Berthoud Pass 2012-2013 Observations, Conditions and Stoke

[bamboocoreONLY]

^yeah seriously, people who complain about the coverage up there haven't toured berthoud enough. there's always something good to shralp

[dawsoner]

And despite our best efforts we just couldn't not ski powder.

No kidding, Sunday was awesome huh? No pictures cause I couldn't figure out how to use North's camera even in the auto mode. Ooops.

Edit: And its going to be suuuuuper hard to not skip work on Wednesday before I'm banished to the Midwest for the holidays.

[georgio]

13-24 inches at the pass between now and Wednesday night according to Open Snow. That should do the trick.

[TeleSlayer]

Just head farther West - away from berthoud, and the base is DEEEeeeep!

[Ireallyliketoski2]

Schralped a west side run and some east side trees this morning before work. Snow pack was touchy, lots of shooting and cracking, sketch ball in spots for sure.






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[smitchell333]

Powder
Faceshots where steep enough
Whumphing galore

[ullrdrool]

wow, good day today. Sooper touchy. The Roll slid today, 2.5-3 ft crown? Two guys skinning up the gut just before it happened. Sounds like everyone made it out ok. Also, west side slid to the ground just above Hollywood cliff. Be careful tomorrow.

[FiveLarge]

Made it up for a dusk patrol today to check things out - first time on the pass this year. Floral Park still looks pretty thin - lots of rocks showing in open areas as viewed from the road. Pretty good size slide in Sentinel, to the ground, saw from the road also. Spencer Logan (CAIC) posted up some pics on the Big Roll slide. Talked to some guys about the Aquaduct stuff, 80's/90's, etc., they said they were hearing it was pretty sketchy around there, fair bit of activity. Didn't scope it firsthand, so not sure. Forgot to drive down that way after I was done.

Found some good snow and decent coverage (tagged one sizeable rock) on more north-ish aspects in some treed areas. Quite a bit of cracking where terrain steepened/rolls over.

Be careful out there.

[jbski]

Echoing that the snowpack is really dangerous!

After finishing a lap of meadow skipping, me and my group saw the two folks skinning directly up the gut of The Roll. We commented to each other that it was a very bad idea. Then, we went into the warming hut to get some food and water. When I looked back out the window there were two new, large crowns on The Roll.

We decided that we should go check it out and make sure nobody was stuck under the snow. We weren't about to approach from below because there was still ample hang-fire. We had to skin all the way around to get to the top. Fortunately, the tracks showed that all parties were out safely and we saw no other visual sings and picked up no beacon signals. So, we stayed away. After the week I've had I was VERY glad I didn't have to go in for a likely body recovery.

Here's a look the crown from where we were standing...


Here's a little closer look at the crown, which was approximately 3.5' deep (to the ground)...












After determining that nobody was in the slide, we went back to the flat, skier-compacted terrain and I worked on some speedriding.







The flight was really small, but it was fun to get in the air for at least a little bit.








Stay safe out there.

[killclimbz]

The 90's below the Aqueduct has slid to the ground almost wall to wall. Lots of whumpfing yesterday. Great conditions to practice you squiggle turns. As everyone else has said, stuff is sketchy right now.

[georgio]

From FOBP Facebook Page

[Full Trucker]

Thanks for all the good info, guys. Subscribed.

[filthyanimal]

Trucker??? First the Prov., now here? Still gotta hit you up with some biz questions over a cold one...

[Mike_Records]

Skied BP today: west side meadows to current creek to perfect trees to the 110s. The meadows were crusty, actually traversed along the aqueduct quite a ways as everything below looked so sketchy. Didn't hit anything in perfect trees and found great snow, but saw quite a few sharks. The 110s were a minefield.

[Foggy_Goggles]

Stay smart people! A lot of close calls being reported including this gem! "Don't worry dudes, I've got an air bag!"

Skier 1 slowly dropped second gully west of lone pine - basically sidestepped while skier 2 had visual from above. Skier 1 skied to safe zone to watch skier 2 down third gully. Skier 2 began sidestepping gully three when 6-8" sluffed to the ground below him. Skier 2 continued sidestepping when area to his west propagated and slid with some energy (to the ground). Skier 2 was carried ~50 yards on top. Airbag was deployed, but likely did not aid skier 2. No injuries and no lost items.

It's gonna be sunny this weekend. Keep your wits about you. Just because it looks good and doesn't usually slide ain't a real good system this year. Have fun.

[Rontele]

Skied perfect trees yesterday. But for it being thin just below ridgeline (a bit thinner further down than usual), fantastic snow and skiing.

