Berthoud, Hidden Knoll - Nov 12, 2006

Riders: Gary,Oliver
Location: Berthoud Pass
We dropped into the 90's. Then we started skinning up to the Hidden Knoll area. However Gary's skins got loose and totally iced up in the snow. We had to return to the car and first unthaw them again. After that we got some nice turns in. Unfortunately the anticipated snow storm the night before did not drop as much as forecasted. However the 5" of fresh pow were still pretty good.


Picture 1: Gary riding down in the 90's (Click to enlarge)


Picture 2: Gary skinning up to Hidden Knoll


Picture 3: Gary enjoying some sweet turns


Picture 4: Myself


Picture 5: Bighorn sheep along US-40

East Portal Snowshoeing/Recon Trip- Nov 5, 2006

We went up to the East Portal to check out some snowboarding BC lines. It's was more of a snowshoeing trip, but I am sure I will return up there sometimes this season.
I got a few turns in, but nothing too exciting. However it was a nice day to be out there. Smokey got definitely I good work out in when we bushwhacked through the forest.


Picture 1: Lunch Break


Picture 2: Jaya and Smokey trying to cross a creek

Berthoud 90's & 110's - October 28, 2006

Riders: Gary,Oliver
Location: Berthoud Pass

We went riding on Berthoud Pass. We hiked up westwards from the parking area on top, then we dropped into the 90's. On this north facing run the snow was nice and fluffy. Later on we did 2 laps on the 110's. This S-E facing area was somewhat sun effected, since it was a very warm day. But it was still fun. This last storm provided us with a good base for the winter.


Picture 1: Gary riding down in the 90's (Click to enlarge)


Picture 2: Gary and Cody posing


Picture 3: Russell Peak


Picture 4: Hard work hiking up


Picture 5: Gary ripping the pow


Picture 6: Me riding down

Berthoud Dawn Patrol - October 26, 2006

Riders: Lacy and Oliver

On Thursday morning I did a dawn patrol with my co-worker Lacy.There was 2ft of powder on Berthoud from the storm. The stuff was so deep you could not get going on the low angle stuff. It was also a little bit on the heavy side, but still alright.

We got quite a few face shots that morning. We left at 9:30 and it was still dumping.

The driving was hard though. I-70 was shut down on the way back at Floyd Hill. A big truck was all across I-70. We made it back on US-6.

Afterwards we both went back to work with a big grin in the face.



Picture 1: Lacy Skinning up (Click to enlarge)


Lots of faceshots:

Berthoud Pass - October 21, 2006

Riders: Vince, Dave, Gary, Steve, Oliver

The 2006/2007 backcountry snowboarding season is officially underway for me after this weekend. Friday was a quick warm up round and Saturday was very sweet after all the powder we got overnight. We had a 10" base and overnight we received over 12". When you got into some of the wind blown stuff you had well over 18" of the fluffy new stuff on top of the base. We made some nice turns off Berthoud Pass.


Picture 1: Skinning up (Click to enlarge)


Picture 2: Getting Ready for the downhill


Picture 3: Hiking up again


Picture 4: Steve enjoying some sweet turns


Picture 5: Dave getting after it


Picture 6: Gary spraying the pow


Picture 7: Steve in the knee deep stuff


Picture 8: Another Dude enjoying some pow


It was a great outing. There would have been even some better spots. Apparently they got way more fresh stuff on the west side of the continental divide. Check out iskibc's trip report.... it's just sick: http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64793
I think that was at Vail Pass.

Berthoud and Jones Pass - October 20, 2006

I went up to Berthoud Pass this Friday to get some first tracks of the 2006/2007 season. Berthoud was a little disappointing. You could only ride just what you see to the left and right of the Pass highpoint. There was about 10", but no base.

I decided to go over to Jones Pass and there was some more snow. However also there most of the upper part is quite wind scoured. I still found a decent line from the top and got some freshie turns in. With every third turn you hit a rock or something, but it was still good for the beginning of the season.

It was snowing pretty hard when I left around 3PM. The snow storm for tonight looks promising!!!


Picture 1: Berthoud looking NW - Quite wind scoured the top (click to enlarge)


Picture 2: Road to Jones Pass looks more promising

Picture 3: On top of Jones Pass. (Snow and wind)

Picture 4: Got some decent tracks

Picture 5: Below treeline you had to watch out a little.

