Colorado Weather Discussion Thread

**Benny Profane** · 03-08-2015, 10:41 AM

I was in Summit in 03. Never forget the orange alert banner scrolling across the bottom of the Weather Channel calling for 7-8 feet of snow in Evergreen, and, sure enough, they were right. ABasin was closed for one?, two? days, mainly because employees couldn't get there, and Loveland, too. When ABasin finally opened, the lucky ones were the early arrivals before they closed the road for a while and herded all of us out of the parking lot onto the deck of the main building as CDOT dropped three bombs on the Judge. It didn't break, and then it was off to the races.
That was a good year.

**North** · 03-08-2015, 06:59 PM

N/NE aspect near tree line was still holding up in the Sawatch yesterday. N/NE NTL in East Portal zone was friggin wind HAMMERED.

Back to your regularly scheduled reminiscing about winters past....

**simple** · 03-08-2015, 07:05 PM

Bluebird and soft pow this weekend. Great times were had. That was an amazing week + of storm chasing

**trogdortheburninator** · 03-09-2015, 08:16 AM

The wind hammering in the windian peaks wasn't restricted to N facing. S facing was blasted firm and skied very well. A little bit of SE allowed occasional soft snow to intersperse, but there was also a more pronounced wind slab on those aspects near the ridge tops. Wasn't very reactive though. At tree line things transition to a shittastic breakable crust. Glad we weren't skiing there.

Our tracks on Toll, Paiute, and Audubon from near summit of Pawnee

Click image for larger version.

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**The SnowShow** · 03-09-2015, 09:37 AM

Noticed patrol at Loveland triggered an enormous slide...basically all of Wild Child and Super Bowl. Careful out there.

**d-root** · 03-09-2015, 02:13 PM

First time poster, long time lurker. Hey SnowShow, I take it you don't check the CAIC field reports. That was 4 days ago. Would post a link to CAIC, but I am a newbie.

**zartagen** · 03-09-2015, 02:53 PM

Originally Posted by d-root

First time poster, long time lurker. Hey SnowShow, I take it you don't check the CAIC field reports. That was 4 days ago. Would post a link to CAIC, but I am a newbie.

4 days old or not, the slide still illustrates the possibility of large persistent slab avalanches. Maybe try not flaming a mag with your first post, JONG.

**grskier** · 03-09-2015, 03:06 PM

Snowmass had 2 good slides rip... one in Cirque Headwall and one on Ptarmigan.

**d-root** · 03-09-2015, 04:51 PM

"4 days old or not, the slide still illustrates the possibility of large persistent slab avalanches." No Shit, good job Sherlock Holmes.

**trogdortheburninator** · 03-09-2015, 05:07 PM

Seeing the obs for that slide at loveland last week did reinforce my tour plan for saturday to avoid N. Facing terrain regardless if it might harbor better snow. It will remain a relevant data point for quite a few more days, if not weeks/months. Given that this thread contains backcountry and resort conditions, I think it serves as a good reminder to stay vigilant of aspects if entering into high-alpine terrain.

**hatchgreenchile** · 03-09-2015, 05:16 PM

We’re seeing big slides in a controlled high alpine environment at Luv, Snowmass and WP. It’s worth talking about.

**Adrider83** · 03-10-2015, 05:21 PM

Well...not to distract from the slide talk...but I just wanted to say, even the warm conditions...I enjoyed A Basin this past weekend (even though the week before I was skiing overhead blower at Taos). Since it's my first year in CO...I constantly discover new stuff off Pali. Never discovered Gauthier until Sunday. That's a solid little pitch there. Also did some laps in the Beavers. Lots of fun to be had.

Has anyone ventured into the Steep Gullies this season? I see tracks, but I'm suspicious of coverage and stability.

**Blizzard_of_Oz** · 03-10-2015, 07:13 PM

Originally Posted by ColMan

72" in Evergreen during that fun March 2003 storm. The 2003 storm still only ranks #2 overall (Dec 2006 is #9).
We're due for another big one.

To continue with the thread drift ...
Apparently 1913 was greater than 2003 for Denver, but the 2003 storm was centered further west (in Clear Creek County), so ranking storms depends somewhat on location.
I guess you could compute total volume of precipitated moisture for a given area, though monitoring wasn't all that good back in 1913.
March 2003 was pretty epic. I remember hitching out of Eldorka just before the road was closed. Some people skied back to Boulder from Eldora as the bus service was cancelled.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/bou/gif/pns12snow.gif

(What happened to being able to post an image directly from the web without upload to "TGR Community"?)

**simple** · 03-10-2015, 08:10 PM

Originally Posted by Adrider83

Has anyone ventured into the Steep Gullies this season? I see tracks, but I'm suspicious of coverage and stability.

