Berthoud Pass 2013-2014 Observations, Conditions and Stoke

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Friends of Berthoud Pass celebrates 10 Years of grassroots avalanche awareness this season. Class calendar is here

Here's a recent pic from the Pass. Game on muthafkkrs!

(credit: Carl Dowdy)

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Interactive map

[Liberty Skis]

Wow, more filled in that we expected. Congratulations to the Friends of Berthoud Pass for a great 10 years! Keep it up.

[Danno]

Can't believe that a) it's been 10 years and b) that it took this long for someone to start the Berthoud pass thread.

[Name Redacted]

Yeah, 10 years, didn't realize. I think the place sees more traffic now than it ever did with lifts. Sure was nice to have some avy control back in those days though...

Otherwise, great job on the FOBP, congrats!

[adrenalated]

Sure was nice to have some avy control back in those days though...

I vote that, for their 10th birthday, we buy FOBP a howitzer.

[bamboocoreONLY]

b) that it took this long for someone to start the Berthoud pass thread.

I almost did multiple times... been skiing it a lot since october.

this was oct. 15th:


it's definitely filled in A LOT more than then, though. I ski'd it last thursday and found some super deep snow in the upper HHA area. Really want to get out after the new snow and get a little further out, maybe see if the XYZ area is good to go.

[Blizzard_of_Oz]

[CG]

I vote that, for their 10th birthday, we buy FOBP a howitzer.

I like where you're going with this, let's make it happen!

[jpcm]

Keep up the good work FOBP!!

How was it out there today? planning on heading up early tomorrow.

[Name Redacted]

Any reports on conditions today (Sunday)? WP is reporting 12" so I'm guessing Berthoud got more.

[georgio]

A buddy of mine posted this on facebook



Doesn't look terrible.

[FiveLarge]

Varies of course, based on aspect/wind effect, but generally about a foot new.

The skiing isn't terrible...but the snowpack generally is. Lots of natural and human triggered slides up there. Pretty much every aspect, even at/below treeline and IN the trees where there's enough snow to ride. Certainly not surprising, given our recent weather pattern and well-warned by CAIC.

Be careful out there. Terrain selection/management and you can still make some safe turns. But, pretty much everything steep enough to slide that still had snow on it before this storm will.

[RonMexico]

Skied a couple of laps in Current Creek today. Where it was good, it was really good. Where it was thin, it was still pretty good although the lurking sharks made things interesting. I hit a rotten spot towards the bottom that pitched me forward at which point I quickly found the bottom of the very shallow snowpack with my head. That was not so good. No signs of collapsing or cracking, but a saw a few fresh point releases on some steeper terrain above the aqueduct.

Here's a shot of my buddy in one of the nicer pockets:

[jbski]

Still really bony up there, but had a great weekend working with the kids on CUFST doing some avy awareness.

[BurnHard]

Worth going up there and doing a few laps tomorrow just to work on my ski legs?

[CG]

Today was good

Y Chute slid yesterday

[BurnHard]

Worth going up there and doing a few laps tomorrow just to work on my ski legs?

Did. not. suck.

Thanks for a great day, Mir!!

[shera]

Did. not. suck.

Thanks for a great day, Mir!!

That snow was superfine, recycled pow. And the trip out 7 mile is magical.

[morganh]

I'm back in CO for the holidays and I really want to shred berthoud. I have all my BC gear and AST 1 training and a car! Hit me up at morgan.ubc@gmail.com if you wanna trip up there together anytime this week. Then when you come to British Columbia I'll show you around up there!

[smitchell333]

From CAIC:


Dear rocket scientists: The Roll is avalanche terrain.

[Below Zero]

When did The Roll slide? I didn't see any avalanche report on the CAIC website.

[adrenalated]

When did The Roll slide? I didn't see any avalanche report on the CAIC website.

https://avalanche.state.co.us/obs/ob...p?obs_id=20646

https://avalanche.state.co.us/obs/ob...p?obs_id=20606

[pappag]

I was there when Big Roll slid. There was 3 of us skiing Floral all morning (all familiar with one another). We then took a break and went for a lap on the west side. While skinning up, some random dude by himself joined us. The way he piggybacked our skin track solo and without so much as a "hi" left me feeling leery. Pretty much got a bad vibe from him.

When skiing down the Roll, 2 of us (I went first) stayed on the ridge and away from the gulley. We stopped by a band of trees. The 3rd person to descend was the rando who then skied into the gulley without giving us any signal or warning. Dude was a complete hazard and liability, and after this experience, I will be very hard-pressed to allow another unknown person into a group of which I am a part. He showed no emotion about what had happened. As for myself, I was not able to get a visual on the slide until just now after seeing the photo above. After seeing the damage, I'm pretty shocked at how casual this guy treated the incident.

[smitchell333]

Yikes. Circus like.
Thanks for the report.

I've seen where the entire area nitro up to those trees to the north has ripped all at once. I think someone in the 90s triggered it on the first turn but somehow escaped.