Front Range Conditions: Memorial Day Weekend 2014

This Memorial Day Weekend was not as kind as holiday weekends from the past years. Clouds dominated the Front Range evenings and prevented a freeze. Evening temperatures at Loveland Pass and Rollins Pass did not break freezing. Thunderstorms kicked up every afternoon. It even snowed a bit.

Despite these challenges we sent the Front Range Ski Mountaineering team into the peaks on Memorial Day and Tuesday, May 27. Here is what they found:

Memorial Day: The R&D team worked their way up the Rainbow Road, just off of the Fall River Road, to Mount Eva and Witter Peak. They were able to drive past 10,225’ on the Rainbow Road, and high clearance 4WD could make it to a quarter mile before the Chinns Lake Road intersection. It wouldn’t matter as this intersection is on private land and there is no parking here. Parking is back at the Continental Divide Trail at 10,225’. Consistent skiing began at the Chinns Lake Road intersection. The Rainbow Road had sporadic snow, but skinning could be had in the adjacent forest. The Chinns Lake Road is snow covered the whole way and awkwardly out sloped.

The fresh snow from Sunday night made Perry Peak look like a good ski descent, but the R&D team knew better than to trust that lurking boneyard. The upper bowls of Eva and Witter were stocked full of snow. Even though a deep freeze did not occur, and the 2 to 3 inches of new snow insulated the under layers, the low angled bowls of this beautiful and under utilized basin skied great. The Welcome Couloir on Witter looked unwelcoming as a lot of loose wet slides had barreled through the couloir and left a bumpy channel in the lower half of the couloir and debris piles in the run out. The face above the couloir still looks good, though.

Tuesday: We sent the R&D team to the Mount Evans Road to scope out conditions on the road and sample the food at the Echo Lake Lodge. Word from the Echo Lake Lodge staff is that the Mount Evans Road was closed consistently through the weekend.  The road opened at 1 pm on Tuesday once the fresh snow had melted (open to Summit Lake). After some chili and club sandwiches the R&D team headed up. They report that the routes around the Summit Lake Bowl look great. The Sunrise Couloir and the steep routes on the South Face of Mount Spalding have some loose surface slides that could freeze into coral reef, but for the most part they are clean. The cornices above these routes are massive. The North Face of Mount Evans is full of snow. The Northeast Face look like crap: rock fest. The East Face (just south of the Northeast Face) looks spectacular and ready for big banking turns.

Check out the Twitter handle @frskimo for some landscape pictures of this weekend.

Front Range Conditions: Weekend of May 17

The Front Range’s spring ski mountaineering season is in full effect. 

What, spring you say? 

Yes, spring. 

But it is almost June!

That is correct. It is almost June, but winter is just now moving out of the Colorado high country. Last week the Arapahoe Basin ski area received nearly 40 inches of snow. According to the article by the Daily Camera, the snowpack in the South Platte River Basin had been 121 percent of average, but after the snow fell over Mother’s Day weekend, that number reached 145 percent.   

With all of this snow fall, we sent the Front Range Ski Mountaineering R&D team to the peaks to see how the new snow was settling in.  Here is what we found:

Saturday: A trip up the Stevens Gulch area near Grays and Torreys Peaks revealed that you won’t be able to drive past the first switchback before needing to park. The snow blocks the road from cars and trucks at this point (for now).  We walked on intermittent snow and dirt to the fork with the Grizzly Gulch Road, and then skied on skins up the remainder of the road. The temperatures were warm down low and a full freeze did not occur.  The clouds from the night before prevented this, and there were several loose slide releases during the day.  It was hot spring conditions below tree line and winter above tree line.  Reports from Kelso’ North Couloir was that the top was chalky powder and slush at the bottom of the gully. A skier triggered wet slab late in the day on a northeast aspect below tree line on Ganley Mountain originated from a single turn that slid on the dust layer and ran about 500 vertical feet (R3, D2).

Sunday: A clear night resulted in a deeper freeze and the newer snow beginning to bond to the older snow.  Front Range Skimo R&D explored Herman Gulch and discovered intermittent snow immediately on the trail. Skinning began near the flats at approximately 10,800’. The basin was active and there were obvious loose slough slides on the north side of Citadel, and it appears these slides prevented skiers from descending the Northeast Couloir (Snoopy’s Backside).  Larger natural wet avalanches occurred in the basin during the day. There was a freeze, but it got hot fast.  Word from the Gore Range is that the Silver Couloir on Buffalo was a “shit show” and that about 800 feet down the couloir small release (presumably occurring on Saturday) had widened into a large wet slide and mowed down the lower couloir leaving debris and heavy wet snow.  

Check out our Twitter handle @frskimo for some landscape pictures from this weekend. Be safe out there!

Welcome!

Welcome to Front Range Ski Mountaineering! Colorado’s Front Range is blessed with an amazing spring and summer ski mountaineering season that usually runs from mid-April to mid-June. Some permanent snowfields provide skiing opportunities into the summer. We soft launched the website in early May for Colorado Front Range ski mountaineers to get their hands on, use, and provide feedback. We hope that you enjoy using this site and we welcome your feedback, changes, new routes, and insights. Please see the contact page for more information on how to reach us.

This is a “where to” guide, not a “how to guide”. We provide information to help you identify and reach some of the best ski mountaineering descents on Colorado’s Front Range. Snow is a changing medium and we don’t know what you will encounter when you go. The trail may be snow covered all the way from the trailhead, or perhaps you are walking in hiking boots for several miles before you reach snow, who knows? The route may be filled with a ton of snow from a big winter and moderate the pitch, or it may be a drought year and the couloir is steeper than normal and littered with rocks and fluted ridges. We do our best to describe the route and approach at a high level during an “average” year at the common times for Front Range ski mountaineering.

Ski mountaineering is a dangerous activity. With experience and good judgement it can be a really fun and addictive activity. To develop that experience and good judgement we suggest that you get a mentor to guide you through the experience, mountains, skills, and equipment. There are also several excellent ski mountaineering guide services in the Front Range and these are listed on the resources page of this site.

We will be updating this site throughout the spring. There will be many more peaks and routes added during this time. We will tune the site based on user feedback and then have it really ready to go for the 2015 season. Watch for detailed updates on Twitter @FRskimo and for high level updates on this blog.

Thank you!

Front Range Ski Mountaineering