On Friday, Claudia and I got back out into the mountains to enjoy some more turns. Monday’s foot of fresh snow had baked down to about 3-4 inches of old powder corn snow (For those who don’t backcountry ski, “corn” snow is snow that goes through multiple melt/freeze cycles, resulting in a firm but smooth snow surface that softens up nicely by around noon on a sunny spring day. In my opinion, it’s the next best thing to fresh powder!)
I took Claudia up to one of the taller peaks around. It was Claudia’s first time skiing corn snow, and she rocked it!
We skied/snowboarded from the summit down a beautiful long untracked line, then skinned back up to the high ridge and scored a nice long bonus descent down the front side. What a day!
Great piks Jack, are they all coming from your new sony camera? Great color and what a snow year colorado has had!
Hi Kiim, all the recent ski and/or hiking shots are from my Ricoh GR camera. The recent desert/landscape photos are from the Sony.
Jack,
Some really nice trip reports lately! So, how is the snowpack right now compared to last year? It seems healthier? Hopefully more snow will blanket the mountains with this weekend’s approaching snow.
Thanks Justin! I don’t know the official numbers, but I’d guess that the snowpack is about at average right now. Unfortunately, though, there is a nasty dust layer right near or at the surface, from a few bad dust storms earlier in the month. So once the thin layer of fresher white snow melts off, the dust will be revealed fully and the snowpack will suffer quickly. It’s already happened at the lower elevations. So our only hope for more good spring skiing is more snow – hopefully the storm forecasted for the weekend pans out!
Just an update, Justin… I saw some official numbers; looks like Red Mtn. Pass is current at 93% of average, though other areas around here look to be quite a bit below average. See here: http://therobertreport.net/2014/04/25/s-n-o-w-p-r-e-c-i-p-i-t-a-t-i-o-n-u-p-d-a-t-e-for-the-san-juan-mountain-basins/