Anyone getting out in Colorado this weekend?

[cmor]

looking to ski something/anything

[shera]

Send a message to El Kabong. I've skied with him a bunch in the backcountry - he's totally solid and a really nice guy. I'm not sure about my schedule yet. Anyway, I'll pm his email to you.

[cmor]

thanks for the pm.

[El Kabong]

hey, tried to ski the citadel today with a buddy of mine but he crapped out no to far from the top which was a bummer. Got some good turns on the way down but missed the line we wanted. I could be convinced to go back on Sunday if the weather looks nice.

[Ireallyliketoski2]

I'm going to be heading up to mount democrat by kite lake on sunday to try to do some skiing up there.

[snowfire]

GFP and I will be at A-Basin, patrolling Sat. and Sun. If anyone is doing a bit of inbounds come say hi.

[shera]

hey, tried to ski the citadel today with a buddy of mine but he crapped out no to far from the top which was a bummer. Got some good turns on the way down but missed the line we wanted. I could be convinced to go back on Sunday if the weather looks nice.

Aw - you should have had him sit down and eat a power bar and then go some more - what a bummer. That's a cool mountain. I want to ski the north aspect next time I go up there. Did you go straight up dry gulch? I'm wanting to try using the Loveland chairs to get back there.

[shera]

I'm going to be heading up to mount democrat by kite lake on sunday to try to do some skiing up there.

Oh nice! North aspect? I am very curious how deep the snowpack is over there. It looks shallower by Torrey's and the east wall than the year before last. But we had that big storm...

[shera]

GFP and I will be at A-Basin, patrolling Sat. and Sun. If anyone is doing a bit of inbounds come say hi.

Maybe we'll say hi on our way out of bounds.

[Ireallyliketoski2]

I saw a pic of Lincoln from not too long ago and that area is definitely lacking in snow, I'll take some pics. It's a south east facing aspect, which I figure should be, unlike me, pretty mature and settled by now. Basically straight up from Kite Lake with variations as needed, for snow cover. I haven't skied in months, you just lose the feel.

[cmor]

After finding nothing better to do I decided at about 9pm fri night to go and give democrat a go, was on the road by 10pm, and on the trail by midnight. Little less than a half moon, just enough light to see but no so much as to burn out the stars.

Unfortunattly, my trail busting 2 door accord was stopped by snow about 3 miles from the normal trailhead start, if you can get past this pile, its easy driving from there though. I would scope it and give it a go. I decided getting stuck in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere alone wouldn't be super fun though. hence my added trip time.

After the fun walk on dry road in ski boots jaunt I decided to try a little variation and counter up a ridge line and try to summit from there, getting me on snow a little bit quicker. Stability was shat, not what I was expecting, above 11,000 feet it was almost all depth hoar, with a very thin wind slab on top. The snow in this little range is always awful awful awful. A few big slides had ripped not too long ago, tearing surrounding trees to pieces. It was hard to get a decent look in the dark though. By 3:30am or so weather had started to move in and I eventually bailed, having never been in the area before and losing all visibility, a solid 360 degree dome of white, illuminated only by the headlamp. Skiing down was fun, albeit corn snow frozen good and solid. A little buswack down the side of the road and my night was done, besides some hot tea to keep me awake on the drive home.

I would be careful skiing in that area, still lots of instability around. I was on mostly eastern facing stuff.

Is anyone getting out tommorow?

[shera]

Is anyone getting out tommorow?

Yeah, sounds like one party is going for sky chutes (s?) and another will do the north buffalo chute. I'll pm you with my number and you can talk to Lonestar if you want in. The buffalo start is 5:00 am at my house. Sky will be later.

Thanks for the info on Democrat. Much obliged. Strange hours there.

We skied a lot today. Chihuaha and then Marjory. Very nice agressive lines, but the snow is still not corned perfectly. All fun, but we're not there yet. Shallow pack too - I know it just from looking at how long the downclimb is from narrow north pole.

[iskibc]

Refreshed the soul in the Sangre De Christos this weekend. Some nice lines (5,000'+ vert) off Blanca and over near Crestone still ripe. There's something about the Sangres that just cleanse the soul and mind:

[cmor]

I was up in the Sangres recentlly. huge fan. so many lines. solid rock. must go back soon.

I ended up hitting pikes today, apparentlly it was sunny everywhere else, it was puking up there for a while. skied some fun steep stuff though. fun steep bulletproof stuff. good times.

Strange hours there.

Eh, I had work I had to get done on Saturday, i sacrificed sleep for some turns.

[Ireallyliketoski2]

I ended up making it to the summit of Democrat on Sunday, it was cloudy all morning there so I basically skied a frozen ice field back down. Leave no trace skiing. I just did the standard route, but there were many good looking options in the east and south east facing bowls and chutes.