Harvey
Administrator
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2020
51” in 3 days is the official number recorded by the folks at Wolf Creek in the Southern Colorado San Juans. About a week before the storm, the opportunity to chase weather out west began to materialize with a week off of work and cheap flights. Based on previous snowfall patterns this season and fairly consistent models showing 2 low pressure centers sliding over the region with heavy southwest wind flow, we decided to pull the trigger. The place had always seemed almost mythical to me since seeing photos and reading about it in the ski magazines many years ago. Every skier has their “list” and this was possibly the first ever mountain I added to my personal list of must-ski powder havens.
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It’s a beautiful drive from Denver through the high plain, surrounded by the Rockies with views of multiple 14ers along the way.
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Eventually the road climbs and the Rio Grande presents itself, alder groves dotting its banks. Southwest frontier vibes replace the open farmland while rock formations, cliffs, and conifers take over the alders the further you follow the river into the high country. We pulled into a town called South Fork at the entrance to the Rio Grande National Forest. The old school log cabin lodge we rented was right on the river and once hosted Clark Griswald on his family vacation. There are pictures of Chevy and the crew on set filming hung up in the front office. Quiet snow started falling in the afternoon as we settled in.
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We awoke in the morning to about 6-8” down in the valley at roughly 8,000 feet. It would certainly be much more up at the ski area which tops out around 12,000 feet with heavy snow still falling throughout the day.
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Wolf creek pass is by far the snowiest place I’ve ever witnessed. The drive is daunting in the winter, especially when whiteout conditions persist the entirety of the trip. Truckers chained up their tires prior to the climb up the pass, but still a few wound up completely stuck and had to be towed out.
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Day 1 consisted of minimal to zero visibility storm skiing which was fun in deep snow but didn’t allow for full use of the mountain just yet. Vertigo on traverses and catwalks was a factor, and the mountain remained a mystery besides the slightly more visible tree skiing lines of which there are endless. We took it easy on the first day, saving energy for two more powder days on tap. The snow kept stacking up and surely visibility would get better, right?
Right but only slightly, until the first low pressure system moved out half way through day 2 allowing the sky to clear for a couple of hours before the second system moved in.
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The ridge line and bowls are amazing, but it’s the tree skiing that really gives Wolf Creek its heart. The entire mountain is essentially melded together in one giant glade. Most of the best lines involve dropping off the top for several steep, blower, bowl turns flowing right into the trees where the pitch varies from rolling meadow skipping sections to much steeper lines through widely spaced spruce. The transition from high alpine to tree line served as a portal to the flow zone, bringing you into a trance with endless options for placing your next bottomless slash or sending it off pillow drops into neck deep landings.
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Most of the ridge bowls and chutes are hike-to but at the cost of a few hundred vertical feet you can skip the hike and traverse right underneath for a similar but shorter line.
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In the afternoon on day 2 the temperature started dropping and the flakes returned, growing substantially in size. The 2 pm snow report showed a storm total of 30” thus far and back in the valley it was seriously hammering fat fluffy flakes. I looked at one of the lodge employees still shoveling us out and said to him with a huge smile “just keeps comin’ down eh?” He responded in a slow country drawl “Comin!? It ain’t never gon’ stop!”
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Wolf Creek is a ski area with an increasingly rarer to find operational backbone. There is no lodging within 15 miles of the lifts. You can’t purchase lift tickets online in advance, strictly at the window, although you can still buy multi-day passes to avoid the window every day. The lifts start running 830 am no matter how much snow has fallen, they are more than used to it. The northeast facing mountain avoided wind holds from the 50 mph southwest gusts.
The skiing comes first. Even with people flying in and powder hounds converging on the mountain from all over, nary a lift line was encountered, perhaps 3-5 minutes tops and that was uncommon. It was ski-on most of the week. The powder boards and pontoon sized skis were out in droves. Everyone was there for the same reason, and many who just happened to be there for a family vacation wound up returning their equipment rentals and opted for the hot springs. Shangri la found.
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The sun finally blessed us with its golden rays for first chair on Thursday. It was the most glorious lift ride I can remember, the pinnacle of lift access powder skiing reached.
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There was plenty of blank canvas for everyone to put down their own brush strokes all morning.
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Sometime in the afternoon, to our surprise, the snow started coming down hard…again. It was incredible how fast the morning tracks filled in with a quick 4” refreshing the hill back to near untouched in a matter of an hour or 2. The locals we rode the lift with with were super stoked to show us all the right spots to ski all day long and once we had our fill, invited us back to the hot springs on the west side of the pass in Pagosa Springs to heal up and reminisce on what was just another day for them, but the absolute day of days for us less fortunate.
The sun was vibrant at golden hour back in town, but the ever present clouds still enshrouded the pass. More epic turns were sure to be had by all the following day as well. For us, 3 straight pow days and 51” satiated the craving.
Sorry it took me so long to read it, I'm a one trick pony.
Temp this is unreal. So awesome, well written with killer pics. Thanks!
Maybe my favorite pic in this TR.
