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Burgers, Beers, Hot Springs, Repeat

Congratulations. You’ve skied a full day at Wolf Creek. You caught the first chair and skied ten runs before noon. The snow was so good you didn’t even pause for lunch, preferring a frozen Clif Bar and an apple on the lift. After another dozen runs or so the lifts closed – just in time – the powder turned your legs to Jello. You are hungry. You are sore. You are ready for après ski, Pagosa Springs style. [more]

Be Prepared

On the first weekend in January, one of the biggest storms in Wolf Creek’s recent history dumped more than eighty inches on the San Juan mountains in three days. Two snowboarders from Albuquerque, two snowboarders from Santa Fe, and two families of snowmobilers from Farmington went missing in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico during the storm. Avalanches throughout southern Colorado closed mountain passes, including Wolf Creek pass, hampering search efforts, and the snow continued to fall. [more]

Recent Storm Dumps 80 Inches

Wolf Creek, Colorado – consistently the “mostest and the bestest” snow in Colorado. With an average annual snowfall of 465 inches (nearly 39 feet) Wolf Creek is a top destination for alpine and cross-country skiers, snowboarders, snowmobilers, and snowshoers from Colorado and surrounding states.

Why does Wolf Creek receive so much snow, and so consistently? It has to do with the shape of the San Juan Mountains at Wolf Creek Pass. The San Juan Mountains are the first major obstacle subtropical Pacific storms encounter on their way across the southwestern states. The warm air rises quickly when it hits the San Juans, and as it rises it cools. Since cold air can hold less moisture than warm air, the storms dump precipitation as they make their way up and through the funnel-shaped 10,850 foot high Wolf Creek Pass. Basically, Wolf Creek Pass was designed with powder-junkies in mind.
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Skiing with Friends

New Year’s Eve, 2007. It’s 2:00pm at Arapahoe Basin. My best college buddy Jason, his brother Kyle, his friend Josh, my friend (and Jason’s wife) Rosie, and I have been in a car for nearly five hours, circumnavigating the I-70 closure by driving from Denver south to Fairplay, over Hoosier Pass into Breckenridge, then over Swan Mountain road and up to the basin. As soon as we hit the A-Basin parking lot we grab our gear and jump in the lift line. The wind chill is twenty below at the top of the Pallavicini lift. Gales whipping snow over the Pali cornice feel like razor blades. I try to ask Kyle which way we’re going. It’s our first run, so I assume we’ll head left and coast down a nice blue run, like West Wall or Grizzly Road, to stretch our legs after the long car ride. The wind is so cold I can barely move my face. I make a sound like, “Hee, a, leh o rye?” Kyle frowns. [more]

Hoth, the Ice Planet

I’m visiting my family in Colorado Springs for Christmas. This morning I braved the cold and snow to walk about ten blocks from my mom’s house to the Dog Tooth Coffee shop where I sat down with my computer and a steaming cup of mountain roast and tried to write. Writer’s block set in almost instantly. I’m going skiing over New Year’s with two of my very best college friends up in Summit County, and my mind was elsewhere. I looked out the windows at the snow swirling through the intersection, checked the snow and ski reports repeatedly to see how much powder we can expect early next week, and memories of past snowy days distracted me.

Well, I got nostalgic, and thought I should share one of my favorite snow memories with you. I grew up in Black Forest, north of Colorado Springs, where I remember deep snow blanketing the forest every winter. I rode the school bus, of course, and in the winter I turned the snowy half mile walk home from the bus stop into a daily adventure. Oh, and I should mention, I was obsessed with Star Wars.
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Lame Lawsuit

The Vail Daily recently reported that sixty-year-old David J. Pfahler of Pennsylvania has filed a lawsuit against eight-year-old Scott Swimm of Eagle, Colorado for colliding with him on Arrowhead Mountain last January. “‘It wasn’t a violent collision or anything, Scott just kind of tapped his ski boots,’ said Robb Swimm, who has lived in the Vail Valley with his wife, Susan Swimm, for 17 years,” the paper reports. Apparently, Pfahler tore a shoulder tendon in the collision, and is suing Scott Swimm and his father for $75,000.

There was a collision, both sides agree. Scott says he “tapped” Pfahler’s boots. Pfahler obviously thinks it was more of a “crash.” Either way this makes me wonder, is this part of a culture of inane lawsuits, or does this guy have a valid reason to sue an eight year old?
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the end of an era

Taos Ski Valley opened yesterday with more snow on the first day than they've had in thirty years. Three thousand skiers showed up throughout the day. My friends and I were among the first thirty or so, at 8:15am, jockeying for first chair.

As we stepped off the shuttle from the parking lot we were greeted by a Taos Ski Valley employee. He had some announcements. "Only the front side is open today. We have seventy inches of snow, and plenty of powder. The back side will be open on Saturday. Oh, and we're opening the mountain to snowboarders on March 19th."

Did I hear him correctly? I stood on the first step of the stairs to the ticket office and looked around at the other skiers. Most of us looked confused. "Snowboarders? But, this is Taos." [more]

told you so

You were so worried. You heard rumors that this year, for real, there would be no snow. Every time you saw your skis, while you walked through your garage / opened your closet / re-lit the pilot light in the crawlspace / went to bed with them, anxiety rushed through you. Sometimes a single tear would make its way down your cheek, like a racer through the slalom, to land with a plop on the freshly waxed and never-to-be-used-again skis you love so much. “There’s no snow…there’s just no snow!” you have shouted, frightening your roommate / significant other / children / mailman. I suggested patience and faith. “There is always snow, eventually,” I said. You shook your head, despondent, downhearted, hopeless.

Well, I hate to say it, but I told you so. [more]

Ski Movies

“From the equator to the arctic circle, the best skiers and snowboarders have turned the craziest terrain imaginable into a place where gravity’s a swing set and the mountains, a slide.” – Johnny Moseley, Playground

We’ve all been antsy for the season to start. Many of these snowblog posts have discussed when the snow will arrive, when the lifts will open, and when winter will, officially, begin. If you’re like many skiers and snowboarders, winter doesn’t begin until we see Warren Miller’s newest movie. [more]

Time to Switch Sports

Over the Thanksgiving weekend I did what any normal outdoor-sport fanatic does when the season is not cooperating with his or her sport of choice; I switched sports. Actually, I delayed switching sports. My friends and I headed out to Red Rock Canyon near Vegas for a four day camping and sport climbing vacation. Since Taos bumped back their opening date by a month, and Wolf Creek only had two inches at the base, we simply extended our climbing season. No problem.

Except I missed the first snow. [more]

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