Aspen X Guides

North Facing Meadows below Haystack on skin up to Capitol Creek TH

A few weeks ago with the sketchy snowpack in the roaring fork valley not offering much in the way of skiing traditional mid winter lines, I decided to explore a new area that I had been to several times in the summer but never in the winter. The capitol creek trail has little information as to winter access and where the road is plowed to so this was really a stab in the dark. Heading out mid morning in preparation to get a good few hour tour in before the Superbowl we set out. Surprisingly the road is plowed up quite high and you can use one of several plowed ditch culverts to park. The highest plowed area lies about 1 mile down from the normal 4WD parking for the summer ditch trailhead. We skinned up the road grade through the north facing aspen trees to the summer parking and enjoyed the beautiful views of Daly and Capitol. From here you can either follow the summer ditch trail or continue up the road to the ridge-top.

Capitol From Ditch Trail

Following the ditch trail we skinned on the flat grade until the steeper north east facing meadows. From here we wrapped around the backside of the steeper pitches and took to a safer skin trail up through the dense timber. On a normal winter this area would offer great steep and deep lines with about 1000+ vertical per lap. Wrapping around out of the woods onto the ridge we ascended to a highpoint with great views of Sopris, Daly, Haystack, and Capitol. Due to snow conditions we descended through some low angle open meadows to the dense forest and back out in some aspen glades down to the ditch trail. Not the most ideal skiing but that has been hard to find this year and the views made up for the lack of deep turns.

North facing medows and pitches from summer TH parking

Layer Analysis in the Snowpit

This past Sunday, Aspen Expeditions AIARE instructors led a tour up the Express Creek valley out of Ashcroft with a group of 4 AIARE Level 1 students for a day of touring and exploring the snowpack. The tour planning started the night before with students planning out the tour with the help of maps and the instructors guidance. Planning is a big aspect of organizing a successful and safe tour. It allows the group to plan accordingly for group dynamics, goals, turnaround times, group gear planning, and logistics.

Touring up below the M&M Chutes, Brown Mtn

With the tour plan dialed, the group met up at the Express Creek trailhead parking, loaded up, did a beacon check, and headed into the wilderness for the day. Touring up past Green Mountain and into the basin east of Brown Mountain the group was able to stick to their plan and find low angle terrain to gain elevation and eventually lead to their destination point. From here the group conducted a series of full snowpit tests using both the extend column test and compression test. Results were as expected with shears in the moderate range but fully propagating on low angle slopes which signifies instability. Overall it was a beautiful day for a tour.

ECT sheer test results in snowpit

Some good skiing to be had on the way out

Lightly Gladed area northeast of Brown Mtn, gladed terrain good for snow analysis and safe skiing below 30 degrees

If you are interested in a Level 1 or Level 2 AIARE course we have courses starting almost weekly. Give us a ring at 970-925-7625 to inquire and get out in the backcountry and see how it all works.

This past week guided trips went out on Richmond Ridge on the backside of Aspen Mountain and also up in the Castle Creek valley above Ashcroft. Safe skiing conditions and good powder could be found in all areas and the Colorado blue skies enhanced the views and vistas. The group skied around 2,200 vertical feet on Richmond Ridge and over 4,000 feet off of Green Mountain above Ashcroft.

Richmond Ridge Powder Turns

Getting the freshies. Supportive upper snowpack has lead to great skiing conditions

Beautiful Sunny Day for Off-Piste Skiing

Taylor Basin as seen from Green Mountain

Skinning up the west side of Green Mountain

Headwaters of Castle Creek in the background. Mace Peak on the left, Castle Peak in the back middle. Beautiful views everywhere

Layers of the Snowpack

Although we don’t experience much rain or mid-winter ice storms in the Aspen Area, it is a weather phenomenon which affects several good backcountry skiing areas of North America. This is especially true in interior British Columbia and coastal ranges where lower elevations lead to dramatic storms which can dump feet of snow followed by a rain to crust it all over. This article written by Karl Klassen of the Canadian Avalanche Centre gives a good overview of some unique crusts and how they form.

I’ve been involved in a discussion about crusts recently—specifically those sometimes referred to as “alien” or “mystery” crusts that seem to appear without an obvious reason or cause. People often associate these crusts with freezing rain but I think in many cases, rime is the culprit, although freezing rain and freezing drizzle could also be players.

Rain everyone understands: When an airmass becomes saturated with water vapour, clouds or fog or mist appear. These clouds (or fog or mist) consist of tiny water droplets that are held in suspension within the airmass. If enough of these tiny water droplets touch each other and join together (coalesce) droplets become large enough to fall out of suspension and liquid water falls from the sky. Technically, droplets larger than 0.5mm are rain and droplets less than 0.5mm are drizzle.

With winters eventual return to the Roaring Fork Valley it has created quite unstable conditions in the backcountry. Slides have been reported all over the valley since the conclusion of the largest of the storms this past Sunday. Conditions are very touchy on all aspects and elevations and its a good year to enjoy the in-bounds skiing or if you are going to venture into the backcountry take a guide or make sure to bring your decision making A-game. Below is a series of photo’s taken earlier this week while touring on Richmond Ridge after the storm. Give us a ring at 970-925-7625 to inquire about conditions and be safe this weekend!