to SAR. It was a guy from Michigan who started hiking to the peak on the east side of the pass at around 7 PM. He went solo, without his friends who waited in the car (I guess). He was only wearing hiking boots, jeans and a jacket. On the way down form the summit he got lost and went down through the woods on the north side of the pass. He spent the night in a tree, and walked out to the road at about 2:30 PM today.

[rant]Let me first start by saying that I'm very glad he is ok. This is a great example of the naivete of many people in the mountains. For someone with ANY sort of mountain savvy, this probably wouldn't have happened. He made a long list of errors. It makes me concerned that this type of behavior on the pass is what will lead to absurd regulations once lawyers get involved. I love me some 'Merica, but I wish our policies on personal responsibility in the mountains were more like Europe.[/rant]

At least one lawyer already was involved. I made the SAR call Tuesday about 9pm when, although only “missing” a short time, we learned how unprepared the hiker was. He was unfamiliar with the area, and had only the clothes he was wearing and the hiking shoes on his feet. Hat, gloves, and a jacket, but no food, water, map, gps, compass, avy gear, etc. Best guess of reporting party was no headlamp.

Hiker 1 took off from the parking lot at the top of the pass at dusk heading east intending to “climb whatever peak that was” when hiker 2 was still getting ready. Hiker 2 left the lot about 6:20pm intending to catch hiker 1, but never saw any sign of him. Hiker 2 turned around about 7:00pm at treeline and returned to the parking lot. Grand County Sheriff got to the top of the pass about 10pm. At 10:30pm Bean, a friend, and I left the lot to climb Colorado Mines Peak. We were in contact with Grand County and the Alpine Rescue Team via cell phones, continuing to update regarding tracks and GPS coordinates. We searched the summit and ridge area as much as safely possible and found no footprints from the summit heading North, East, or South. Bean found footprints likely belonging to the missing hiker leading to the summit, but we were unable to determine their descent path among a number of tracks.

Grand County SAR searched through the night and the Alpine Rescue Team provided support starting early yesterday morning. As suspected, hiker 1 made the summit and got lost on the descent, heading too far northwest (we assumed it was some degree of northwest or southwest). After a cold night he made his way to highway 40 yesterday and hitch hiked back to the main parking lot, arriving in the lot at 12:30pm.

Short of a tall fence along every stretch of road that passes through national forest I can’t think of any means to prevent someone from driving to Colorado, parking their car, and with little experience and no preparation going for a hike at dusk in winter. How we should react is another question.

Glad it ended well, and we got some excellent skiing in.

I forgot to mention that I'm happy that all rescue personnell are safe and sound too. Thanks for what y'all do.

Originally Posted by spthomson

From CAIC: 2 people ct & partially buried Floral Park/Bert Pass today 2X50X200 W aspect 32*

Talked to a guy last night who said two of his buddies set off a slide in Floral yesterday, in the thick trees just above the bald spot.

I was in that exact spot with Transplant RMNP a couple of weeks ago. We dug a rutschblock and didn't like what we saw. We gave that area a wide berth because of the way it loads. Glad everyone is OK.

Dang, floral sliding is mad dog sassketchawan.

skied floral and 80s this morning. stayed far skiers right in tight trees in floral due to slide reports. didn't experience any whomphing or signs of instability. where sun hadn't baked it, snow was actually pretty good. 80s was pretty tracked out but decent.

Looks like Berthoud Pass is closed right now due to avy control- the note on CDOT said that there was a slide up there about 30 minutes ago. I can't imagine its because of too much snow... anyone know what happened?

I wouldn't be surprised if a slide went over the road. The wind was howling up there today.

I did a ski cut on the southern aspect of No Name, right off the summit. I expected it to slide, and it did. It was a wind loaded convexity and the slide ran a long way down the slope on an firm sun crust (from the past couple warm days). It was about 50 feet wide at the crown, and 10-12" deep.

We stayed away from the ever growing cornices and dropped in a little farther down the ridge. Where we skied, on a more North-Easterly aspect, the snow was fun and smooth and much less wind loaded. I still wouldn't recommend going out to No Name unless you've got an experienced group and know what to expect and how to handle it.

A few from today...


Top of No Name...There were no pics of the descent until we hit the trees because visibility was much like this.

Nice shots jbski. Hoping the pass opens soon.

jbski, what type of camera were those shots taken with?

Some were taken with a little Sony HandyCam and others were taken with a Canon EOS.

<edit to include> Was anyone up there yesterday and is anyone planning on going up there tomorrow? </edit>

Won't be there tomorrow... will likely be there wednesday/thursday. Let me know if you want to ski something.

Deeper up there this morning than I thought it would be. What a welcome surprise. There are still nasty wind loaded convexities in some areas, but I wasn't able to get anything to move on ski cuts. We kept is primarily in the trees and found some great snow. Just be ready...I won't be surprised if stuff starts ripping out soon.


Cold smoke tail


Peaceful


Just finished some pillows in the trees


Face shot in 3...2...1...


Skied a small (5'x5') but BEAUTIFUL double pillow drop right before skiing into this...Fat to flat

i gotta find some of your rocks!

They're all pretty easy to find...If you see me up there (I'm easy to recognize with my outfit) just ask to tag along and I'll point you off of 'em.

Nice work as usual.

Nice work Joel!

Originally Posted by jbski

They're all pretty easy to find...If you see me up there (I'm easy to recognize with my outfit) just ask to tag along and I'll point you off of 'em.

Nice work, man...

I never made it up last weekend due to some house hunting BS, but thinking of having myself and one or two others up on Saturday AM. I will look for ya.