It's one of those things that I do not think will ever get old.
The bowl has been hit hard by skiers
Launched a massive cornice that was just waiting to be let go. It tumbled to the bottom, and I felt ok with the situation. The turns were actually pretty good!
Cheers,
Chris
I really enjoy the diversity of the mountain ranges in Gunnison County. The West Elk Wilderness is a place that I have developed an interest for.
Very unique terrain
I have wandered about some chute skiing in this zone for a while. Some different views than my normal tour.
Access is difficult in this zone. I think I need to be prepared for a long day or an overnighter. I like that.
Cheers,
Chris
Went out to a Nordic Race this past weekend to an area that is really new to me. Its only 11 miles from Gunnison and located at the edge of West Elk wilderness. as the crow flies its only a few miles from Crested Butte South but Whetstone stands in between the valleys.
Short edit on the race and the groomed network of trails there
The West Elk Wilderness is a zone that I have wanted to explore for a while now. Some really neat rock formations. I find if there is cool rock formations+cliffs+snow, there generally is some couloir/chute skiing. Might have to check it out!
Cheers,
Chris
EDIT:
The track went up "Guides Ridge" which is Mordor-esque flakey/spiky ridge that goes to the summit of Mount Crested Butte. Yes, our ski hill is quite the unique Dr. Seus mountain."CB Mountain Guides were there volunteering their time for the community to help put the race on." Aparently the ridge is ski patrol territory.
I went up to the summit with a Canadian, an Italian, a local photographer, and Steve Banks. Ski patrol at CBMR must have some incredible moments on this mountain, for me seeing the sunrise on mount CB is not something I get to see everyday.
The peak does not really have enough snow to be skiable, but as always quite the view non-the less.
The summit
Ski Patrol readying Guides ridge for the racers
My perch
The Italians flew up the ridge. They were sooo fast.
The racers climbed descended somewheres of around 5k feet, it was impressive how fast the racers did it.
I have a bunch of footage that I will post here in a few days. The race favored the euros for there is not many races in the US that have rope-work. However, a Local Janelle Smiley claimed 1st for the women. She is a climber and it showed on the ridge.
The video will be up in a few days.
Cheers,
Chris
In between storms we ventured into the alpine to see what was happening.
It snowed about 10 inches of super low density snow with no wind on Tuesday. we were hoping to ski some of this "blower" before the wind got to it.
Tuesday was one of those magical days with not a breath of wind, but around sunrise on Wednesday the winds got to the slopes. Winds slabs started to develop
Mt Owen avalanched wall to wall after the big storm over the weekend.
While we were happy that the whole bowl flushed out, the new snow started to get a little slabby with the winds so we threw in the towel. We kept it low angle and the turns were actually pretty good.
Lower down
Milking the rolls
We decided to go across valley and ski some more sheltered snow in the trees of the Anthracites. It was DEEP and skied great. People have been skiing the Anthracites quite a bit but we were still weary of the touchy snowpack.
Zach looks for a safe entrance
Zach lines up a cliff
Josh exiting 7-bowl
Delicious
On Thursday is snowed pretty good again. 5+ feet in 10 days... not bad! We are experiencing another avy cycle so its a good time to get some work done this weekend.
Eszter is in Minnesota getting ready for a 135 mile snowbike race and I have a bunch of freelance work lined up that I am actually pretty excited about. Eszter and I both agreed that we live on the edge if disaster trying to get by here in Crested Butte, but life is to short to not to follow your dreams! I was watching "Touching the Void" the other day and Joe Simpson talked about his decision when he fell through the crevasse. He could not climb out for his leg was badly broken, but he had the other end of the cut rope that he could rappel lower into darkness. He did not even tie a knot at the bottom of the rope because he figured that if he ran out of rope he was done and would simply fall to his death. "Whether it's right on wrong, you have to keep making decisions." By lowering himself into darkness he found light, and found a way out.
Cheers,
Chris
I was suited up ready to ride home this afternoon. The sun was long behind the mountains (though for the first time I was able to ride home without using lights!) and the temperature had dropped from a balmy 39 degrees to the mid teens. People were coming in commenting on how the temperature was plummeting and that it was colder out than it looked.
My co-worker commented: I don't know how you commute on your bike every day.
I shrugged. I know how to dress for it. (Which I clearly don't because I was sweating the whole way home)
But the real question is: With views like this, how could I NOT ride?
Some images of snow from this week. It's getting good.
Cheers,
Chris
I used to think that as humans, and especially as humans living in a 1st world country, that our survival instincts had been suppressed generations ago. Recently, I've started looking at emotions in terms of survival instincts, and I'm starting to believe we are, in fact, far more primitive than we'd like to think. What if every reaction we had to adversity could be distilled to fight or flight?
See, a very large pile of proverbial dog poo is currently hitting the fan with something that I care very dearly about. And while trying to dodge the larger chunks of excrement, I'm finding myself wondering if I really want to be up to my eyeballs in this mess. Fight or flight?
I had been thinking it, head in hands wondering how I was going to solve my current disaster, when Chris uttered it.
'We should move to Alaska.'
The final frontier. Colorado on steroids. You are not the top of the food chain anymore, and I'm not talking mountain lions. It's humbling. New job listings in Gunnison for yesterday: 1 babysitting job. New job listings for Anchorage: 52. Fight or flight?
Sometimes I get sick of fighting for it here, anxiously watching the bank account wax and wane. But then sometimes, I go for a pre-dawn ride and watch the sunrise light up the peaks, and I think that it's worth fighting for.
14 inches fell in town and 22 inches on Schofield Pass, good job storm!
Josh and I headed up to check out the snow on Red Lady. We had a few friends that started an hour ahead and were breaking trail, so we got to free-load on the deep skin track.
Our intention was to ski the low angle glades but half of the bowl had slid naturally, so we thought maybe we would try and get the other half to go.
Nice windloading off the summit
Josh sends some bombs
The skiers right that is popular to ski fractured a foot deep and ran a 1000 feet. Video of the slide at the bottom.
Though it did not step down into layers below it left a rather frightening crack on the bed surface.
It was neat to see go for I probably skied if a dozen times last season through winter. It's not that steep. It's crazy to think that the entire path is 3500 feet, and it ran the distance quite a few years ago.
The debris
After the excitment we skied the ultra-low angle glades. The snow was amazing.
Stacking tracks
A natural slide lower down
And more meadow skipping.
We headed back up for seconds
Yet another beautiful, and humbling day in the mountains.
Cheers!
Chris
