TR: Stanley Slide Path 3/11

So it all began this morning with the alarm going off an hour earlier than I had anticipated due to the clock automatically adjusting for daylight savings time. I don't care what the clock said it felt more like 3:30 than 4:30. Smitchell3333 and I met up at the top of the pass at 6 sharp. We were skinning by 6:30 or so under overcast skies and temps around 20 degrees.

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...nley/Crop1.jpg

Before too long things began to clear up nicely although there were sustained winds out of the NW of about 15 to 20 mph.

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...nley/Crop2.jpg


So we decided to take a nice long tour up over Russell and No Name and around to Stanley. I was about ready to start skiing by the time we made it up to Stanley at around 9:15.

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...ley/Crop10.jpg

There was a good bit of windloading taking place on East and S East aspects. The stability in the Stanley slide path was quite good though due in large part to the big slide that took place there a couple of weeks ago. Conditions varied from knee deep to just a few inches.

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...nley/Crop4.jpg

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that the conditions were purty good.

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...nley/Crop3.jpg

Smitchell3333 linked at least 40 turns down the first pitch off of Stanley. It was a thing of beauty.

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...nley/Crop6.jpg

Neither of us wanted to stop. It felt like you could just link turns endlessly

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...nley/Crop5.jpg

By the time we reached the bottom of the slide path we were both hooting and hollering.

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p.../Crop7copy.jpg

Here is one out of focus shot of pretty much the whole route.

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p.../Crop9copy.jpg

It was a great day and I was able to get back to the house by about 12:15 so that I could actually get some stuff done. The other bonus is that we missed all of the I-70 traffic.

Looks like fun!

damn. never seen tracks in stanley. nice.

Nicely done

Berthoud was so $$$ Sat, and still puking when we left at 5pm. I knew Sunday was going to be awesome.(We hit the ridge at Loveland, which wasn't too shabby either) Nice line! That has to be 1500'+ continous. Good call on conditions on a normally sketchy line. I did hear about a big slide on Berthoud Sunday(see CAIC report). Anybody know where?

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Nice line! That has to be 1500'+ continous. Good call on conditions on a normally sketchy line.

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Yup, we figured that it was probably about 2000' from the peak to the road. Stanley is 12,521 and the Henderson mine is at about 10,200. We had great continuous snow starting just below the actual summit. There was a little bit of avy debris down the slide path that had refrozen and been partially covered by the fresh, but for the most part it was visible enough to put a turn in before impact.

Looks like I picked the wrong day.........

Well Done!

The slide path is somewhere between 2200 and 2300'

A view of most of the line:
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/a...1&d=1173744071

View up from the bottom:
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/a...5&d=1173744071

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Originally Posted by Woolbury

I did hear about a big slide on Berthoud Sunday(see CAIC report). Anybody know where?

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I did read that in the report yesterday and was wondering where it happened..... Anyone?