Colorado 2021-2022 Colorado Ski Resorts/Conditions/Meetups

[tball]

Longs Peak looking very white today.

 

[afski722]

The way it was looking about 2-3 weeks ago, without the last storm they were going to be lucky to make it Memorial Day weekend.

I am guessing they made some decisions and plans based on where things were at a few weeks ago to start the lift construction project next week under the assumption they would've likely been closing by this weekend.

Also there is likely some stuff both for construction and removal of the current lift that is likely easier to move over snow / via snow cat before the snow melts out.

 

[ski otter 2]

Well, Friday the skiing was good, wonderful, particularly on the upper mountain. But in the flats, and on the lower mountain, the snow was getting sticky/gluey for many after an hour plus or so. I am not so optimistic about the skiing over the Memorial weekend, or on the limited space open come Tuesday. I'll probably go a few more times. Winding down.

I was familiar with many of the folks immediately around me just before lift opening, especially those at the front of the lines. Next to me sharing first chair in line was a man with 215 days so far this season, who also skins up starting around 5 a.m. both at the ski area and on Loveland Pass, every morning these days. (He switches skis for lift line.) Next to him was a man with 152 days so far, who plans to get in maybe five more days. He's retired. Next to him was one with 104 days who works full time (with flexible location). Next to that was a man with 168 days so far who owns many pairs of Praxis skis, with the woman next to him who pro comps for free Liberty skis, who was at 200 days this morning and counting, who recently was a ski instructor. She says she will be going through ski withdrawal symptoms more heavily soon. Behind me was someone with 98 days, more of an every other day guy like me (with 99 days so far now, today ). He is a retired Mars and Moon rocket computer scientist. Also, at the far end of the front lines was a man with 162 days who runs a bed and breakfast over in Fairplay, and another with 76 who works as a gardener, with multiple clients. Whew. I'm amazed at some of these totals.

Lotsa folks who like to ski.



A lot of these people will be cutting it a bit short this coming week, not sure if they will go or not (other than skinning) - except, for many, closing day.

 

[dbostedo]

The interesting spring continues apparently....

 

[Doug Briggs]

As much as you might think so, it is not unusual. A few years back we got a good dump every week in May. It was hard to get any work done.

 

[nay]

The answer seems to be "No," since the upper runs will be closed prematurely before Tuesday (along with the Lake Reveal area also, which is not yet revealed).

Oh crap. I didn’t get that email. My season is over then, I think. The last day we skied was sublime.

Are they really putting in a 6 pack? Lol. That will never run in the wind. Maybe all the newbs can fall off Pali like they do at Monarch.

I didn’t renew my A-Basin pass this year. Doesn’t make sense basing out of Gunnison with 3 days on my Monarch pass.

Guess we’ll wait and see how it all unfolds. I have a Norway chair at my house as a fond reminder.

 

[ski otter 2]

This makes sense. Shucks.
Looking into it, it seems it was announced in an Al Blog, maybe instead of an email. That would account for why I didn't get the notice either.

I will go tomorrow, Sunday, near first chair, just to see; and because I'm at 99 days now; and because I'm living in Silverthorne, as of last summer: almost as close as to the grocery store. But, yeah, "season over" makes sense.

 

[mikel]

So today was ok. Definitely needed to stay up high. The very soft spring snow on a narrowed run because of mining on the lower 2 runs just is not my idea of a good time. Plus for whatever reason the lower runs had a fair amount of traffic.

Someone asked if you could get thru the gate up high and circumvent around north pole. Nope It is closed and double roped off.

@nay I agree with @ski otter 2 nope won't see lake reveal unless this upcoming storm is all rain and causes a melt down.

Early morning view. The clouds did roll in along with those trying to get their last turns in. It was very "beachy" today even on the slopes.



East Wall has releases





Yep, weather report looks good. Allegedly more snow on the way. Here's the thing, even with all the snow that keeps coming it is melting at a quick pace now.



One of the few ways down from the ridge/cornice run Lot's of ropes all over the place now.

 

[Doug Briggs]

Double-dose of avalanches means winter’s still here​

The image they have doesn't show that the south side (left of photo) also slid so that most of the bowl is now avi debris. Let's hope it settles enough for the 4th of July crowds. And I do mean crowds as they have a fund-raiser up there now on the 4th replete with wiggle line and features.

 

[ski otter 2]

Man, went today, Sunday, first chair, and it was so much fun. No lines, few people for the first few hours at least. SL FIS skis just right.

I skied with the LIberty prototyping former ski instructor who now has 202 days, just swell. Also, for a while, a friend of hers I had not met before, another former instructor and avalanche safety instructor, I think at Breck, who was just a lot of fun to ski with too. Run after run.