[georgio]

The skiing was just real swell yesterday. Found good stability and really fun snow on Current Creek Bench and the South facing chutes on Hidden Knoll. Skied the Lower 110s also, which were a little lean but very manageable and much softer than up high. Some fuckbag broke the window in Peter Rabbit, so if you're planning on staying there in the near future expect it to be cold. I'm going to try and replace it with plexiglass but wont be able to for a couple weeks. More pics and some poorly written drivel here.

[Foggy_Goggles]

Found good stability and really fun snow on Current Creek Bench and the South facing chutes on Hidden Knoll

Not saying you're wrong but what led you to this conclusion? I dug multiple pits yesterday and consistently found three distinct Q1 shears with the the most recent 2ft storm slab failing at +/- CT3 and complete failure at the depth hoar at CT11. Deep slab instabilities are low probability/ high consequence events and are most likely to be triggered from shallow points in the snow pack (which you avoided) but, for me, that does not equal good stability.

You skied a sweet line(s) [I watched you] and everyone got home safe but the persistent deep slab instability is real. Keep getting after it and be smart.

[georgio]

"Good" stability was probably an overstatement. The stability on the bench was "decent", but good enough that we thought it was worth it on Saturday, we had a backup line that would probably have been just as good so I don't feel like we were trying to force that line. The pit I dug up on the bench was actually the most solid of any throughout the day. Also the highest by about 600 feet of elevation, so people shouldn't read too much into what this means for anywhere else near Berthoud.

I don't have quite the level of detail (or precise memory) that you quoted but we found four distinct layers up on the bench the top three I would qualify as Q2 the top layer was about 6 inches of recent wind slab that fractured around (~CT8-10) and the subsequent layers required multiple taps from the elbow before they went. Finally the lower layer appeared to be more consolidated than I'd seen elsewhere and each individual layer broke in sequence before the base layer gave.

Were we being reckless, I don't think so. Would other people have made a different decision, possibly. But it was really nice to get up and out a little farther than has been possible so far this year.

[fastfroggy]

[QUOTE=georgio;3859872]The skiing was just real swell yesterday. Found good stability and really fun snow on Current Creek Bench and the South facing chutes on Hidden Knoll. Skied the Lower 110s also, which were a little lean but very manageable and much softer than up high. Some fuckbag broke the window in Peter Rabbit, so if you're planning on staying there in the near future expect it to be cold. I'm going to try and replace it with plexiglass but wont be able to for a couple weeks. More pics and some poorly written drivel here.


thanks for the report and photos!

[skiingislife]

Anyone been out 7mile way yet?

[nrd]

Were we being reckless, I don't think so. Would other people have made a different decision, possibly. But it was really nice to get up and out a little farther than has been possible so far this year.

Count me in column two. That said, things seemed a lot more stable than I was expecting. Glad your buddy was able to ski out of the shark tank.

[georgio]

Thanks for the shots nrd. Were you part of the pair that was transitioning in the meadows as we skied out? Not sure exactly how my buddy ended up in the mank over there ... but yeah, no damage done.

Anyone get up there last weekend? I know a few people were eyeing no name, which I thought seemed a litttttttle raw two weeks ago but I never heard how it went.

[pappag]

Anyone get up there last weekend? I know a few people were eyeing no name, which I thought seemed a litttttttle raw two weeks ago but I never heard how it went.

It was skiable but stability wasn't there.

Bert observations from Saturday: Dug a pit and isolated columns facing E at 11,900'. Between 8-12" broke off at CT-2 and 4. Then another 12-16" at CT-10 and 12. So about 2' deep, there was a 2" facet layer, below that the snowpack was incredibly stable (12-16" thick) but underneath that was about 16"+ of sugar. Backed away from No Name but got lots of photos of the area including Stanley which had me drooling. Skied the trees off the bench and found surprisingly soft snow (6-8" in most spots) and supportive. The moment you trekked past east towards south, the snow was baked, but dead east was good.

Will try to get pics uploaded soon.

[nrd]

Thanks for the shots nrd. Were you part of the pair that was transitioning in the meadows as we skied out? Not sure exactly how my buddy ended up in the mank over there ... but yeah, no damage done.

Good to hear. Cute dog, too.

There was another party tran'ing in the meadows below me that you prob saw. You prob didn't see me 'cause I was lurking in the skier right trees gnawing on pine bark.

Did anyone scope the sweet-ass uptrack cutting the entire runout of Postage Stamp?