The wife and I moved to Durango this summer, and have the pass situation under control (both have passes with our jobs). I am wondering about the BC in the area. I have had my time of tempting fate on Berthoud, Loveland and Jones having lived in Winter Park for a time, as well as Summit. I am less interested in hucking and am looking for interesting (safer) open surf style terrain. I am on a Unity 180 so depth of pow is always good. Any starting points?
You are in a great area for BC skiing/ riding. Go into Pine Needle Mountaineering and Backcountry Experience. They both sell backcountry skiing equipment and have several employees that back country ski and can point you in the right direction.
three words, MOLAS and COAL BANK. These two passes look like they were designed with backcountry skiing in mind. anywhere you go you can find the goods. steeps, trees, cliff bands, billy goat, bowls, chutes, etc etc ETC
wolf creek is far but good snow.....the la platas are right next door, as is everything around valliceto....t-ride, silverton? youre in about ground zero for good BC in colorado
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Check out Powderbuzz this winter ( Southern Mtn forum ). You should be able to find some cool places to ride and keep up on snow conditions and maybe find some folks to ride with. As far as dishing on shots, check out Coal Creek & Deer Creek up on the pass, otherwise have fun exploring. Let it snow!
There was quite a big freak-out a while ago on TGR and Teletips on the North side of Wolf Creek Pass. I'll contend that you would have discovered it anyway- BC skiers had been hitting this area for years before the info was posted on the web, and it was hard to miss folks skinning up the ascent when you can see them from the Wolf Creek parking lot. Great area, easy access, fairly safe options, and great snow - when I lived in Durango it was all we did one year- passes are too damn much for what you get at Purg.
As for the --- localism, I have no qualms with taking people skiing or telling folks where to ski, but I believe Powderbuzz's philosophy about dishing on where to ski on the internet is to not draw a site specific road map to people's favorite little powder stashes. Part of the of the fun of the BC around here is to go exploring, and meeting new people. And after breaking my leg last winter in the BC, it reinforced my belief in having a good crew to ski with. As far as what Powderbuzz's philosophy actually is, I defer to Frenchy and other skiers and boarders that use the forum, I'm just trying to represent what I perceive the community has expressed. I could fully be a NIMBY. Fifteen years you could tour around here and not see another track all day, all week. It's not like that anymore. The reality is we have to share, but I don't have to go mark it with flagging tape just so everyone can find it. Peace
PS: If folks are in the area this winter, drop me a line (powderbuzz). I made the same offer last year.Think snow!
whatever you do dont get drug out skiing by d.e. he'll either take you up some go awful slog through 3 feet of the most rotten snow imaginable, only to walk down it again (too rotten to ski) or if you're lucky you'll get to drag him out of the trees on a shovel.
Actually the San Juans have a ton of good skiing, its amazing that no matter how long you live here there are always new runs to go explore. Good luck, I bet you'll be looking to by a split board soon, san jauns are not condusive to slow shoes.
apease the snow gods!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Sport Climbing is Neither
--The Verm
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Nice hair,dawg. Is that after your Cataract / Westy debauchery? For the record I slid down as much as you guys pulled me. Shout out for x-large avie shovels.
Sounds like I am in the right place! The Wolf Creek issue was kind of interesting for me. Years ago, before Berthoud reopened, the BC scene was small and very hard core. We all knew each other, and could trust one another to have good judgment in an emergency. After the area reopened for a few years and then closed again, the numbers of people hiking it were insane. I was on search and rescue, and the title should have been search and recovery. The uneducated mistakes, the testoserone and powder fever made for very long winters. I am not advocating keeping stashes secret as that only adds stress to what should be a soul cleansing experience. I think the oppurtunities to teach proper backcountry protocol and philosophy in this town full of young, eager, and open minded people are endless and unique. Allright ...off my soapbox. I am psyched to hit the passes this winter and keep an eye out for an old graybeard on a longboard
Fifteen years you could tour around here and not see another track all day, all week. It's not like that anymore.
That is probably more of a function of BC equipment getting more popular and accessible to the normal Joe, than public postings of an area. Remember when you had to choose between the Asolo Extremes & the Merrell SuperComps? Now they sell beacons at WalMart (an exaggeration... for now). I saw that the SIA was seeing telemark / nordic gear is growing at better than 100& year-over-year. In any case, Wolf Creek was more busy in '99 than it was in '94, and that was before anyone put a map on the Web. My experience wasn't that I was shown stashes by Pagosa locals; I usually followed other tracks until I found the next route, or I broke trail until I found a line, or had to turn around. I spent considerable time slogging through wood-choked gullies exploring back there (you probably know where I'm talking about). At least this way some of the few people that do get back into that part of the Pass will be a little safer with some prior knowledge, rather than winding up in the wrong spot and making the area a little more dangerous, or getting lost (which is easy to do up there when it's dumping).
I just don't see that area getting overrun by Jibbers like Loveland or Berthoud- it's too isolated and most of the routes aren't that accessible to people with improper equipment and knowledge. But it'll get busier, mostly because BC skiing is getting more popular. Hey- I understand that we all like to have the special stash that no one else knows about, but eventually the word gets around anyway. Wolf Creek is adjacent to a highway, the season-long skintrack & parking lot is a little bit of a giveway. If access was "by invitation only" vis-a-vis finding a local that graciously let you in on the details, most of us would still be skiing on-piste. I guess I don't like the idea of one person deciding subjectively whether another public land user is 'worthy' of quality, safe information. I'm not saying that's what you're suggesting, but what's the measure we're talking about? I guess I could have IM'd robatnordic with a BC-philosophy questionnaire, then gave him the link upon a passing grade, but I'm guessing that 15 minutes worth of Googling would've resulted in the same.
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