Here’s a few photos from three ski days this last week here in the San Juan Mountains, Colorado.

The spring skiing has been great lately, with smooth corn snow and some of the higher pass roads getting plowed out enabling easy access into the high country.

Matt and I climbed and skied/snowboarded a huge face that I’ve been eyeing for years.

Then a potent storm rolled into the mountains this weekend, dumping over 16 inches of fluffy powder. Woohoo!

Possibly the deepest snow of the year so far… It felt less like skiing and more like swimming through clouds. Too many face shots to even see where we were going!

This winter refresh should provide another week or two of excellent skiing and splitboarding… if my legs can keep up!

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!

As we drove home from our recent desert road trip, the rain we passed through in Utah had turned into snow when we reached the San Juans in Colorado. Despite my desire to rest after our big trip, I knew I couldn’t pass up a beautiful spring powder day!

A fresh foot of powder blanketed the San Juans on Monday. What a great welcome home to the mountains – just like last time we returned from the desert!

The snowpack was sturdy after the previous warm days melted the various snow layers, followed by cold nights that froze it solid again. The new snow came in wet, bonded well to the surface, and then became blower powder on top. Perfect conditions for riding some bigger, longer lines up in the high peaks!

We skied/snowboarded through this big gully I’ve had my eye on for years, followed by a second lap up high again.

Yesterday a brief storm hit the San Juans with several inches of snow along with howling winds. Today we ventured up high to see what kind of powder we could find amongst the wind-scoured terrain. Expecting the sunny warmth of March, we were greeted with chilly 16ºF temps and gusty breezes in the morning. Burrrr!

Of the three lines we skied on various aspects, the second was the one, with about four inches of fresh snow topping the perfectly smooth southern crust – kind of like riding powder on top of a groomer. Not quite the motherload of all powder lines, but a worthy find nonetheless.

Driving back home from our trip to the Canyonlands last Friday, we entered the world of winter again – the clouds and rain that passed over us in the canyons had blanketed the San Juans in a fresh dump of powder. My friend Dan called me that night to see if I wanted to go ride in the morning. I was fairly exhausted from our backpack trip and said no… then I thought “who am I kidding?!” of course I’ll go!

Although I had been a bit reluctant to leave the desert, I quickly forgot about all that once I was making powder turns and pillow drops!

Winter is not over yet…

Are you sick of all the powder shots I keep posting here? I hope not, because here’s a dozen more! With a low workload recently – along with loads of fresh powder in the mountains – I’ve managed to get out on the splitboard/snowboard for 6 of the last 7 days, scoring some of the best turns of the winter so far! LOTS more pow shots below… Continue reading “February Powder Days” →