Up top, cloudy, icy surface longer, but still a bit soft and fun, getting softer. (But in that flatter light my old eyes were challenged up there, and it was rougher snow in some spots. ) Down below, more rocks but still just wonderful. We were swapping turns, me and those two, and then a third, a friend of the Breck instructor's who skied some with us also. Just fun conversations, good turns - just so great being able to still ski this way, and this late, just like a dance on snow.

Even the West Wall was still a go.

Oh, and at around 11 they closed the mountain as a thunderstorm rolled in, loud thunder.
Snow began falling, but the forecast was for some of it to turn to rain this afternoon. Not sure if it stayed snow/sleet, since I left.

 

[tball]

Down the hill 60 miles from A-basin in Arvada this afternoon:


That's the boy standing in freezing cold pouring rain at the end of the championship game of the weekend soccer tournament. Miraculously in spite of some very angry clouds, there was no lightning and they finished the game and won first place!

 

[Doug Briggs]

A-Basin right before the lifts open (8:55, 5/30)


Someone's going to get the fresh (4" reported). Is it going to be you?

 

[mike_m]

I'll be there tomorrow at 9. Send me a PM if you want to get together!

 

[Doug Briggs]

I'll be there tomorrow at 9. Send me a PM if you want to get together!

Thanks, Mike. No pass, no time, though. I have to do that four letter word (work) and have moved on to biking, albeit I'll have to wait a few days again. Enjoy the snow and make a few turns for me; left AND right, if you please.

 

[ski otter 2]

A-Basin right before the lifts open (8:55, 5/30)

View attachment 170259
Someone's going to get the fresh (4" reported). Is it going to be you?

Yes, it was me, unfortunately. First one in line.

Can you tell that by this time, 9 am, there were few left skiing on the lower mountain, at least for a while?

A shot of 8:30 first chair would have had me in the picture, along with the usuals.. . .
Some of them probably saw things differently, dunno. They are a hardy, resourceful lot.

Someone else who was there may disagree - they usually do.

I was not going to bother posting about it, but after the previous post.....

Things are not always what they seem:
A Basin did not groom much if at all yesterday or overnight, especially the half-run closest to the chair lift, so underneath it was uneven fully frozen slush gargoyles. Dog and pony sized, almost. Dangerous, to me.

At first up top, poor visibility off and on - poor at first with new on top of the frozen, but doable. Not good, but doable, to me. Others may thrive there, dunno. Not me, today.

So I went down to the lower runs, and on the bottom, found the four inches over those deep, frozen slush moguls, as I mentioned. Not really doable, at least on the one half run there I tried. Just a hardened, hidden.... challenge.

So more like four inches of fresh on re-frozen small monsters, on that slope.

Maybe the more gradual slope next to it was better, dunno.
Uncharacteristically, I was already done: sore arm, wrong skis, other stuff to do, just done there for that particular day.

To me, one of the few poor days of the season - actually, maybe the only one, in terms of the conditions I got to: even the initial rock-strewn WORAD was easily skiable.

Maybe later things got better, with some warmth, and better light. Or the more gradual lower run was good. Dunno.

 

[Doug Briggs]

Yes, it was me, unfortunately. First one in line.

Can you tell that by this time, 9 am, there were few left skiing on the lower mountain, at least for a while?

A shot of 8:30 first chair would have had me in the picture, along with the usuals.. . .
Some of them probably saw things differently, dunno. They are a hardy, resourceful lot.

Someone else who was there may disagree - they usually do.

I was not going to bother posting about it, but after the previous post.....

Things are not always what they seem:
A Basin did not groom much if at all yesterday or overnight, especially the half-run closest to the chair lift, so underneath it was uneven fully frozen slush gargoyles. Dog and pony sized, almost. Dangerous, to me.

At first up top, poor visibility off and on - poor at first with new on top of the frozen, but doable. Not good, but doable, to me. Others may thrive there, dunno. Not me, today.

So I went down to the lower runs, and on the bottom, found the four inches over those deep, frozen slush moguls, as I mentioned. Not really doable, at least on the one half run there I tried. Just a hardened, hidden.... challenge.

So more like four inches of fresh on re-frozen small monsters, on that slope.

Maybe the more gradual slope next to it was better, dunno.
Uncharacteristically, I was already done: sore arm, wrong skis, other stuff to do, just done there for that particular day.

To me, one of the few poor days of the season - actually, maybe the only one, in terms of the conditions I got to: even the initial rock-strewn WORAD was easily skiable.

Maybe later things got better, with some warmth, and better light. Or the more gradual lower run was good. Dunno.

I'm sorry to hear it was so disappointing. I didn't realize they opened at 8:30. I had aimed to capture the first chair line.

 

[Paul Lutes]

Fresh snow in May/June tends do disappoint ...........

