Barb

Did the Distinguished gentleman’s charity ride this morning. Beautiful day to be out on the bike. Had about 60 riders

Stayed at my friend’s off grid cabin last night. Elevation about 10,500’. This is the latest in the season she can remember it snowing.

Warm bluebird morning at Eldora. My friend and I did exactly one tree run and it was like a luge, super icy. So we did laps on the front then went to the backside. First 2 runs were good, then everyone seemed to find their way back there and that lift is painfully slow. Ended the day with about 10 runs and the snow was turning to mush. Car said 40 degrees when we were done.

Sneaky snowstorm today. Mountains 7-14” forecasted. Boulder was just supposed to be rain. It’s wet heavy snow. I’m gonna be an inside cat today.

Thanks. The wallets did 1/2 day in the chopper and left. And yes, been partaking in the apres the last 2 days. Yesterday was a celery and potato soup, today is smoked salmon with cheeses, fruit and crackers. 3 young girls here do all the cooking. They seem like very bad ass skiers. All have extreme goggle tans.

Wohoo! Great last touring day! Weather much improved today though we still had the wind. 9 degrees when we started but felt great in the sun. This is out front door of lodge. Ilise skinning up you can see how wind swept Red 3’s face is. We traversed left thru the trees well before that. Same route as yesterday since we knew the way and what to expect. trying to find a flat platform to transition looking up at our tracks. Makes the slope look so flat from this angle. Our skin track up got wind swept so I broke trail for most of it. Was tiring. some from yesterday from our guide Stellar trip!

They are being helicoptered to their touring locations. Lol. No grunt work for them. The wallet’s backpack was micro tiny. I assume man bun is his Sherpa.

Private room of course. Not staying w us poor folk

Had some beautiful people helicoptered in from Telluride last night. I mean really?! Let me paint the scene for you; Main guy ($)- blonde curly hair cascading over his shoulders mid 50’s his woman- 30 if that, walks in w full length fur coat with a second fur coat draped over her arm. guy #3- man bun- enough said guy # 4- pilot finally some sun this morning. This place is the bomb. Would recommend to anyone.

So you are in Aspen, thanks for letting me know ya jerk

I fully admit I am not good at doing full days. We did a 1/2 day. Forecast was a high of 10 degrees with snow and blustery winds. It was accurate. Visibility was very very bad. Our guide took us to a mellow ish spot about 30 degree descent. For some reason a 30 degree slope feels a lot more intense in the backcountry. We followed the skin track about 1/4 mile from the lodge, then our wonderful guide broke trail for the rest of it. We had about 6” of snow overnight and it was fluffy and light. our guide my friend Ilise is by a tree but is blending in. We were in the Red Mountain 3 zone and saw what that face looked like and it was def above my ability. We cut thru the trees to a run called “Hollywood”. I forgot how much it sucked to transition in true backcountry conditions. Wind, snow, freezing temps and deep powder. Nobody had been on our run today, it was all virgin snow. I am still intimidated by powder mostly because of all my stupid injuries. The guide and Ilise zoomed down and Jesus I was slow. At one point I stopped because I felt like I had vertigo from the white out conditions. Who am I kidding, I stopped several times 😂. My form was awful. The guide is going to send some pics but I almost don’t even want to see them. then we transitioned back to skins and went back thru the trees to “Bollywood”. We started to ascend but surprisingly we’re already pretty beat up. So we opted to ski down from where we were on the lower half of Bollywood. I felt a bit better in that run. To add insult to injury we had to transition yet again to skins as it was uphill back to the lodge. And 5 min before we got there the skies cleared up and it was beautiful If you zoom in to the center part in the trees you can see our skin tracks up and descent tracks from lower Bollywood. Hollywood is further up then cutting thru the trees going left (uphill). You can actually see our uphill skin track on other side of trees in Hollywood. And some descent tracks as well

I have been giving the dogs lots of love. They are very cuddly. They are putting out apres food now. We stopped at Ouray Brewery for lunch, mistake since now I am not hungry.

We made it to the lodge finally. It is truly a lodge and not a hut. We actually didn’t even have to skin in. You park 1/4 mile from the forest road. So we loaded up our stuff at the car, carried our skis down the road. Then it’s like a 5 minute walk from the road to the lodge. There are 2 awesome lodge dogs here also. some pics our little room cubbies. 2 beds per space. can’t wait to ski tomorrow!!

