Pajarito-Bred
New member
Snowmass has been hammered the past two weeks with a mass of snow, and now they are dealing with a mass of avie hazard. The latest storm finally petered out at noon Wed, but there was still plenty of soft snow to be found. The cirque poma was running for a while, unfortunately, some of the snow in the cirque was blown into the next canyon over, and it remained closed on Fri for more blasting of windridges. The east side looked pretty wind-blasted-- So we were left with the lightly tilted run back down the ridge, in firm and coarsely crusted windpack-- The Hanging Valley Wall, however, was mostly open, with much soft, lightly tracked at the top pitches, and a freshly opened gate to Lower Ladder, with awesome turns among boulders and pines.
Garrett Gulch, a hidden canyon just off the Burn was in excellent shape, but all bumps have been generously covered, and need a few more days of turns to reappear. Any volunteers? Still a few rocks on the talus fields along the sides, very well-hidden. For more serious bumps, Highlands is a better choice, despite the ridge-side layout.
Still a few powder stashes hidden on the burn, an a few on Elk Camp, but my timing was off this week. Looks like it'll be even further off next week, for my venture to the Wasatch, currently in a (typically very brief) dry spell.
A couple of local kids made the mistake of ducking under a rope to access a permanantly closed area, started an avalanche, and one lost his skis after catching a tree at the start of the slide. the skis ended up sticking out of the debris pile on the run below, starting a mad dash by the ski patrol for a rescue, which was quickly called off when he lamely stumbled down to the base of the hill. According to the Aspen daily news, the 19-yr-old alleged perps have lost their season passes and will be fined $150. They are very lucky to be alive. Some very nasty fracture lines were visible in nearby out-of-bounds terrain, it shoulda been obvious.
Snowmass has worked very hard to open additional extreme terrain this year, and later in the season will have stable conditions that will make for some fantastic lines. This is the best coverage for Jan. in many years.
Garrett Gulch, a hidden canyon just off the Burn was in excellent shape, but all bumps have been generously covered, and need a few more days of turns to reappear. Any volunteers? Still a few rocks on the talus fields along the sides, very well-hidden. For more serious bumps, Highlands is a better choice, despite the ridge-side layout.
Still a few powder stashes hidden on the burn, an a few on Elk Camp, but my timing was off this week. Looks like it'll be even further off next week, for my venture to the Wasatch, currently in a (typically very brief) dry spell.
A couple of local kids made the mistake of ducking under a rope to access a permanantly closed area, started an avalanche, and one lost his skis after catching a tree at the start of the slide. the skis ended up sticking out of the debris pile on the run below, starting a mad dash by the ski patrol for a rescue, which was quickly called off when he lamely stumbled down to the base of the hill. According to the Aspen daily news, the 19-yr-old alleged perps have lost their season passes and will be fined $150. They are very lucky to be alive. Some very nasty fracture lines were visible in nearby out-of-bounds terrain, it shoulda been obvious.
Snowmass has worked very hard to open additional extreme terrain this year, and later in the season will have stable conditions that will make for some fantastic lines. This is the best coverage for Jan. in many years.