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good to know more detail on that snow pack...saw a lot of BC tracks out there on my way back over red mountain pass friday afternoon and the snow pack looks good from a far...good to know that a lot of it is too good to be true though..

luckily the snow at silverton was "controlled" more, but they had a few slides around their back bowl and across the valley i saw at least a half dozen natural and rider caused slides...

one scary one i saw was on the way back up the pass, in trees, on a steep slope where we saw tracks coming into a crown that looked to have ripped away and hopefully the rider wasn't taken into the trees below...i would say a WSW face and the crown was below a tree, next to a rocky section....

How's our snowpack fellow coloradoans? I'm homeward bound for the next week. I'm from Berthoud (City not the pass) but mostly I'll be in the Vail area. Have you guys been getting any storms? Here in Utah we had our first real storm since the weekend before thanksgiving. Its been so bad the avalanche center took a hiatus.

Tell me some good news. I'm worried because my brother said two weeks ago Vail pass was grass.

Don't bother! Stay away from the Northern Colorado Rockies, they are living up to their name... Rocky! The snowpack is thin and variable and we haven't gotten much snow fall this year.

All the storms have been inversions that come in from the south-east/south-west and run up against the front range. They are pounding the metro area and foothills, but not much snow west of the divides.

However... The San Juan's are getting pounded! I just got back from Wolf Creek and it was truly great! Lots-O-Texans right about now, but plenty of snow and lines if you know where to look.

We had bottomless powder all day, every day at the Pass Creek Yurt area (2-3 miles east of WC) about 30"-40" base with mostly stable snow. There was a 10-"-12" layer on top that was looking like it wanted to move, but never failed on us. We had 2 instances of whoomphing on big slabs, but again they didn't move on us. As we were skinning back out it started dumping again, and we quickly got another 6"-9" of very light fresh snow.

Merry Christmas Fools!

In light of that, should I leave my split at home? I wont make it far enough south.

Murphy's law...

If you leave it at home, it will dump! Bring your rock splitty and a helmet...

Damn. Why doesn't Christmas fall in February? It seems like I'm only ever home when the season is early and the snowpack thin. .

January should be productive, I scheduled a ton of work. Never fails.

Yo Pedro, Sounds like you guys had a good time at the Pass Creek Yurt!! I'm jealous. Been working for the last 2 weeks straight. I'm headed down to Pagosa for a few weeks at the end of January. I hope the storms keep coming down there.

Your right about the northern mountains. Sticks and stones folks. I heard Vail reported a 19" base on Christmas!! WTF??

I have 18" in my front yard on the west side of D-town. Thinkin about buildin a kicker and inviting some folks over for a session. Hehehe

Berthoud Pass Avy 1-1-2012

http://avalanche.state.co.us/acc/acc_report.php?accfm=rep&acc_id=426

Ugly, and didn’t show up on the ECT (extended column test)

Goes to show to do all your tests. I generally don't put a lot of emphasis on the shovel sheer test, but they claimed that it was fast and sheer. That tells you a lot. Last year I did not at one time get propegation on an ECT (on a lot of pits), but this year, every time I have done it around treeline, I get propogation, and pretty easily. The last one was scary, it failed to the ground when I isolated the back. Its scary out there, be safe everyone.

And pray for snow. Sacrifice gear, do whatever you do the please Ullr, whos not giving it up so easily this year.

He's raging pissed. Somebody must have punted him in the nuts or something.

But maybe this is what he was waiting for...
http://www.breckenridge.com/eventdetail/Ullr+Fest.axd?year=2012&month=1&eventview=calendarview

That's reinforcing for sure. I have a spot I always go to early season, every year. I looked down it five times this year but couldn't commit. All my pit data was good but I just wouldn't drop because 1.) the runnout would be enough to kill a person but 2.) I was scared of finding the sweet spot( like a rocky outcropping where the snows been rotting away etc.) two three turns in. I like the shovel shear tests cause a lot of times the snowpack will lack energy and while you may not get anything from your CT's you can find a potential weak layer with a clean shovel shear. Here's our current snowpack all we need is some snow.

Take care.

Went to Berthoud yesterday, it was pretty good, all things considered. 6"-12" of fresh with wind-loading; there were face-shots to be had for sure. The was some sloughing on steeper pitches, but no major movement. There is a pretty crappy sun baked layer on anything that gets a lot of direct sunlight. This layer seemed to act as a fast bed surface, especially on lower elevations.

One issue was breaking through the hard layer and trenching up over your knee.

All and all it was a good powder day (not as good as last year but..). It was however cold and windy, but welcome to the continental divide!