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September 10-12, Snowy Range, WY

9/10/14
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Posted by silaswild on 9/15/14 1:26pm
More news from Tom Szwedko:  "I doubt anyone has skied snowy range.
Well I drove up to the Snowy range pass area west of Laramie wed and camp two nights at sugarloaf camp ground at 10700ft near Lewis lake. Being right near treeline lots of snow fields in that area courtesy of Wind-omings winter wind!  It was a 20 minute gentle walk to end of Klondike lake for the first snowfield where I did the most skiing the first afternoon. It if at the base of Medicine bow peak ridge on east side sugarloaf peak. After many runs on the corn snow there it was a loop hike past several lakes to the next snowfield also along a small lake on a more flat area and 10 min from car. I ended up with 1330 vt ft of skiing. Next day Thursday I drove a few miles to Brooklyn lake on east side on the range. A gentle 3/4 mile hike brought me to the Browns pk snowfield about 1/3 mile long. It is now longer than high now like it use to be 30+ years ago but still up to 20 ft deep in mid sep. I circled around and up and down the large snowfield several times. I even hiked above the snow looking at all the old moraines  and rubble from the snow fields previous glory years.  Hike back to car and back to Klondike lake snowfield for a few runs ending up with another 1330 vt ft ski. That night for an hour fog came in and spritz flakes as the BIG NE WY snowstorm miss us but was 20F by morning. Friday the snoe was frozen so I did some skiing on the snowfield 10 min away for another 200vt and 1+ miles before driving back home to CO after a short hike."
GNARLY!!!!!!!!

Silas, you do get around in pursuit of the summer turn.  Thanks for the motivational post! Maybe it will shame me off the couch.

Jamie and others please take note, it is not me that is running around the Rockies in search of snow, I am only the scribe for Tom Szwedko who lives in Leadville, CO, and is too busy skiing to post to TAY, even tho he does have time to email me short reports.

Plenty of folks have skied in the Snowies, Mr. Threepin McLeatherboots.

Snowy Range Ski Resort, on the east side of the range, has a handful of chairlifts and gives good deals to University of Wyoming students in Laramie. Once the road opens in the spring/summer, there's some good touring country up high. WY130 hits over 10,000 ft.

might have my boy aim for u of wyo instead of U of W.

Doubting Thomas,

When the pass opens over Snowy Range Pass in the spring, the skiing off Medicine Bow Peak cirque is awesome.  Hike to steeps keep you tingly all day...then a drive down into Saratoga and a soak in the hot springs - well, almost Eastern Sierra-like. 

A great out of the way spring destination. 

But September?  Good show.

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september-10-12-snowy-range-wy
silaswild
2014-09-15 20:26:51