Wolf Creek, CO 3-28-08

[EMSC]

Did a half day at Wolf Creek as we transited from Crested Butte to Taos for the weekend. Similar story as CB. Snow conditions all about exposure. Upper altitude and more North facing areas firm, but chalky; non-north, flats, etc...spring and/or slush. Very few people - especially the Alberta lift.

In this case, upper frontside, alberta peak, the steeper and more heavily treed parts of thealberta lift areas, all had winter snow; lower frontside, flats in Alberta lift area had either soft or 'shake & bake' junk snow... so some good skiing, but some challenges too...

Started off the day with a couple laps on the front, before both my wife & I hiked Alberta peak (her first ever hike-to terrain ). Really only single diamond pitch, but probably the longest consistant pitch/vert at WC and some decent chalky snow. After that hitting the very edge of the waterfall area which is the only north facing section of that area. Also hit the Knife Ridge for one run, with the trees both good snow on the steeper sections but junk on the flats in between.

Not too bad a ski day, but clearly WC is for powder days, Not quite so much for spring skiing. I'll have to load pics sometime next week (pc limitations on my travel machine).

PS. very interesting drives/travels today too. LOTS of deer/elk carnage on the roadsides up in Gunnison county from the huge snowpack and roadside eating by deer (saw dozens of both live & not so much on the roadsides - dangerous driving in that whole region right now).Also witnessed a Nat'l gaurd helicoper do a medevac out of the 650' deep rio grand canyon just outside Taos (right next to rio grande bridge)

 

[Admin]

3/29? Sure it's a travel machine and not a time machine? :wink:

 

[EMSC]

Hey, thats what vacations are for... to forgetthe exact date

Guess I need to change my CB dates too...

 

[ChrisC]

Started off the day with a couple laps on the front, before both my wife & I hiked Alberta peak (her first ever hike-to terrain ). Really only single diamond pitch, but probably the longest consistant pitch/vert at WC and some decent chalky snow. After that hitting the very edge of the waterfall area which is the only north facing section of that area. Also hit the Knife Ridge for one run, with the trees both good snow on the steeper sections but junk on the flats in between.

Not too bad a ski day, but clearly WC is for powder days, Not quite so much for spring skiing. I'll have to load pics sometime next week (pc limitations on my travel machine).

I am a little conflicted about Wolf Creek. I cannot decide whether it is a little ski area that rocks OR just nothing special.

Mostly, the mountain is not very interesting. There are some exceptions: Waterfall, Alberta Peak, Knife Ridge - but they are really small.

Also, the Knife Ridge metal stairs are a little weird for me. I probably is the most Disney-esque backcountry thing I have seen. I assume there are some avalanche safety reasons....but it's odd.

Unfortunately, I have never skied Wolf Creek in powder. However, without it - it's just not a place a like a lot.

 

[EMSC]

I cannot decide whether it is a little ski area that rocks OR just nothing special.

Simple answer in my mind.

Rocks on powder days - relatively little competition from the texas/oklahoma crowds on the good lines. Can get fresh all day and for a day or two more usually...

Non-powder days, nothing to write home about. Everything but an Alberta peak then waterfall run is just too short of good terrain.

 

[lookn4powder]

I am a little conflicted about Wolf Creek. I cannot decide whether it is a little ski area that rocks OR just nothing special.

Unfortunately, I have never skied Wolf Creek in powder. However, without it - it's just not a place a like a lot.

Pretty much my sentiments, except the one day we skied it, WC had received 48" light powder overnight. It rocked! But skiing WC was more like a nice vigorous walk in the park, rather than the rush one gets from skiing the deep off the cirque at Bachelor or the steeps at Alta/'bird or Crested Butte.

That said, when it's snowing hard, accessing WC from Pagosa Springs can be pretty scary. Besides terrible visibility, the pass closes occasionally for blasting or it can suddenly slide, as it did on us the next day (during a subsequent 40" snowfall). There's got to be many places easier to access after a serious dump.

I won't ever plan to spend an entire week at WC.

Jeff

 

[TRam]

Skies a bit like Grand Targee, both really special places! Both a bit like vail back bowls with less people and better snow. Diffucult destination resort if you can't pick the "right" days.

 

[Tony Crocker]

WC has much shorter fall lines than Targhee or Vail Bowls.

My ski day there was April 1, 2001 in similar conditions to what EMSC describes. But the snow superiority vs. Snowbowl/Monarch/Crested Butte on the same trip was obvious. Twice as much base depth plus more chalk and less spring conditions.

 

[EMSC]

Pictures to go with the words. (1 of 2 posts)

I never did get good pics of the overall layout showing the pitch/flat/pitch.

 

[EMSC]

Part 2 of 2: These pics have nothing to do with skiing really, but this was part of the flavor of our day as Wolf Creek was a road trip day for us, moving us from Crested Butte to Taos. We ended up with exactly perfect timing to see a Nat'l Guard Heli extract a fallen hiker in the Rio Grand Gorge just outside of Taos. The sun had set and it was dusk/nearly dark. The heli pilot did an amazing job holding steady in strong winds... I took mostly video of the event, but those files are way too big to even attempt a post, so here are a couple of pics I thought folks might find interesting...

 

[salida]

EM, good report, glad to see someone getting after wolfcreek.

I am a little conflicted about Wolf Creek. I cannot decide whether it is a little ski area that rocks OR just nothing special.

I've skied a few days here over the years. Mostly on powder days. I have to say, when its snowing, and there is little or no competition for the steep lines, its hard to beat.

If you know where to look you'll find some good terrain, maybe not "extreme" but still very adequate. Also, they are one of the few places in CO that gets dumps of snow, instead of the nickle-dime type events in summit county.

We hit it last december with around 40 inches of fresh, it was so damn good.

Here is another picture of those stairs.