Colorado Weather Discussion Thread

[Name Redacted]

I had almost lost hope after riding MTB and dirtbikes in 55 degree weather last week, but today was over the hood all day on the sled a little ways south of Telluride. Great storm, fuck yeah winter!

Yeah, we mountain biked on xmas in GJ. Never done that before.
Basin was skiing nice yesterday, not sure where they pulled 8" for today though. Windy AF last night

[The SnowShow]

I’m sure most of you have heard but tomorrow’s extreme wind event in the Boulder area is setting up very similar to 3 years ago when the Marshall Mesa fire broke out:

Be safe.

[Danno]

I remember that day so well. My daughter had race training at Eldora in the morning, and surprisingly (given what the day would bring) it wasn't crazy windy up there. But when we got to Boulder early afternoon, the wind was almost blowing us over. We laughed about it and went inside, and then the horror unfolded for the nearby communities.

[skiracer88_00]

A buddy texted me that it was raining in Cb South last night, so that's nice.

How's CB itself looking? Are they close to anything steep opening? I am going to be out there 1/5-1/7 for an IFSA coach's course.

[goldenboy]

How's CB itself looking? Are they close to anything steep opening? I am going to be out there 1/5-1/7 for an IFSA coach's course.

The snow this week helped, but no, I don't think anything steep is close. Maybe Horseshoe, but West Wall slid during the big Thanksgiving storm, so parts of it are super thin. Then again our new snow safety director seems like she'll open anything if it's even remotely close.

[PeteDee]

I’m sure most of you have heard but tomorrow’s extreme wind event in the Boulder area is setting up very similar to 3 years ago when the Marshall Mesa fire broke out:
Be safe.

No talk of xcel cutting power (that I've seen) so hoping that's an indicator of lowered expected severity...or perhaps the April event is changing their approach this time around. Either way, timing down to the same 12/30 day is an unwelcome coincidence

[snowaddict91]

A buddy texted me that it was raining in Cb South last night, so that's nice.

That 3" of cream cheese on the mountain sure skied nice this morning though. But holy cow, the crowds. I'm sure having Painter Boy down didn't help. The main runs were a chop and mogul gaper graveyard.

[smmokan]

No talk of xcel cutting power (that I've seen) so hoping that's an indicator of lowered expected severity...or perhaps the April event is changing their approach this time around. Either way, timing down to the same 12/30 day is an unwelcome coincidence

Seems like there's been a lot more (albeit inconsistent) moisture this Nov/Dec than in 2021, so hopefully that helps.

[Foggy_Goggles]

Somewhat crazy weather for the holidays.

I was hidding out from people snowmobiling up in the Park Range yesterday. Very upside down storm with some type of 2cm ish crust on top. Widespread and non-aspect dependent like is was frozen rain or similar. Weather Station were below freezing by 4-6 deg. in the overnight so who knows.

The Tower SNOTEL has been doing its thing with +/- 5" SWE in the last week or so. 40deg in the Fraser River Valley after dark yesterday.

Reports are that Wanker is skiing pretty good up 17k people yesterday hammered on in pretty good. I'm gonna try for first chair NYD but I might get scared and chicken out.

[bamboocoreONLY]

Breck definitely got busy yesterday but hey that's what skiing solo and finding singles in tbar line is all about... haha It was actually super nice, a few inches of cream cheese and the wind had smoothed pretty much everything out.

8 inches new on the snowstake this morning, we'll be rockin n rollin up high after this is all said n done.

[Shredhead]

The town of Aspen's a zoo, but it's pretty easy to avoid the chaos on the hills.
Snowmass is only reporting 2", but a nice squall is hitting right now.

[bamboocoreONLY]

sumthin real deep out there today. whoweeeeee

[goldenboy]

That 3" of cream cheese on the mountain sure skied nice this morning though. But holy cow, the crowds. I'm sure having Painter Boy down didn't help. The main runs were a chop and mogul gaper graveyard.

Good synopsis. Finally got Painter Boy opened so that got some of the gapers off the main mountain today, plus the snow/ poor vis kept some of them home too. This time of year is tough when you can't just go out to phoenix or 3rd bowl and get away from them.

