Berthoud Photo/Conditions Thread (2010-2011)

[bamboocoreONLY]

^glad i got there at 8, it was me and one other guy.

[bngofast]

I personally found some good skiing at 5:00 PM. Maybe it was just me?

[skiingalot1234]

How was it this morning up there? I'm thinking about heading up around 3 today

[DeeAre]

Be careful on the low tide shred fellas.

[Ireallyliketoski2]

I just talked with climb2ski and he said that the plunge was the the chest deep sickter this morning. He then hiked to the oatmeal bowl but hit a rock on the descent and broke his leg. He was able to walk out on his hands and get himself to work by 10am though.

[skiingalot1234]

What????????

[Poop~Ghost]

Oh shit, so sorry to hear that. Met up w/ powtron and volklpowdermaniac this morning. Powtron lost his skins into the gear abyss so was dying a rowdy death trying to post-hole.

I felt so bad for the poor bastard that I put my skis on my back and punched a thigh-waist deep line until I nearly had my heart explode. It was slow going and only ended up getting one run in before heading down to put out fires at the office.

Seems like october always gives us a taste of the good stuff.

It was cold and WINDY last night and didn't change much this morning. 10-12 degrees.

[skiingalot1234]

Ah nice... thanks poop. And really, i shattered my tib/fib 6 years ago. I know all about hitting shit foot! damn tree stumps!
Well, i'm going to hit up bert around 4. My buddy thanks ya for the boot pack!

[Grandyoso]

I personally found some good skiing at 5:00 PM. Maybe it was just me?

It wasn't just you.. I skied three runs down the west face around five and was all Glad I got it in before the November melt

[bamboocoreONLY]

for anyone who was up today, was it still snowing in the morning? and when did it clear up if so?

[volklpowdermaniac]

Oh shit, so sorry to hear that. Met up w/ powtron and volklpowdermaniac this morning. Powtron lost his skins into the gear abyss so was dying a rowdy death trying to post-hole.

I felt so bad for the poor bastard that I put my skis on my back and punched a thigh-waist deep line until I nearly had my heart explode. It was slow going and only ended up getting one run in before heading down to put out fires at the office.

Seems like october always gives us a taste of the good stuff.

It was cold and WINDY last night and didn't change much this morning. 10-12 degrees.

Was good to get out there, and I will be less of a hack on the going up in a few weeks...

we did a handful more runs after Poop left, mostly behind the Cabin and down to the north, short but absolutely sweet, didn't hit a thing and me and PowTron we're the only ones skiing it. Then we tried to ski lower floral (sort of) and into the drainage, but it has not filled in quite right yet, hit some rocks... all in all, worth every penny, there is still some snow to be had over the next day, it snowed pretty good til about 1030, and the sun poked through....

when we got there at 7....it was snowing hard, windy and 9 degrees....visibility was to quote poop "can't fucking see a thing".....

Should be good for one more day, especially if you go to the lower trail head and hike directly into current creek, didn't seem like anyone was doing anything there...

[skiingalot1234]

Thanks volkl! I'm heading up in an hour for some late turns....

[smmokan]

I will most likely be up there tomorrow morning early.... bright blue jacket, plaid pants, white Subie w/ TGR sticker.

[PowTron]

Yes, big ups to VPM and Poop for joining my misery train sans skins...

Snow was amazing for this time of year, and I will also add that my 200+lbs didn't hit anything at all, and great smeary turns were had all morning.

There is still a lot left, just have to hunt slightly for it. Floral looked like it had LOTS of goods left in the trees, so we'll call it upper-middle lower Floral area

I owe some beers to my trail breakers today.

[skiberly]

Berthoud was pretty beat as we drove through around 5pm tonight. A dozen or so vehicles in the lot, tracks all over, and a whole lotta grass and logs sticking out.

Nothing but a white blanket this morning! Not a track in sight....

[sklar]

thinking about going up early tomorrow morning with my bro, scope it out and try and get some turns

[RAWR]

We hit the pass yesterday right when 40 west opened back up. It was good:





Went back today for some more great snow:





Southeast aspects near treeline are tits deep!

[Foggy_Goggles]

warning: redundant old grumpy local guy rant

Why would you advertise the fact that the skiing is much better than many could imagine? You are contibuting to the early season shit show. I know it is exciting, I know you want to share with your internet friends, but perhaps a little restraint is in order.

To be honest, the vibe at the pass (especially early season) is starting to suck. The internet is part of the reason.

[Cruiser]

Come on Foggy. Everyone who lives around the front range and has even thought about skiing backcountry knows that Bert delivers the goods. That cat has been out of the bag for a while now. But the folks who have been at it a while know how to avoid the hooligans by going at non-peak times and skinning to slightly more remote sections. Let the crew show off the October deepness. If I was too f'in busy with work and the kids this week I'd have been a part of that shit show myself...

[Grandyoso]

The Vibe at the pass now is so much better than in the middle of the season. 6-8 car compared to a full lot and some Douche with a brand Rubicon parked in the enterance so there is only one lane. An actual skin track and boot pack. People leave you alone or give a quick hi. Just sayin...

[smitchell333]

Good skiing up there, for now. We'll see what the warm temps to do it. I am hoping it might actually make for a nice base layer.

I do think there is some substantial avy danger as there is some collapsable depth hoar at the bottom and any slide you're caught in will be a rock/stump grating experience, but there is always someone willing to charge the avy lines ala Lift Gully and Nitro and getting away with it as far as I could see.

Edit for - On another note for pass newbies:

PLEASE figure out where the BOOT track is and don't SKIN in it

AND

figure out where the SKIN track is and don't BOOT in it.

If you do one or the other then the next guy through has to break trail again.

[Ireallyliketoski2]

I always thought the bp early season was a massive shit show and that the scene improved as the resorts started opening up terrain and put the newbs back on the piste. But maybe I shouldn't have said that either, either way berthoud is sick, but it was much better when it was a ski area with lifts.

[RAWR]

warning: redundant old grumpy local guy rant

Why would you advertise the fact that the skiing is much better than many could imagine? You are contibuting to the early season shit show. I know it is exciting, I know you want to share with your internet friends, but perhaps a little restraint is in order.

To be honest, the vibe at the pass (especially early season) is starting to suck. The internet is part of the reason.

Sorry about that, I meant to post those in the Berthoud Photo/Conditions Thread rather than the Berthoud Whining thread. I'm not a very good skier yet, I only have 30 posts.

But seriously, it is what it is. The stoned snowboarders will hike up and build kickers on the west side face, while the motivated/educated will find great snow far from the road. If I want to ski in total solitude where nobody can disturb me, I will go elsewhere. But some days, I really like the social aspect of the pass.

Now useful info:
Below treeline on S to E aspects, there is a very thin layer of facets on the ground, but not enough that we could get failure on this layer. Near and just above treeline, we found thicker layers of sugar snow (especially where the snowpack is thin) but it seems very spatially variable. The snow in the deeper drifts seems to have settled into one continuous layer. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few weeks.

[sklar]

just got back
i'm kind of a BP noob, but me and my bro skied a few laps on HHA i believe
Snow was great! all was good except i was teleing and snowshoeing because my new skis aren't here yet

we left between 10 and 11, it was starting to get pretty warm then

[smmokan]

Sklar- I was up there this morning too, my friend and I were one of the first couple cars in the lot. We skied near HHA and then on the west side of the pass, playing it safe and trying not to hit anything underneath. It was anywhere from 1-2.5' deep everywhere, and the snow was silky smooth. When we left around 11:00, the sun was just starting to hit the snow hard, I have to imagine the snow quality is going to be shit by tomorrow.