April 27, 2010

Colorado Update


I've now been in Colorado for about a week and a half.  The weather has been quite interesting thus far and has put a bit of a kibosh on my skiing plans.  With multiple feet of fresh snow and an inconsistent melt/freeze cycle, the snowpack is not setting up into the nice, stable spring snowpack that I was hoping for.  We're now looking at 2 days of warm weather followed by yet another storm cycle.


I have made it out a few days, and actually skied some nice powder just a couple days ago on a north facing aspect near tree line up by Loveland Pass.  Also had a beautiful day in the Indian Peaks Wilderness as demonstrated by the above photos.  We made it most of the way to the top of Pawnee Peak before the weather turned bad quickly and we hastily retreated.

Nonetheless, my goal of acclimating is going well with supplementary hikes and runs in the Flatirons.  Dane should be getting back from his course in the next couple days, and we'll probably head up to Summit County to begin the next phase of our acclimation plan (I've been staying in Boulder so far).  My altitude adjustment so far has made me quite glad that I decided to spend a month in Colorado before heading up to Denali.  I'm thoroughly convinced that this pre-acclimation process is going to make our time on the big mountain significantly more fun as well as increase our chances of successfully implementing our plans of skiing off the top!

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