After two resort days last Thursday and Friday, it was more than appropriate for a tour on Sunday with my buddy Andy. We've been hitting great luck with snow conditions this year and hoped to continue it along. With winds forecast over much of the Front Range in the 30-40mph range with gusts over 60, it was a difficult task finding out where to ski that was safe, steep, protected from the wind, had a short approach, and offered interesting terrain. Sure enough, Andy did some poking around the internet and found a zone on the south side of Dream Lake and Bear Lake at Rocky Mountain National Park. While there is vast information available about this area on another website, I'll be damned to make it that much more public.
Now on to the pictures ...
This is why I wake up at 4:30 AM in the heart of winter to go skiing:
The zone where we skied through all those rocks and boulders you see:
It was slightly over an hour to reach the top while gaining close to 1,000 vertical feet. On the descent, we navigated through plenty of blind rollovers and cliffed-out spots where the only option was to jump. Most rocks were in the 10-15' range with plenty of options for those wanting to expand bigger than 20'. Since it was our first time there, we had no idea what lied on the backside of all these blind hits, so we kept it on the less aggressive side.
Andy getting it done:
The snow was incredibly soft (if I had to guess, it was around 4% water content), and it was super deep with two feet and more in the landing zones.
Andy skiing away ...
and entering the white room:
More hucking:
Now back to the powder:
Leaving home, well .... to go back home:
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