Wolf Creek backcountry

[cmor]

I was looking to head down there this weekend. Sad to say, but I've never been, anyone know where to go? Pics, anything would be appreciated. Lift served or not. cheers.

[MOHSHSIHd]

I was looking to head down there this weekend. Sad to say, but I've never been, anyone know where to go? Pics, anything would be appreciated. Lift served or not. cheers.

ditto

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[f2f]

the whole side left of the "Alberta" lift is waist-deep tree-skiing most of the time. not too many people go to this hill (the runs aren't long) so you can still find fresh tracks days after a dump. you can track up from the top of the alberta face, but the chutes there are short, sweet, and quickly abused. your last run of the day must be a traverse from the top of alberta to the parking, otherwise you're in for a long walk.

don't go to the right side of the mountain, that's where the kids ski.

good moguls too, if you're into that shit.

have a "face shot" cocktail apres-ski if you're of age, it's their local specialty.

[shera]

don't go to the right side of the mountain, that's where the kids ski.

Hehe, I heard some people call the Alberta side the "men's" and the lodge side the "women's" - I think they were from Texas.

I can do knife ridge/waterfall laps all day, but there's also a lot of fun woods on the other side. And last time Brett and I went out of bounds from the top after last chair and had a really great run down to the highway.

I've also skinned for turns up there around the pass. Very, very nice. Just look around from the area - like across the road where there's a swath cleared for power lines...

[This End Up]

I don’t pretend to be an expert on WC, as I’ve spent a total of two days there. However, walking the knife ride over to Horseshoe bowl yielded some decent snow even when the “women’s” side of the resort was nearly bulletproof. Soft enough for me to fall in;



From the pic below (taken from the top of Alberta) you can see the area across the road. I believe the swath cleared for a powerline is on the right side of the pic.

[cmsummit]

There is some great bc if you traverse west along the ridge off the top of the Treasure Chair. You gotta duck the rope at some point though. An easy 25 minute skin gets you a great run back down to the highway. It's tough to explain, just got to go with someone in the know.

[homerjay]

The Lobo Peak area (across the highway from the ski area) is a popular backcountry destination. There should be an obvious skintrack up to the peak (radio towers) and there are agreements with snowmobilers that keep that area reasonable free of them. That hero powerline run is accessed from there. Plenty of other options are there as well. Calling the gear shop in Pagosa may lead to useful beta.

I disagree with what everyone else said about the lodge side of the mountain, the trees in there hold untracked snow forever because most people are out on the Alberta side, nice short deep shots in there.

The Dog Chutes Before horseshoe but after the knife ridge are nice...You can even bring your skins and hit Skinner Hill.

Here's what I found in the Dog Chutes last time I was there:

[shera]

I disagree with what everyone else said about the lodge side of the mountain, the trees in there hold untracked snow forever because most people are out on the Alberta side, nice short deep shots in there.

The Dog Chutes Before horseshoe but after the knife ridge are nice...You can even bring your skins and hit Skinner Hill.
[/IMG]

I think we're all agreeing that the lodge sides has some goods in the trees. Last time I went with Lone Star we were getting faceshots last run of the day out in the open...

Nice pic in the Dog Chutes. That's definitely on my list.

[killclimbz]

I'll second for the Lobo peak area. There is lot's of great terrain back there. Get a topo map as it can be a little confusing. There are some runs that take you back to the highway. I call them the snowboard runs, because that is the only place you'll see a boarder, unless they are on a split. The areas below Lobo peak are amazing, but you have to skin out of what you dropped into, for the most part.

[Lone Star]

I think we're all agreeing that the lodge sides has some goods in the trees. Last time I went with Lone Star we were getting faceshots last run of the day out in the open...

The Alberta side definitely has the good terrain, but, like SheRa said, we found the goods on the "women's" side of the mountain on the last run of the day. Nice part about that side is that there's no long runout to the lift. I think you could probably do a whole day on that side of the hill without making it anywhere near Alberta--- and still find untracked at 4:00.

[GFP]

I spent a long weekend down at Wolf Creek last February and had a blast skiing 6 - 12 inches of pow in the Knife Ridge and Waterfall areas 8 days after the last storm! After a couple days, we decided to venture across the highway and ski the (mostly) south aspect of Lobo (the side facing the highway, what killclimbz calls the snowboard runs). We did the previously mentioned skin up to the radio towers, but when we started to descend we realized that no new snow for 8 days + the south aspect made for incredibly crusty conditions. We took one horrible run down to the road and B-lined it back inbounds to Alberta chair.

I bet the other aspects of Lobo would be better in a dry spell, but if they haven't had any fresh for a while, I'd steer clear of that south aspect that runs down to the highway.

[homerjay]

I should mention that the weather report mentions a storm off of Baja headed for Friday/Saturday. Wolf Creek should get slammed (again).

[killclimbz]

16" in the last 72 hours. Crust shouldn't be a problem. A lot of the runs off of Lobo do have that sunny aspect, so I could see those runs crusting up after a long period with no snow. There are definitely more north facing aspects further back on the access road headed North. At this point though, crust should be the last thing you have to worry about.

[GFP]

16" in the last 72 hours.

Man, I need to get down there again this year. It's been far too long since I've had a good face full of cold, fluffy snow.

[skiHOG]

Looks like they're going to get blasted this weekend by that storm moving into Arizona. Wish that would move more up north and hit the central and northern mountains, too, but I've decided they have a shield over that area so it blocks any good storms.

[skinipenem]

bump to ask if there is enough coverage to ski the WC backcountry right now looks bleak on the webcams. thinking of heading up for a few days vs. going to sedona to ride bikes. i realize this isn't the conditions thread but seemed appropriate.

[sanjuanworm]

u bumping a 10 year old thread to ask how the trees are now?

[covert]

Ha! Awesome.

[skinipenem]

Just the response I was hoping for in our shit for shit snow year down here. Bailed to ride bikes in Sedona instead.

[Mike_Records]

This thread has much less angry jaded local action than I expected.

[skinipenem]

Yah I expected worse especially after reading on some guys blog that got death threats for posting some sort of a an internet guide to the wolf creek backcountry. It was a great read.

[Danno]

I have that internet guide. It's very helpful, but it's not like he gave up the real goods.

[raisingarizona13]

Yah I expected worse especially after reading on some guys blog that got death threats for posting some sort of a an internet guide to the wolf creek backcountry. It was a great read.

Sedona is all time right now! Have fun.

[Powder Ho]

I have that internet guide. It's very helpful, but it's not like he gave up the real goods.

The backcountry around WC just sucks This year anyways.

[threedimes]

Oh man, I am going to have to dig that up again. As I recall, the "guide" basically just mentioned lines from Lobo, which anyone with a topo and/or eyes could figure out. The shit storm that followed was nothing short of hilarious.