1st Dawn Patrol

Ranch work on Sunday and a bigger than expected snowstorm up higher led to my alarm going off at 5:30am Monday morning and to me making the half-hour drive up to the tunnel. It was dark obviously but add to that we had near whiteout to complete whiteout conditions from the blowing snow. My drive west was a bit wilder than expected. I'm happy I didn't head over to Bare Mountain where the ski in is shorter but there are no trees to serve as windbreaks.

I was the only one there (it was a Monday morning after all) so i parked in the direct windbreak of the new, overbuilt-for-a-reason, outhouses. Starting out with a headlamp and goggles to combat the 40+mph gusts, i skinned as fast as i could to the trees where it became (and always does) surprisingly silent and peaceful.

I noticed right away that the 5-plus inches of new snow had fallen on a very weak snowpack - an almost non-existent snowpack - that had rotted from the ground up after the extremely cold temperatures of last week. The -15 at the ranch was probably at least -20 here and the thermal gradient from the ground to the air, with only a foot of snow in places, made most of the snowpack a depth hoar fiesta. That, with a light windslab on top and now new snow on top and high winds, created the worst and most dangerous snowpack I've ever seen in this location.

As I climbed up to the glade where I was hoping to get some good turns in, there was more whoomphing than I had ever heard before. Settling and shooting cracks, and the feeling as if I were postholing when I actually had pretty fat skis on. I stumbled upon a natural avy that had left boulders of snow - below treeline. I exited stage left and returned to the car the same way I came. There were no great turns on the way down, only collapsing snow and survival skiing that made me happy to have a brain, unlike this dude:
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_14002920
The avy danger was obviously high, no doubt, as can be seen in that shot of Loveland Pass. That boarder got LUCKY. No beacon or shovel and no knowledge that he just shouldn't have been there.

Still no one in the parking lot except for the tunnel folks who were wondering what the hell i was doing out there. I entertained them with a swift fall on my ass trying to get out of my bindings. It was awesome - down in two seconds flat. I got back up, brushed myself off, and took a bow and cooly made my way back to the BapaMobile and down to Happy Trails for an americano before heading into work. I wish every day could start out like this. Even a bad day in the backcountry is a great start to any work day.