December 31, 2011, Yankee Boy Basin, CO
12/31/11
US elsewhere
2104
2
After a day and a bit at the Ouray Ice Park, I was jonesing to ski again. Susan wasn't hardly so sure, but, to my surprise, decided to make it possible.
I'd once had an unsettling experience with the Camp Bird road, so the riches at road's end were only hearsay. By the time we hit turnaround-time, the basin delivered; one of the prettiest places I've been in Colorado.
Sheltered shade still held good pow, but we didn't have time to play. Winds intermittently streamed snow off the summits. Warm sunshine continued the melt-freeze cycle on sunny slopes. The locals had had their way with shady slopes, windscoured pow tracks in many places, some beside small slabs that had pulled out.
We parked the 2WD Saturn just downhill of the overhang and "skinned" from there. Pleasant skiing in the shade, variable trap crust in the sun.
Definitely going back.
I'd once had an unsettling experience with the Camp Bird road, so the riches at road's end were only hearsay. By the time we hit turnaround-time, the basin delivered; one of the prettiest places I've been in Colorado.
Sheltered shade still held good pow, but we didn't have time to play. Winds intermittently streamed snow off the summits. Warm sunshine continued the melt-freeze cycle on sunny slopes. The locals had had their way with shady slopes, windscoured pow tracks in many places, some beside small slabs that had pulled out.
We parked the 2WD Saturn just downhill of the overhang and "skinned" from there. Pleasant skiing in the shade, variable trap crust in the sun.
Definitely going back.
I think it's pretty up there, too. Thanks for the photos. I'm pleasantly surprised by how snowy it is. That bodes well. I think the San Juans are doing better in relative terms than a lot of other areas! (New Mexico too, thankfully.)
Snake looked rather thin from the north, but it seemed like anyone with a nose for snow could find good skiing in the San Juans right now. Too high, and the north-facing stuff looked lightly windhammered.
In the upper photo, if Susan had stepped off the age-hardened skintrack, her Kilowatts would've gone at least boot-deep into 2-3' of fine grained sugar.
I-90 over Snoqualmie was a slushfest on the way home last night... some things never change.
In the upper photo, if Susan had stepped off the age-hardened skintrack, her Kilowatts would've gone at least boot-deep into 2-3' of fine grained sugar.
I-90 over Snoqualmie was a slushfest on the way home last night... some things never change.
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