Berthoud Photo/Conditions Thread (2010-2011)

[soylent green]

What about the geniuses that skin straight up the booter on the west side? Or the skinners that fan out where the booter and skin track meet and make a dozen skin tracks? Pretty sure lacking backcountry etiquette isn't mutually exclusive from your uphill method cause a lot of the people skinning up there are completely clueless as well.

.

^^^^^
Pretty stupid statement. Skintracks don't ruin bootpacks. Extra skintracks don't bother anyone(except you). Skintracks aren't usually put in by bootpacking gapers.

[RockBoy]

Was up in Second Creek on Saturday skiing north aspects. On one run a buddy released a slide ~6" deep and about 50' wide. I chose to ski a different chute just opposite where he skied, that 2 other buddies had just skied down. Droped in, made a few turns and suprise... ~6" crown and about 30' wide. Dropped a small rock into the middle of a very little bowl below and to skiers left, and suprise again... 6" crown and about 30' wide which released about 25' above me.

The moral of my story... The new storm snow is not bonding well at all with the existing snowpack. Be very careful. With some wind loading, those 6" crowns I experienced could easily turn into 2' or 3' crowns by Tuesday.

[kathleenturneroverdrive]

Let's say you have a dozen skin tracks up top where people fan out. Can people not bootpack in ANY of those tracks since each skin track is obviously so sacred? Or are just a couple of them sacred and the rest bootable? If some of those are bootable then how does someone bootpacking know to not take the skin track at the bottom? Wouldn't it be easier to just not give a shit about any of it?

As for skinning in the booter on the westside - even if skinning didn't F up the booter aren't you just setting yourself up for more annoyance if you set the skin track where the booter should be and it gets walked all over later in the day?

Look. It's a 15 minute climb up a tiny hill that a few hundred people do everyday, my point is why the hell bother even caring about any of this stuff since the place is already such a shitshow? Skinners and booters both do tons of dumb shit up there - why not just do your own thing and have a good time?

[Mike_Records]

Had a great day on Berthoud on Saturday. Hit triple rock, a couple runs on the west side, and a couple runs in the 90s. Called it quits when the storm layer starting breaking off in the trees. Heres a frame capture of Erik Mehus on triple rock. If you are interested, there are a few more shots on my blog.

[PowTrout]

I hit triple rock about a month ago and landed so flat on that last little pillow that i almost lost my helmet cam and broke some straps on my pack. U guys just take it with little speed or do you send it kinda skiers right of that last little pillow? Probably gonna try and hit it this week with all the new snow. stoked!!

[Mike_Records]

I hit triple rock about a month ago and landed so flat on that last little pillow that i almost lost my helmet cam and broke some straps on my pack. U guys just take it with little speed or do you send it kinda skiers right of that last little pillow? Probably gonna try and hit it this week with all the new snow. stoked!!

That last pillow is definitely as flat as ever. Both of us landed in the middle of that last pillow. As long as its still super soft its probably fine. If I were to do it again I would probably try to land on the downhill edge of the last pillow and kinda use it as a landing.

[stupendous man]

Dropped a small rock into the middle of a very little bowl below and to skiers left, and suprise again... 6" crown and about 30' wide which released about 25' above me.

Ummm... what?

[Officer_McLawdog]

I hit triple rock about a month ago and landed so flat on that last little pillow that i almost lost my helmet cam and broke some straps on my pack. U guys just take it with little speed or do you send it kinda skiers right of that last little pillow? Probably gonna try and hit it this week with all the new snow. stoked!!

That last pillow is definitely as flat as ever. Both of us landed in the middle of that last pillow. As long as its still super soft its probably fine. If I were to do it again I would probably try to land on the downhill edge of the last pillow and kinda use it as a landing.

I think the preferred method is to nollie over the whole thing and (jacket open, of course) stomp, blow your pack off (you're almost there, dane), and afterbang to the road.

[RockBoy]

"Dropped a small rock into the middle of a very little bowl below and to skiers left, and suprise again... 6" crown and about 30' wide which released about 25' above me."

Ummm... what?

Hmmmmmmm... I think I know what is confusing about that statement. I didn't drop a small 25' rock into a little bowl, I came down an area skiers right where the first small slide ran, hooked a left to get out of the way and dropped a small 8' rock into the middle of a convexity that resembled a smaller version of teacup or some other insignificant bowl-like feature. My impact caused a slide to release about 25' above me.

I should have just replied with, "Yup... a 25' drop is what my bad ass considers little".

[Fritz]

^^^i'm almost positive you are missing his point.

Cool shot, mike_records.

[RockBoy]

^^^i'm almost positive you are missing his point.

I don't get it. What's the point that I am missing?

[soylent green]

The point is.......
Teacup is concave not convex

[Fritz]

I don't know, I think he was questioning your decision making skills. Speaking of which, we saw a fairly significant debris field in 2nd creek yesterday. Not sure if it was yours; looked more like a 2' crown about half way down and ran to the trees. We felt several whumpfs in current creek and set off 2 localized soft slabs in 2nd creek trees on our way to 1st creek. They were both about 1-2' crowns on small convex rollers that released very easy and ran fast. Found some really good snow in 90's, but overall very sketchy. Be careful out there.

[MCH]

Today was cold as F up there -15.. Snow was very slow and very slabby. Looks like The Plunge slid a few days ago. Still fun!

[stupendous man]

you're post makes more sense to me now that you explained it.

still, you don't seem to have a healthy fear of the slides you were releasing all around you, but, I digress. as you were.

[RockBoy]

... still, you don't seem to have a healthy fear of the slides you were releasing all around you, but, I digress. as you were.

I was definitely concerned about those slides, and I wanted to pass my concern on to the "collective" by posting my observations about what the previous storm cycle created in that area. My group is fairly conservative in our terrain selection and that is why these slides created a great deal of concern and second guessing amongst us. Believe me, the last thing I want to do is die, or make a decision that kills a friend. I enjoy living too much to roll the dice for a few steep turns. This situation only remphasized that things can go from good to bad in the blink of an eye.

Now I'm curious to see what happens this weekend with the sun and warmth, followed by the potential of new snow next week. We could be setting up for a scary end to Feb.

[fluxrad]

Cold day today, lots of west wind. Skied Pumphouse and No Name Bench and it was pretty crusty. Floral looked really nice but we ran out of time.

Related: Targas are the WORST binding.

[pappag]

Tried making it up to No Name early in the morning, but the winds were just too much. Reached the base of Russell and turned around once gusts got above 60mph. I know you can skin from the bottom->up, but was bootpacking it today which is a bummer because I have a feeling the snow was gonna be pretty good.


EDIT - below is the actual report moments ago:

Winds: from the NW (310 degrees) at 64 MPH (56 knots; 29.1 m/s)
gusting to 76 MPH (66 knots; 34.3 m/s)

[fastfroggy]

everything above tree line looked like hard slab to me....

[PowTrout]

Little Jump Stoke from BP.

"youtube"YVsGYK1sgDI"/youtube"

[teleyakco]

Try again.

[fastfroggy]

i think this is the video dolson is trying to post http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVsGYK1sgDI

[PowTrout]

[bamboocoreONLY]

sick dane! Looks like you guys definitely found a lot better of a spot than last time. this one actually having a run-in... hahah

[rometheworld]

Hiked up to Current Creek this morning, winds almost blew me over many times. It was rock hard. The trees are the place to be right now.