HUDGE 10,000' wide crown on Byers Peak (CO)

**FiveLarge** · 03-06-2013, 10:43 PM

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Sidenote - that's a sweet looking face when conditions are stable.

**neufox47** · 03-06-2013, 11:02 PM

Kinda surprised the debris field didn't go further with that wide if a crown. Looks fairly deep too.
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**FiveLarge** · 03-06-2013, 11:48 PM

Yeah, that is odd to me as well.

**BFD** · 03-07-2013, 12:21 AM

where did the 10000' number come from?

**FiveLarge** · 03-07-2013, 12:34 AM

Observer who took the photo. Certainly just an estimate, and may not be accurate, but it's big whatever the exact number - spans pretty much the whole cirque.

Originally Posted by BFD

where did the 10000' number come from?

**BFD** · 03-07-2013, 12:37 AM

I was messing around with Google earth and could barely come up with 2500'. Maybe I'm not in the right area. Thought so.

**FiveLarge** · 03-07-2013, 12:59 AM

In reality, it's probably closer to 5k than it is 10k. Somewhere between 2500 and 5, I'd guess. Not sure if the observer really thought it was 10k, or moreso was just making the point that it was very large.

**ak_powder_monkey** · 03-07-2013, 01:29 AM

where the heck is all the debris?

**leroy jenkins** · 03-07-2013, 01:35 AM

guesses,

lower portion of the face is nowhere near as steep as it looks.

actually a series of smaller slides

slide is a few days old and the debris pile froze thawed got windblown so its less recognizeable while the crown is shaded so it stayed crisp and clear.

**Bunion 2020** · 03-07-2013, 06:43 AM

10k=2 miles +-

2500 seems more likely.

Still a cool shot.

**Underoos** · 03-07-2013, 07:40 AM

Thanks for posting that pic. I've been eyeballing that from the resort and town for the last couple days. Without binocs it's been tough to figure out exactly what I've been looking at or identify a continuous crown line.

The crown is bigger than the photo shows. It continues much further over the next ridge to the left that is cut off in the pic.

**Bunion 2020** · 03-07-2013, 08:02 AM

I will give you the benefit but they look like separate events to this untrained eye.

**Name Redacted** · 03-07-2013, 08:42 AM

I think that it's more like a 1000000000000' crown, just from my vantage point.

There were more big naturals viewable from the top of A-basin yesterday than a 1960's issue of Playboy.

**FiveLarge** · 03-07-2013, 10:10 AM

Yeah, I actually overlooked that until you pointed it out.

Bunion may be right that it could be a separate event, as it's separated by a pretty distinct ridge - but I've seen stranger remote trigger/sympathetic releases than that before, so could be from the same event.

However big exactly and whether one or two events - that's a big ass slide.

Originally Posted by Underoos

Thanks for posting that pic. I've been eyeballing that from the resort and town for the last couple days. Without binocs it's been tough to figure out exactly what I've been looking at or identify a continuous crown line.

The crown is bigger than the photo shows. It continues much further over the next ridge to the left that is cut off in the pic.

**marshalolson** · 03-07-2013, 11:34 AM

looks more like 2 different 1,000 foot slides to me, but well... glad i wasn't there when it happened!

**Shadam** · 03-07-2013, 11:45 AM

I wonder how deep the debri pile is?

coz I recon that would be where sledderz would have been drinking beer eh?

**Hacksaw** · 03-07-2013, 12:11 PM

Does anyone have fairly accurate info on the date and time of day that this happened???

**Underoos** · 03-07-2013, 01:40 PM

I first saw it early in the morning on Tue Mar 5.

**Hacksaw** · 03-07-2013, 01:54 PM

Originally Posted by Underoos

I first saw it early in the morning on Tue Mar 5.

And you hadn't seen it any time on the 4th, I assume?

**ate'em** · 03-07-2013, 02:01 PM

Originally Posted by BFD

where did the 10000' number come from?

from folks in Colorado!

where 3" is knee deep and 7" is an epic, chest-deep day at Fail

keeping our numbers consistant over here-
ok yeah i'm just bent there's no pow

**anemic** · 03-08-2013, 12:25 PM

I see four slides; right cirque, left cirque, lower left cirque @ treeline, & far left edge of pic in adjacent bowl - another huge crown. Nasty day!

**Foggy_Goggles** · 03-11-2013, 12:53 PM

I can see Byers from my house. I can't tell you how big other than fuckin' big. Naturals on Bottle and Ptarmigan as well. Regarding skiing Byers, yeah the skiing is pretty good but the access not so much. I'd like to give a big shout out to our land managers who decided that it's perfectly logical to not allow snowmobiles on roads that are open the vehicles after May 1st. This combined with creating an asinine road closure in place where roads have been in place for multiple decades has pretty much made all of the Vasquez and Byers Peak Wilderness Areas non skiable save for breaking the law or going for a few nights.

**montanagirl** · 03-12-2013, 04:36 PM

And the noise from Snowball didn't bring it down? How is Bottle Pass? The dogs & I are way overdue for a ski on that side of the valley, they are getting bored with me taking them for outings on mill/Ute Pass side...

**Underoos** · 03-12-2013, 06:20 PM

I think the road closures are a both a blessing and a curse. It would be nice to have better access and cut several miles off of approaches. But I spend some time around there in the summer and because of the closed roads it's pretty easy to find solitude if you walk or ride a little ways. But yeah, open the fucking roads for more than 2 weekends a summer.

I do ski up there with my dogs quite a bit, but I'm doing skiing of the skinny edgeless ski/tiny boot/long poles variety. More trails than you can shake a stick at, and it's 5 min from the house.

Fuck that Snowball shit. So glad that's over.

**georgio** · 03-13-2013, 11:39 AM

Prob about 5000' crown across those two distinct faces, hard to tell if it was the same event, but definitely happened within a day or so of each other.

The access there is frustrating, I really don't understand much of what goes on in the "Fraser Experimental Forest" or why it goes on... Depending on when the roads melt out the bike access to stuff around Byers and St Louis Peak isn't bad, a couple miles of pretty flat forest road riding. The terrain is great though, looking to get on the north facing chutes south of Byers peak this spring. They look awesome and I've never seen a ski track down them...