The Colorado Ikon Tour

JTG

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 6, 2020
On the heels of VT last weekend, I’m off to Colorado to chase what seems to serve as a “storm” in this pathetic winter. The stats say the Colorado snow pack is pretty close to normal, but around the Front Range they are on about 200 inches for the season. Seems low. Not that it seems to be much of a problem. The mountains I’m targeting (A Basin, Copper, Winter Park) are all at or near 100% open.

There was snow in the forecast last night, there’s more snow in the forecast (4-8) tomorrow, with a little more on Monday. Not deep, but I’ll take it. Latest runs are pushing tomorrow’s snow a little further south (Copper/A Basin) than they were yesterday (Winter Park). As I did today, I’ll see who reports the most snow with tomorrow’s early reports and head there. Met a couple locals at the bar tonight who swear by Copper, so maybe that.

Today A Basin reported the most (only 3 inches), so there I went. Snowed in varying intensities throughout the day, putting down another couple inches. Conditions were good, at least from an East Coast perspective. Mid-week they had 40 and 50 degree temps on the hill. With temps in the 20s today and new snow I wasn’t terribly optimistic, my East Coast mentality had me fearing dust on crust. I suppose it was for them, but it wasn’t that. Fortunately they do not seem to know the words “loose and frozen granular” out here, with conditions posted as powder/packed powder. I’m no snow scientist but I suspect the lower water content in their snow is what results in a firm edgeable chalk, where we’d have granite below the “powder”.

I’ve been to A Basin a few times, but the Beavers and Steep Gullies are new the last few years so I spent the day getting familiar with the 40+ degree trees and rocky chutes leading to their “hike back” terrain. At least I got to put my newest touring setup to use, rather than hiking the 30 minutes back.
FFB38F71-C49B-440F-BE74-55A2242D6CBA.jpeg

Three to five inches on the chalky base wasn’t exactly a powder day, but it skied great.
4DE641F9-C016-4CDC-8894-95AF56557267.jpeg
E1932002-F368-4325-85C7-AE98CE2ADF6A.jpeg
E375718F-33B1-47F4-BAE0-0AA2D50237AC.jpeg
84955DF6-75A4-44BA-9DB3-779F24CE2EF0.jpeg
24223404-1BCB-46D0-B61D-8656D5B5533F.jpeg
82FF9D5F-0D78-485C-82F1-875931B6A7CA.jpeg

The vistas are amazing out here. This is the backcountry across the road from A Basin, on the back side of Loveland.
B0A76AE8-B47A-4740-A408-B7E5C11C7B7E.jpeg

FBFA5CB9-C128-4F1A-899F-C734CB4CC1EE.jpeg

Other than one run I spent the day on the Pali chair. I’d put that one up there with KT-22, Castlerock, and the MRG single at the top of the best chairs list. Nice that they replaced the old Pali chair with a double, as opposed to a triple or quad.

East Wall is in play, so another day at A Basin is in the cards to hike that. We’ll see what tomorrow brings…
 
Nice JTG!

Conditions look damn fine to me.

I love me some east wall action. Have you spied the big classic Couloir in the next basin to the east of the ski area affectionately named Shit For Brains? It’s the one that starts out fairly wide and then about half way down gets very narrow. You can’t miss it really. Put it on your list, it’s a good one.

To be honest, I’ve had more fun skiing the really wide Couloir in the left side of this image in perfect cream doing high speed carves wall to wall. That one is called Dog Leg.

469657AC-BDE7-4F47-98BF-7AE243A9C9DD.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Nice JTG!

Conditions look damn fine to me.

I love me some east wall action. Have you spied the big classic Couloir in the next basin to the east of the ski area affectionately named Shit For Brains? It’s the one that starts out fairly wide and then about half way down gets very narrow. You can’t miss it really.
Yeah, I spy a that (and Marjorie Bowl) just outside the A Basin boundary. However, I’d be leery of venturing on my own. Doesn’t seem like a wise zone to go solo.

I’ve messed around enough in the Cascades and LCC backcountry that I’d consider venturing out (to easy-er objectives) on my own…..but I don’t know squat about the CO backcountry.
 
Yeah, I spy a that (and Marjorie Bowl) just outside the A Basin boundary. However, I’d be leery of venturing on my own. Doesn’t seem like a wise zone to go solo.

I’ve messed around enough in the Cascades and LCC backcountry that I’d consider venturing out (to easy-er objectives) on my own…..but I don’t know squat about the CO backcountry.
That’s a good call. It’s another good reason to get back there some day. That continental snowpack right there on the Divide can be extremely touchy and things change rapidly with just a quick squall and some wind. The cross loading can really catch you off guard. A buddy of mine and I kicked off a good sized slide one day after a surprise windy squall and a couple of inches on the approach before bailing on our intended objective (SFB).

The hike across the ridge to get to SFB is much scarier than the actual skiing if I remember correctly. It’s been 21 years now since I’ve skied there!
 
Last edited:
No new snow anywhere overnight. The two 25-year locals I met at the bar last night pretty much exclusively ski Copper. That speaks volumes, so there it was today. Not many pictures because the snow started coming down heavy around noon.
F992A7CE-7122-484A-95BB-DD08AB3C7F27.jpeg

Turned into that kind of afternoon. While the high alpine vis in the bowls sucked, staying near what few trees you could find helped.
BB23068E-808F-4DFF-92FA-D1FA190B65E2.jpeg

A813C4FA-35BD-4EA4-9C0E-B235B14C72EE.jpeg

A few other random pics I was able to get.
2321B2BB-36E1-49E5-86CA-BAB6D12C80C6.jpeg

E5B74709-4035-489E-8E76-2C8F1ED8DD19.jpeg

I’ve only been to CO two other times, and I never gave Copper a thought. That was a mistake. Huge, nice terrain, great high alpine. I’ll probably come back on one of my remaining days. With better vis I can hike the summit of Tucker. Unfortunately the Rocky Mountains lived up to their name today. The shop at WF next weekend will need to do a base weld or two when I drop them off….
 
I sometimes struggle with new, unfamiliar terrain with a thin snowpack and a small amount of fresh. It’s hard to relax and enjoy the skiing when I don’t know shit and there’s a tiny blanket hiding everything.
 
Skis are meant to take you to the fun, even if it’s amongst the sharks. The skiing today was fun, well worth the base repair!

This afternoon got really fun. Enough snow fell that you could relax and float a bit, and not worry about the crunchy stuff/moguls underneath. I know what you mean, skiing with complete freedom is so much better than having to be on the lookout and light on your edges.
 
Skis are meant to take you to the fun, even if it’s amongst the sharks. The skiing today was fun, well worth the base repair!

This afternoon got really fun. Enough snow fell that you could relax and float a bit, and not worry about the crunchy stuff/moguls underneath. I know what you mean, skiing with complete freedom is so much better than having to be on the lookout and light on your edges.
Yeah, I’m not very good at skiing with a light foot.
 
Back
Top