Skiing Arapaho Lakes (Again)

Forty miles northwest of my house lies the East Portal of the Moffat Tunnel, a 6.2 mile long railroad and water tunnel through the Continental Divide. The railroad tunnel was "holed through" on July 7, 1927 and cost $15.6 million and 28 human lives to complete. The Union Pacific Railroad still uses the tunnel today, which is great for Front Range backcountry enthusiasts because the East Portal Road is plowed all the way to the tunnel all winter long, providing great winter access to the James Peak Wilderness.

I met Scott E., Nate, Scott J., and Otina at the trailhead at 9:00. Conditions were surprisingly pleasant - usually the temperature is in the single digits and the wind is howling but today it was relatively warm and perfectly calm. Conditions seemed perfect for our planned post-ski trailhead cookout.

Because of the mild conditions we were able to explore the above treeline terrain near "Radiobeacon Peak," but because of the avalanche danger (consistently "CONSIDERABLE" on north through east through south aspects near and above treeline for the last five days) we had to be careful not to travel on or under slopes measuring much above 30 degrees.

<BEGIN RANT>

Two days ago, an apparently significantly less risk averse group of backcountry skiers and snowboarders near Red Mountain Pass (in western Colorado) was skiing a slope that obviously should not have been skied on a CONSIDERABLE day. The below video was posted to the CAIC's Facebook page, which resulted in a heated debate about risk tolerance in the backcountry. To be clear, I find this type of behavior extremely irresponsible. This skier was lucky he landed - if he hadn't, he would have been buried and possibly killed (and also put his partners and any other skiers in the area at risk during the rescue). I'd like to think these skiers learned a valuable lesson, but based on their comments on Facebook I don't believe that to be the case, and that's unfortunate. As Tremper writes in Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain, "take a giant step back from the 'stupid line' - the line between reasonable and unreasonable risk."

***EDIT: One of my fellow SMS instructors was skiing across the basin from these clowns, immediately dropped into the basin to help in the possible rescue, and was rudely told "we don't need your help." Classy gentlemen, these ones.

<END RANT>

We found good snow (almost) all the way back to the trailhead. We skied untracked powder up high and soft snow in the trees but had to make survival turns through a breakable suncrust on the final pitch back to the trucks. That last part sucked.

These powder turns below Frosty Bowl didn't suck

Luckily when we got back to the trailhead we ate and drank well. Scott E. fired up his grill and cooked hot sausages, bacon wrapped jalapeno peppers, and just plain bacon. I poured two flavors of homebrew - Hoppy Red and Centennial Blonde. It was a good day.

GPS track (7.4 miles, 2,500 vertical feet)

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