Hey,
Were heading to monarch for the goods this weekend. probably ski the resort one day and treck another. Last time we were there the avy danger was pretty high, this time looks better, some tests will verify.
So....Some of the lift accessed bc looks extremely sweet! "Face Lodge" pitch and the drainages further over. Also seems like it would be controled by the snow cat op. anyway, i only know from visual observation. Anybody cruise out there much? Is the snow cat operation friendly to bc'ers grabing a little of there stash? in my perfect world, i figure there is a cat track at hte bottom of the drainages and "lodge face" that hook back into the resort? can anybody verify?
Any info on the resort accessed or south side of the pass apprecieated. love the area. Also if anybody wants to hook up for some runs, we will either be staying in the parking lot, or the monarch spur campground.
Hey,
Were heading to monarch for the goods this weekend. probably ski the resort one day and treck another. Last time we were there the avy danger was pretty high, this time looks better, some tests will verify.
So....Some of the lift accessed bc looks extremely sweet! "Face Lodge" pitch and the drainages further over. Also seems like it would be controled by the snow cat op. anyway, i only know from visual observation. Anybody cruise out there much? Is the snow cat operation friendly to bc'ers grabing a little of there stash? in my perfect world, i figure there is a cat track at hte bottom of the drainages and "lodge face" that hook back into the resort? can anybody verify?
Any info on the resort accessed or south side of the pass apprecieated. love the area. Also if anybody wants to hook up for some runs, we will either be staying in the parking lot, or the monarch spur campground.
Thanks in advance.
I should be there on Saturday. We'll be at the top of the pass. I'm pretty easy to find. I'm riding a voile Split board. Not very many of us up there, and there will be a long haired brown brindle dog named Cody with me. I'll probably be yelling his name a dozen times, so it shouldn't be too hard to find us. You are welcome to join in on our tour.
We will be in a ragtag red jeep comanche with pop-up camper, also hard to miss. we might be at the top saturday morning or in area depending on how much snow they get. So, have you toured from the resort, heading east on the ridgeline the CAT takes? Looks sweet, very sweet. Previously we have only toured around and take turns from old monarch pass road up to the homestake bowl area. short and sweet.
i've done a fair amount of b/c around monarch. although i have a pass I almost always ski b/c from monarch crest b/c i take my dogs. the area from the top of the pass is sweet and some of it pretty safe when danger high. there are some often skied but always fresh glades with an established skin track from the top of the pass. these are the glades you see from highway 50 as you approach monarch almost directly across from ski area-known as powerline but ski past powerline b/c powerline gets skied to often b/c its easiest hike and gets crust quick. once you get on top of the ridge you can drop off the back, rather than ski glades by powerline, through awesome bowl with some fairly safe glades. Although slide history high in open bowls baqck side of powerline ridge. after the first pitch you can cut right and there are some really nice cliffs and chutes or go right and ski safe low slope glades. it will dump you into foos creek where you skin up drainage and back up saddle to powerline glades.
you can also follow crest trial along crest over a couple saddles and ski sweet bowl drainage over from foos, then come up other side of same drainage ski into foos with really good northern exposure in trees of chutes-usually holds excellent snow and double what monarch has. then up other side of foos drainage and ski northern glades above highway 50 back to starting point. long day but three sweet descents through glades with northern exposure and almost always good powder.
I have skied the bowls directly behind monarch ski area accessing from old monarch pass wih my dogs. the tree line just past the cliffs, on the edge of the open bowl on skiers left was as sweet as sweet can be. it has been known to slide inside open bowl and slid last week.
i have also hiked up from bottom of ski area to murkwood. there is a trail out of the parking lot. often crusty w/o fresh snow and a long fairly flat hike bf you start climbing.
I would love to join you but have nonbc friends in town this weekend. if you want beta i'm sure we will be boozing in the late afternoon in lodge bar. let me know if you ever come back up b/c i've lost my b/c partner to hip displaxia.
Danman,
Thanks for the good beta. My wife and I just recently started heading down that way, we are Berthoud Pass regulars, but looking for other stuff. We too have a non-bc'er with us, for satuday, he has alpine tour stuff but not sure we will want to take him out, plus, saturday might be fun at the resort. Does the monarch crest gondola even run anymore? I see us heading down there a bit, were still breaking in our, new to us, pop-up truck camper, will be staying at the monarch spur or in the monarch ski parking lot. maybe even down in the valley tonight. YOu can look for us int he lot, one sweet ole jeep comanche truck with a pop-up camper, always have beer and playing reggae.
i spent many a night in peter rabbit and second creek hut and days skiing beloved berthoud b/f moving to salida. the gondola runs in the summer. I will look for you saturday to ski a few runs, safety check and exchange info for skiing b/c at monarch.
danman, we were down in Foos creek Saturday. What great terrain back there. I was wondering about some of the stuff on the other side from the power lines there. Thanks for the tips. I am going to check that out next time I am down there...which should be Tuesday...
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