Just got back from the morning at Eldora. Blue skies, the usual Eldora wind and light crowds. First we did a warm up run then both decided we wanted to practice in the trees. The snow was great on the tree run. After 2 tree runs we wanted to switch to bumps. The access trail to the bumps was so windy. You could see all the snow blowing away. And as @JFskiDan would say, it was slick. Not too fun. So we went back in the trees. We ended up doing 6 or 7 runs in Jolly Jug Glades for the day. Last run I was feeling pretty good. Then some dick snowboarder decided he was going to come up right on me, take my line and zoom past. I didn’t even hear him. He didn’t make contact w me but I was so freaked out I almost fell. And…the confidence was sucked right out of me. Told my friend that was my last run and she agreed her legs were getting tired too. Got in some good practice for the San Juan’s. Gonna drive to Marble to break up the drive tomorrow and spend the night. Then onto the top of the Pass from Ouray and ski into the hut Sunday. We have a guide set up for Monday then skiing Tue solo, drive back Wednesday. The avalanche danger is settling somewhat but glad we have a guide for a day. I packed super light and was able to fit everything into my 30L touring pack. The hut provides bedding and cooks your meals so that helps a lot.

Lake city is a cool little town. Lots of good hiking there.

Skiing into a backcountry hut in the San Juan’s Sunday. We specifically picked the last week of March because we thought the snowpack would be settled down. currently 5/5 extreme. Really hope it calms down in the next few days.

I switched. At first it felt so weird to have my legs independent of each other instead of strapped into one board. I have taken a lot of ski clinics over the years and that helped. Getting out of the back seat took years. Funny Deb Armstrong is mentioned. I watch her videos and at my most recent clinic I was told I am bending my knees too much and not standing up straight. I admitted I watch her videos for pointers and she always has a deep knee bend or so it seems. My instructor pointed out she is a ski racer. But I still find her videos good. Good luck!

Uphill day at Buttermilk. Storm fizzled out. Was supposed to get 10-20” but got 6 and yesterday was sunny and nice instead of all day snow as predicted. I wanted to go skiing yesterday but we really had a lot of stuff to did out here in Marble as my snow shovel got hurt his back and hasn’t been here for a while. my dog could just sit outside for hours scanning for any movement in the trees to chase. or up on his tall perch Our resident fox came by for a visit. Luckily my dog was inside napping at the time. The roads were nice and dry on the drive to Aspen. Decided on the easiest lap, West Buttermilk. I didn’t have my watch last time I did it but I now have the stats; exactly 1 mile and 922’ to the ski racks at Cliff house. It was 20 but felt tropical in the strong sun, I shed a layer after 15 min and took off my gloves. 56:25 to get to the top and took a quick snack break inside. When I was going down somehow I took a wrong turn, things look a lot different going down then going up. I stopped to check out the map and realized I was on the front side and there was no way I could get back to my car. So at the base I asked the liftee if he would let me in without a scan so I wouldn’t waste one of my 3 remaining days just to get back to the parking lot. He said, “You could always skin back up”. I said I could but asked if he would take pity on me and he did. So back up and went real slow until I was sure I was on the correct trail down. Whew.

And all the people that voted yes to that are absolutely NOT the people who will have wolves in their neighborhoods/ areas. Current reintroduction sides are Gunnison corridor and Crystal Valley corridor. Coincidentally where I own my places. I do not think this is a good decision. edit-sorry thought this was the random thought thread

Just got back from a morning Eldora session. Typical Eldora wind this morning, runs not too bad but lifts were windy AF. They got some snow over the weekend and 2” overnight. Conditions were very good. Crowds were non existent. Decided to try and focus on trees today. Did 4 of my runs in Jolly Jolie glades. Not exactly skiing, but sliding around. It made me laugh that they are marked a double black and not half as steep as the tree run we did in CB which was only a single black. But it definitely made my session more fun to check out something new at Eldora. One lonely picture

Cb webcam 24 hour total overnight snow totals damn

#statstalk…….. love it!

Epic passes just went on sale today. $676 for epic local. Still a good deal even if I only use it for Crested Butte.

Did an afternoon session at Eldora today. It was a sunny warm day with no wind. So rare for Eldora. Started out on the front side. The snow wasn’t great. Hasn’t snowed in a while and things were pretty scraped off. After 4 different runs in the front I went to the backside to see if the snow was better there. And it was a bit. Corona trail was pretty scraped off as it’s the main one on that side. Then I did a couple on Muleshoe, that snow was much better. Did one more back there forget the name then called it a day. No lift lines whatsoever. I miss Crested Butte. Lol

Those pictures are great! I wish I had outdoorsy parents and had active vacations growing up. Your kids are so lucky and are little rippers.