 

[ski otter 2]

Yes.
But sometimes, often, it's swell.
(Maybe 99 good days out of 101, so far.)

 

[coskigirl]

I voluntarily evacuated to a hotel in Boulder because I’m Covid+ plus a dog. I didn’t want to be driving all over Denver to find a place. Mike has marked himself safe on FB. kimmyt is safe but evacuated. Many friends have likely lost their homes. I am heartbroken.

As the ski season winds down, I thought I'd post an update about the fire recovery here in Louisville and Superior. I'll add some photos of the Marshall Mesa open space area that the fire burned across at the end of this post. The trails were opened a few weeks ago and Ginsburg and I hiked there on Sunday. The contrast of the green grass, wildflowers, trees that didn't burn or only partially burned, and the brown or black trees is striking. I don't have photos of burned homes and businesses because it's just felt too much like tragedy tourism.

After things calmed down I learned that I know 9 families that lost their homes in the fire and at least one of them lost their 2 dogs. Many more had to do significant mitigation causing them to be out of their homes for weeks or months. Driving around the burn areas has been quite sobering, especially viewing the homes and businesses that were seemingly skipped by the fire with buildings gone on all sides of them. There are probably some lessons to be learned in understanding what saved them and not the others.

A local dog kennel that also does daycare was one of the first in the line of attack. I heard about their desperate attempts to get animals out on a local facebook page. In fact, the owner fosters for the rescue that I work with so while I couldn't go due to Covid, I was able to get a few other people from the rescue mobilized. Sadly, they couldn't get there in time to help as they were not allowed in. In the end, the kennel personnel along with some that did get there in time to help were able to load up around 30 dogs before they were told they had to leave. The owner then opened all the doors to the facility and kennels to give the remaining dogs, including her own, and her horses have a fighting chance. By some miracle all the animals were eventually located by the next morning and survived. There are still more than 50 pets that were in homes that have not been located after the fire. Local people have set up trail cameras in areas that have had stray animal sightings to try to track and recover any that got out and have been fending for themselves.

The county took over some of the clean up duties quite quickly putting down some solutions to try to keep contaminants from blowing around in the air and they awarded a contract to do debris removal pretty quickly as well. That contract was held up in a lawsuit instigated by a company owned by Michael Brown (former FEMA director) but was eventually thrown out. Once that hurdle was cleared the contractor started pretty quickly and is making good progress. In the meantime, some residents chose to opt out of the county clean up and hired their own contractors so those happened faster. It's been good to see the debris disappear as driving by it was hard, even for me who didn't lose my home or business.

Sadly, many residents are severely under insured and are struggling to figure out how to manage the rebuild. The cities are being tasked with how to manage permitting and building codes that have been updated significantly since most of the homes were built causing an additional increase in building costs. I upped my insurance coverage on my condo and personal property after the fire.

We've had an extremely windy winter and spring and we are all on edge when it's windy. We've also had a number of additional fires in the area. So many that there was talk of an arsonist that wasn't all that outlandish. The investigation is still ongoing. One day I had to be in class most of the day and it was bad enough that I considered not going because I had a hard time thinking of Ginsburg at home alone. Fortunately, I have enough neighbors that I confirmed that at least one would be around to get her out should something happen.

The truly remarkable part of the recovery has been the way the community has come together to support the victims. Watching it has brought me to tears multiple times over the last 5 months. There were multiple free stores for people to obtain clothing, household items, furniture, etc. My running store did a free night for victims and had some used stuff but had gathered significant donations of new goods from their suppliers. One woman cooked nearly nightly meals and set them out for pick up for free for months. Another tagged on to that and does periodic desserts, only asking those that aren't displaced to donate funds to cover expenses. I've seen stories where a child lost a favorite toy that is no longer made and another child gave them their own to replace it. Personally, I heard of a doggy in a hotel that was sad because she didn't have any squeaky toys and could hear the dog next door squeaking away. I delivered a bag of toys and treats the next evening. There have been offers of free meals at restaurants, pet supplies, free personal services like massages and haircuts, counseling services, and more that I am forgetting about.

 

[nay]

@coskigirl thank you for the update, perspectives, pictures and stories.

It seems cheap to talk about how scary the wind and dry has been before the last big storm when nothing has happened locally, but the scars of a decade ago are still here and fuels to our southwest are critical. We’ve had how many red flag days so far, 50+?

The 18” of snow we got 10 days ago, followed by rain and cold temps and a slow melt into the ground, have been salvation (with no actual fire, damage, or loss just a repeated sigh of relief). I want it to be warm, but it’s 40° and raining and that’s another bridge to the monsoon.

Anyway, you can’t follow a post like that so I’ll do it and say we bought Epic passes for the first time and will ski CB and Monarch next year and maybe Keystone and Breck for the first time at some point.