RogueRider,

Pre-halloween and you scored it! Nicely done.

Went and hit an old standby with MountainDog on 10/27/12. Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

[youtube:1yvms7qk]jlEYm00mlYY[/youtube:1yvms7qk]

Took my split for a hike yesterday in James Peak Wilderness to check the situation, go through the motions, and enjoy a nice day and fresh air. It’s farlooking right now; looks good from afar, but far from good looking.

If you go, you’ll have a 3 mile hike/bootpack in most any direction (from the Moffet Tunnel parking lot) before you can even start skinning, unless you don’t care about destroying skins and boards. Once I switched to skins, I still had to be very careful- lots of stepping instead of sliding.

Below treeline didn’t look ridable on any aspect because it’s still too thin. Near treeline held some thin powdery pockets in the shade, and above treeline all seemed to be pretty wind hammered. South facing aspects looked to be getting royally baked- you could hear a river under the snow in areas.

My consensus; wait for another 2-3 feet of snow before going up there in search of turns unless you want to go for a hike like I did (6 miles hiking, 2 miles skinning, 0 snowboarding).

Picks here since I can never figure out how to put images in this forum.
http://www.eddieclarkmedia.com/Print-Gallery/1213-snow-season/26538942_gsNRd5#!i=2217428167&k=DXFT5JS

lot’s of snow north of CB, these were both taken tues

windloaded:

Thanks for the pep-talk HFT! I think I may actually try to get out this week. :drinks:

had plenty of shooting cracks on steep road cuts, not much whoomphing in the flats. Got some small slides to go below the aqueduct road, basically to the ground with plenty of facets. I wouldn’t go near anything steep just yet.

Jones Pass area 12/15/12. Lots of shooting cracks and settlement on the skin track. Slope was either too low angle, or the snowpack wasn’t consistent enough to start a slide. Actually a pretty good day considering the season so far in the front range. Didn’t hit many rocks, though they were lurking close to the surface. Maybe 2-3′ total depth.

Check the crack to the right of the tree

Although not as deep as the Wolf, Steamboat is going off now. Haven’t been in the backcountry yet but the reports I’m getting from patrol make it sound pretty dicey. Going to rack up some days on the pass the next couple days, maybe head out for a tour later in the week when the storms subside. Snotels making it look as the Front Range is getting skunked.

Keep it safe everyone.

BTW Side country gates should be open this week :thatrocks:

@PedroDelfuego wrote:

Wolf Creek has reported 42″ in 72 hours!!!

Its a good week to be a San Juanito….

The storm power split the San Juans. I was in Silverton, and north of Molas got about 12 inches, of low density, very bad bonding snow. South of Molas got around 2 feet, but there wasn’t much prior to do much with it. Wolf Creek was certainly the winner. Snow depths still too low to really get after it by Silverton, so rode low tide meadows Sunday. Silverton Mtn was boney in spots Saturday, but if you found the right aspect, it was really good (face shots on Ropedee 4). No core shots, so that says something though.

We have another storm that is coming, which favors the W San Juans more then Wolf Creek and calling from 10-30 inches depending where. Hoping it pans out. Good thing I’m feeling sick, and 4 day weekend (maybe 5 now.. )