Vail, Beaver Creek back in snow mode but state snowpack still lagging badly
Fresh snow near Ski Cooper on a recent Friday.
After a very slow start to the snow-riding season, Colorado is finally back in snow mode over the weekend and into next week, although with a southwest weather flow that generally favors the southern part of the state. Local ski areas are considered to be in the northern region.
Still, Vail and Beaver Creek should see softer snow conditions over the next week or so, and hopefully the snowpack totals in the Colorado River Basin will start to climb closer to average.
Jan 15, 2021, 10:06 am 1.3K Shares
Beautiful mountain ranges can be seen the top of Aspen Highlands Ski areas on March 17, 2017, in Aspen. The views from the top of Highlands Ski area are spectacular. The peaks include from far left to right: Thunder Peak, 13,932 ft., Pyramid Peak, 14,018 ft., Maroon Peak 14,156 ft., and North Maroon Peak, 14,104, dead center in photo. To the right are Sleeping Sexton and Buckskin Pass at 12,462 ft. (Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post)
In the eternal race for powder turns, fast groomer laps or just family fun on the slopes, skiers and snowboarders often forget to look up and see the forest, not just the trees they’re trying not to ride into. Those views, of course, take in Colorado’s national forests, home to nearly every ski area in the state. Their soaring peaks, verdant valleys and amazing vistas make Colorado one of the prettiest states. And whether it’s up on the lift, at the top of the mountain, or even in town or in the vill
Accessible outdoor recreation, the value of sport and competition, education and a love of the outdoors among local youth — these are the goals of Cloud City Mountain Sports, a
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The Inherent Dangers of Backcountry Skiing in Colorado’s Mountains
What can a fatal backcountry skiing accident on Jones Pass, on the west side of the Continental Divide, teach us about Colorado’s snowcat outfitters? And can these quintessential Centennial State adventures ever truly be safe?Tracy Ross •
The avalanche that killed my friend, Hans Berg, on Jones Pass on the afternoon of March 7, 2019, was about 2,000 feet wide and ran from its start, beneath a cornice that collapsed, approximately 1,000 feet to its stopping point, across a snowcat road. The avalanche, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC), spread both to the north and south of the spot where the school-bus-size chunk of cornice fell and triggered more breaks on a sheet of snow that sat on what avalanche professionals call a persistent weak layer (PWL). PWLs resist bonding to other layers of snow over time, and when disturbed they can fail, sometimes creating massive avalanches