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Colorado has been extremely dry, very dry. The San Juans even more. Last week, our mountains looked extremely bleak.

Moon rise over the Grenadiers with minimal snow


So with no snow in the forecast, or on the mountains, the mountain bike in shambles, and the itch to stand sideways overwhelming, outside the box thinking was key. So, it was off to Great Sand Dune National Park for some sandboarding.

Sandboarding you say? Yeah, I have no snow, shut it. I had never been sandboarding before, but I was dying to stand sideways. With no preconceived idea of how sandboarding was, I went with low expectations.

Look at that pow... Wait, sand?


I found sandboarding is very similar to splitboarding. You pick your line, aesthetic or not, choose a good route up, and come down as fast as possible. Walking in sand sucks, but its better then bootpacking in 3 feet of snow up a couloir. I thought of it as training with what I have.

Also, its nice to not have to think about avalanches

Where would you go? So many line choices.


Putting in the skin track, its nice having a girl break trail for you. Route selection is key, not


Sumitting the high dune, we were greeted with views around. Crazy the mountains are next to a dune.


The reward was ripping down 300 ft of sand


Abby (the dog) was stoked to get back into shred mode




Sand Angels


Track spotting. First turns in December!


PBR as the sun gets ready to set


And the sunset atop High Dune, riding down after this was fun.


It certainly wasn't splitboarding, but at this point, I'll take what I can get. And it was surprisingly really fun.

How about you Canadians send some of that snow south though, I mean, I'm sandboarding in December, damn.

Nice. That's kind of insane how dry those mountains look...

How was the wind? I got tore up while I was there and had no exposed skin. Amazing place. Next time I'll have to bring a shred stick.

Wind was minimal, about 5-10 mph most of the time. But I am still picking some sand out of my camera, and my nose. Its crazy how much sand gets everywhere. Buff's help as well on the face.

Very cool TR!!

My condolences regarding the snow pack--that was sad to see.

you will get through this. everything will be OK.

Looks like you made some good lemonade. Cool TR.