Yes. Very thin. Being suspect is smart but if you plan to ski it you may as well poke around and get a grasp of the consequences of the area. I always wear beacon + in that spot because it can't be trusted 100%

**The SnowShow** · 03-10-2015, 08:58 PM

I agree about Gauthier - just wish you could ski the whole pitch without having to sidestep back up to Pali Wog...guess after the Beavers expansion that area below will be inbounds.

Originally Posted by Adrider83

Well...not to distract from the slide talk...but I just wanted to say, even the warm conditions...I enjoyed A Basin this past weekend (even though the week before I was skiing overhead blower at Taos). Since it's my first year in CO...I constantly discover new stuff off Pali. Never discovered Gauthier until Sunday. That's a solid little pitch there. Also did some laps in the Beavers. Lots of fun to be had.

Has anyone ventured into the Steep Gullies this season? I see tracks, but I'm suspicious of coverage and stability.

**Name Redacted** · 03-11-2015, 07:45 AM

Originally Posted by The SnowShow

I agree about Gauthier - just wish you could ski the whole pitch without having to sidestep back up to Pali Wog...guess after the Beavers expansion that area below will be inbounds.

It'll all be inbounds, but you'll have to walk back to Pali. Gullies are always bony, and usually unstable. Probably best to get a lay of the land from someone who knows their way around back there first, or at least wait till they are bombproof before poking around. You can get in over your head quickly.

**The SnowShow** · 03-11-2015, 07:56 AM

I thought they were adding a traverse lower down, back to Pali or west to the future lift?

**Name Redacted** · 03-11-2015, 08:02 AM

Originally Posted by The SnowShow

I thought they were adding a traverse lower down, back to Pali or west to the future lift?

The lift only goes half way down, near where the smoke shack is now. There will be a path back to Pali, but it'll be uphill. You'll be able to take a high traverse back to Pali, but it'll involve the same route that you are complaining about. Basically, they are only interested in creating blue runs for texans up in Beaver bowl. We'll be lucky if they ever even open the Gullies or the lower half of the expansion for a few years.

ETA: The upper egress on their MDP is theoretical. They are expecting it to develop "organically" like most of the other traverses in the area. It may or may not be possible, but will require cutting out of the run pretty high, and only get you to just below the ponds. It'll still require some hiking. It'll be interesting to see how all of this terrain gets used when it's inbounds.

**hatchgreenchile** · 03-11-2015, 09:03 AM

A NW Pali alignment running valley to summit through the Alleys would be interesting.
I wouldn’t expect Gullies to open much either.

**Adrider83** · 03-11-2015, 09:18 AM

Originally Posted by Cold_Smokin'

A NW Pali alignment running valley to summit through the Alleys would be interesting.
I wouldn’t expect Gullies to open much either.

Yeah. I know I'm a CO newb, so what basis do I have...but I would rather see an area like that stay as side/backcountry.

**Danno** · 03-11-2015, 11:20 AM

Gauthier is a sneaky good run.

**The SnowShow** · 03-11-2015, 11:46 AM

Originally Posted by Adrider83

Yeah. I know I'm a CO newb, so what basis do I have...but I would rather see an area like that stay as side/backcountry.

Agree, if they're not going to be open much...are those chutes always thinner than 1st or 2nd notch on the East Wall?

So in the future, you'll be able to ski a longer Pali and Gauthier, but won't be able to get back to a lift without an uphill hike, ala Lightning Trees?

**Name Redacted** · 03-11-2015, 12:17 PM

Originally Posted by The SnowShow

Agree, if they're not going to be open much...are those chutes always thinner than 1st or 2nd notch on the East Wall?

So in the future, you'll be able to ski a longer Pali and Gauthier, but won't be able to get back to a lift without an uphill hike, ala Lightning Trees?

Basically, Yes, or a booter back up to the bottom of the new lift. They said that they will discourage hitchhiking the way it's done currently. Those chute have the potential to be open almost as much as Pali Face. Depending on coverage. I've skied them before Pali even opened some years. Hopefully they don't go the way of the East Wall, since they are below treeline, and basically similar terrain to the rest of Pali terrain but I imagine they'll be pretty cautious the first few years.

**The SnowShow** · 03-11-2015, 02:14 PM

Originally Posted by shredgnar

Basically, Yes, or a booter back up to the bottom of the new lift. They said that they will discourage hitchhiking the way it's done currently. Those chute have the potential to be open almost as much as Pali Face. Depending on coverage. I've skied them before Pali even opened some years. Hopefully they don't go the way of the East Wall, since they are below treeline, and basically similar terrain to the rest of Pali terrain but I imagine they'll be pretty cautious the first few years.

I've never skied them...to me they look tougher than anything inbounds off Pali...is that not the case?

**Name Redacted** · 03-11-2015, 02:40 PM

Once they get skied to shit, the main lines won't be anything harder than West Turbo, Gauthier, Waterfall, Lower Allies, Ect. Hopefully, they don't bomb the shit out of it all season to the point that they never hold snow. It'll be interesting to see how patrol manages the terrain.