Rollins Pass (Attempt) - October 14, 2006

I was stocked to get the first turns in of the 06/07 season. I hooked up with Gary (Killclimbz) and Steve. We opted for Rollins Pass... was probably the wrong choice. There was very little snow up there. We still could have gotten some turns in, however the rough road finished our adventure. We had a flat.
We did not wanna get stuck up there with the donut and turned around early. Bummer!

San Rafael Swell Canyoneering - September 9 & 10, 2006

Doug, Matt and I went for a Desert Adventure to Utah to the San Rafael Swell. We drove out on Friday night after work. When we were coming closer to Utah we saw some major lightning going on in the horizon and just hoped that not the whole desert turned into mud. The drive after I-70 on the dirt road was not too bad... there was only one relatively small wash we had to cross. But we decided to start the next day with an easier canyon just to check out the situation after this thunderstorm.

Picture 1: Getting up for the first day of desert adventure (click on pics to enlarge)

We wanted to do the Little Wild Horse Canyon near Goblin Valley. However that drive on Saturday morning turned out to be quite a challenge. A driver with a big truck told us to turn around because of a large washout. However we wanted to check it out ourselves. There were two major washouts. Doug the rally driver found a good line going down the creek bed and coming back up to the road. But the second washout was quite massive, and we already thought we had to hike another 3 miles to the trailhead on dirt road. After some long study of our alternatives and digging with the camping shovel we found a line and Doug pushed his Subaru through the mud. Worked out quite well! We got the freshies and showed all the big SUV and trucks where to go. Those people could not believe we made it.


Picture 2: Washout Number 1


Picture 3: Doug and his Subaru are ready for the challenge


Picture 4: Washout number 2

Finally after this long delay we got to the trailhead and started hiking the Little Wild Horse Canyon. There were apparent signs everywhere of thunderstorms the night before (hail, debris etc.) We had to wade through waist deep water a few times. This is just an amazing place and we had plenty of fun. Little wild horse canyon is a lot more interesting than the Bell Canyon, but even that return route to the trail head has some nice stuff to see.

Picture 5: Start into Little Wild Horse Canyon


Picture 6: Some wading required


Picture 7: Wow... some huge banks of hail from the storm last night


Picture 8: Matt is trying to avoid some water


Picture 9: Some pretty cool curved canyon section


Picture 10: Matt and Doug climbing up


Picture 11: The Bell Canyon

After a 3 1/2 hour round trip we got back to the car. Unfortunately there was some rain coming up in the area, and we decided to go to the Goblin State Park instead of doing Ding & Dang Canyon. That was not too bad either. There were some amazing sculptures to see. After that we drove north to the Baptist Draw canyon entrance and camped out right at the rim with an amazing view of the Swell.


Picture 12: Goblin Valley


Picture 13: Ooops.... that one broke. Just kidding... it was not Doug.


Picture 14: Some more funny goblins


Picture 15: Three lonely guys


Picture 16: Overlooking the San Rafael Swell


Picture 17: Nice Campsite, right at the rim


Picture 18: Baptist Draw Canyon from above


Picture 19: Matt is entering Baptist Draw Canyon

Baptist Draw canyon starts wide open but becomes narrow pretty soon. There were quite a few sections that required swimming due to the thunderstorms the last two nights. There was one short rappel and then a long rappel (about 80ft) into the fabulous Upper Chute Canyon.


Picture 20: Already getting wet for the first time


Picture 21: A swim through a narrow and long section


Picture 22: This is freaking cold!!!


Picture 23: First short rappel


Picture 24: This is quite narrow!


Picture 25: Another dude who is trying to come through here


Picture 26: The long rappel into Upper Chute Canyon

Once in the upper chute canyon we decided to continue downstream, even though we knew there are going to be quite a few wet spots. It turned out that we had to do about a dozen swims or more and at the end we were quite frozen through, but it was definitely worth it. This is an awesome canyon with very interesting, varying features. It's twisty, sometimes wide, other times really narrow and deep. Unfortunately I ran out of batteries in my camera, but I hope you got the idea from my other pictures.


Picture 27: The first swim in the Upper Chute Canyon.... many more to come!

Doug, thanks a lot for organizing this. It was a blast and definitely a repeat!