Monument, T11, Elevator shaft, and the bottom 2/3rds of Horseshoe open and skied surprisingly well.

[gmorgg]

Huge Avalanche cycle happening in Summit right now. Trelease (remote) and Buffalo (possibly natural) both went huge this morning.

[summit]

Triggered slides all around. It is very touchy out there.

[FiveLarge]

Which part of Trelease? I realize there's probably a CAIC obs, but in case not...

Huge Avalanche cycle happening in Summit right now. Trelease (remote) and Buffalo (possibly natural) both went huge this morning.

[andy m]

The Trelease avalanche today was in the infamous area above the Boulevard where someone was killed in Feb. 2021. Here's the CAIC observation from today with a photo:

https://avalanche.state.co.us/report...2-62366a18c345

[m2711c]

lotta folks passed over that terrain.

[Foggy_Goggles]

https://caic-production.imgix.net/4a...b=rails-4.3.1&

https://avalanche.state.co.us/report...3-dbd38f9e5879

And this one

Read the forecast. Make consistently conservative decisions.

[Name Redacted]

The number of times I've seen people skinning right up that face is concerning.

[Foggy_Goggles]

The number of times I've seen people skinning right up that face is concerning.

Berthoud, Trelease or both (I can't upload that BP pic).

But yeah, the flats below the West Side Cliffs at Berthoud are not a safe zone. Use whatever method you chose, emperical evidence, flagged trees, alpha angle. If you ski those lines (which I do) either exit the drainage skiers right to where the bottom of the lift used to be or take cover in the dense trees further out into the flats.

And don't go up there ever. You can set your skin track closer to the road and contour right out of the hazard.

[Foggy_Goggles]

The number of times I've seen people skinning right up that face is concerning.

Berthoud, Trelease or both (I can't upload that BP pic).

But yeah, the flats below the West Side Cliffs at Berthoud are not a safe zone. Use whatever method you chose, emperical evidence, flagged trees, alpha angle. If you ski those lines (which I do) either exit the drainage skiers right to where the bottom of the lift used to be or take cover in the dense trees further out into the flats.

And don't go up there ever. You can set your skin track closer to the road and contour right out of the hazard.

[Name Redacted]

Berthoud, Trelease or both (I can't upload that BP pic).

But yeah, the flats below the West Side Cliffs at Berthoud are not a safe zone. Use whatever method you chose, emperical evidence, flagged trees, alpha angle. If you ski those lines (which I do) either exit the drainage skiers right to where the bottom of the lift used to be or take cover in the dense trees further out into the flats.

And don't go up there ever. You can set your skin track closer to the road and contour right out of the hazard.

I was talking Trelease but I’ve seen dumb shit at Berthoud for sure. No surprise there. Big reason I just mainly ski in bounds these days.

Story time: We were changing over right below the slide zone in that pic on 4/20/13 while a few guys were skinning right up the right flank of the upper. We rode down and went back to the LL Valley parking lot to meet up with another group of friends. Some CDOT guys stopped by and informed us that there was a slide in Sheep Creek, where six of our friends were supposed to be riding. We drove up and started searching the debris field. I found the only survivor. One of the guys was buried 15’ deep. Shitty day.

[Foggy_Goggles]

Yeah man, I won't forget that. Heavy shit. I too have changed my ways over the years but still love backcountry skiing. I'm just a bit more cautious, hopefully.

[The SnowShow]

I was talking Trelease but I’ve seen dumb shit at Berthoud for sure. No surprise there. Big reason I just mainly ski in bounds these days.

Story time: We were changing over right below the slide zone in that pic on 4/20/13 while a few guys were skinning right up the right flank of the upper. We rode down and went back to the LL Valley parking lot to meet up with another group of friends. Some CDOT guys stopped by and informed us that there was a slide in Sheep Creek, where six of our friends were supposed to be riding. We drove up and started searching the debris field. I found the only survivor. One of the guys was buried 15’ deep. Shitty day.

I remember that incident. So sorry