Berthoud Pass 2012-2013 Observations, Conditions and Stoke

[Chris Knight]

"Interesting" way to get to Corner Pocket I guess?

[Chris Knight]

BTW, what is the preferred nomenclature for the low angle south facing meadows just immediately lookers right of that picture? E.g what is usually to the climbers left of the uptrack to get to upper 110s and/or over to Corner Pocket/2nd Creek?

[Chris Knight]

Oh also, Highline Trees/skiers far left of Hanging Meadows was fun for ninny tree skiing a week or so ago. FWIW at this point. I'd think 7 mile is in, but haven't done it yet this season.

[georgio]

I would say 7 mile is in too. Bu I'm not going to be the one to test that theory, it'd be miserable if you got half way down and found out it wasn't.

[Chris Knight]

Lol, you first.

[pappag]

Stanley Headwall and No Name Cirque | Jan. 5, 2013

[spankthepow]

BTW, what is the preferred nomenclature for the low angle south facing meadows just immediately lookers right of that picture? E.g what is usually to the climbers left of the uptrack to get to upper 110s and/or over to Corner Pocket/2nd Creek?

I think you're talking about Perfect Trees. If you're wondering, there are still some nice sharks up there despite how it looks. My board was not happy after that run last week...and neither was my face.

[georgio]

Anyone been up today? The Snotel site has gone from 22 to 29 inches in the last 24 hours...

[MCH]

C'mon bros somebody was up there today!!?? How was it?? worth heading up Sunday????

[skiingislife]

^cold. Bring yer hotronics.

[keith-stone]

Looks good

[Alpentele]

Not sure about the pass, Butler had about 2 inches fresh and nuclear winds. Meh. Last week 7 mile was skiable, but not quite in he right place. We need snow

[skiingislife]

7 mile was skiing out just fine a couple days ago. More snow at the bottom than at the top.

[Grandyoso]

Not sure about the pass, Butler had about 2 inches fresh and nuclear winds. Meh. Last week 7 mile was skiable, but not quite in he right place. We need snow

That makes my decision easy..... Thanks AT..

[BurnHard]

Not sure about the pass, Butler had about 2 inches fresh and nuclear winds. Meh. Last week 7 mile was skiable, but not quite in he right place. We need snow

You think? Fuckin storm turned into another dud. It's been teasing us all week with big predictions, and then it delivers 1-2 inches and nucular winds and temps.

[skipowpow]

I thought Berthoud was totally worth it today. About 5" new, -10, and light to no wind. Not epic, but better than surfing the Internet.

[filthyanimal]

Haven't been up in a while. Assuming the basic stuff is ski'ed in and getting almost-ok? Meadows, Flume? East side Floral Park around Powerline; and--on looker's left--trees down to first switch back (not all the way out to hanging meadow/fingers). Not looking for great snow, just don't want to totally waste gas. Not looking for any guarantees either, just trying to get an idea of where we're at... Thanks.

[smitchell333]

Couple runs this afternoon. Few inches of powder and some soft turning in spots fresh but boy still thin overall.
Tree stuff is kinda bony.

[snowcatCO]

Skied a little Saturday wanting to hit no name but was turned back by avi conditions.



Made turns on south chutes instead.


Some more photos from this year.

[BraddA]

Skied a little Saturday wanting to hit no name but was turned back by avi conditions.

What'd your pit say?

[snowcatCO]

Dug east - south east facing and found it to be quite stable with many layers, none failing. We then passed a group who also was out to hit no name. They reported finding highly unstable conditions facing east above treeline and stayed off of it. So we dug higher directly east facing, first layer failed easily, taking lower layers with it. It would be easy to set of a shallower slab with chances releasing bigger and a lot more dangerous ones.

[snowcatCO]

It's super variable above tree line. The wind has really made it difficult to find good snow with stable conditions FWIW

[georgio]

Got out a couple times in the last week. Wednesday afternoon was very surreal with a layer of clouds from 11500-12000 settling down into the valley as the sun set. Skied a few relatively untouched runs on the east side (shots here).

Thursday the visibility was better and I headed over to Vortex. The stability was better than what I've seen elsewhere around Bert recently, much less faceted and better bonding between layers. Q2 shear about 12 inches down went at CT11 and below that a Q3 shear at ~CT17 about 2 feet down. Looks like several other people have gotten on Vortex since, I'll throw some pics up from Thursday later this afternoon.

[BraddA]

Dug east - south east facing and found it to be quite stable with many layers, none failing. We then passed a group who also was out to hit no name. They reported finding highly unstable conditions facing east above treeline and stayed off of it. So we dug higher directly east facing, first layer failed easily, taking lower layers with it. It would be easy to set of a shallower slab with chances releasing bigger and a lot more dangerous ones.

Thanks for the info.

[Cruiser]

Anyone have a Jones Pass conditions report? I was hoping to get up there sometime soon to run my neglected sled a little and then maybe do some touring. Not really concerned about skiing the gnar since the snowpack is shit, mostly just wanting to get out to run the machine and get some exercise. That doable up there right now?