Trip Statistics

Days resort riding: 5
Unique resorts visited: 4
Days splitty riding: 2
14ers skied: 1
Beers consumed: ???

Topo Chico!

It’s March 2021 and by order of annual tradition that meant it was time to get the snowboard crew back together in Summit County to do a full on powder assault. The stars aligned and a ten year storm was forecasted to show up the weekend Matt, Amanda, and Lyndsey were slated to arrive in Colorado. Unfortunately, the storm was aimed directly at the Front Range foothills, but the magnitude of the storm meant there was plenty of overflow potential both in Summit County, as well as in the southern mountains. We brought up a case of Topo Chico, and the delicious beverage quickly became the rallying war cry of the week. Every pillow hit, powder slash, and cornice drop necessitated a “TOPOOOO CHICOOOO!” from someone in the group. We hit Copper, Winter Park, Wolf Creek, and Monarch over the first half of the week, putting in some of the fullest days of riding yet this season. The day at Wolf Creek was especially prime, even though the place was packed (spring break in Texas and Oklahoma) the out of towners hasn’t touched the powder dropped earlier in the week off of Alberta and in the hike to terrain, so we ended up hiking to the top of Alberta Bowl almost every lap:

Baldy, Quandary, Windy

The second half of the week consisted of moving into touring mode. We started with a quick lap up Baldy. We finished the week up with the classic Tenmile descent Quandary Peak. The day was forecasted to be warm, and the avalanche conditions finally eased up a bit so it seemed like a reasonable choice. The skin up to treeline went off without a hitch, but as soon as we made it to the lower bowl it was clear the wind wasn’t going to make the tour a pleasant experience. What started out as a light breeze quickly escalated to gale force winds by the time we reached the bottom of the second bowl. The ladies decided the summit wasn’t worth the wind (smart) and headed back down, but Matt and I really wanted to bag the top, and we figured we’d seen worse. Half way up the ridge line we were second guessing our decision. The wind was easily gusting 40+ miles and hour. Strap a snowboard to your back and with wind like that it’s not unreasonable to worry that you might quickly be airborn in an unwanted kind of way. Whether it was resolve or stupidity we made it to the top. Incredibly the winds seemed to ease at the summit and we even had time to snap a few pics.

The trip down was uneventful. The snow in the top bowl was chunky sastrugi that was. . .interesting to ride. The lower bowl was typical creamy spring powder that had yet to transition to corn: slow but not unpleasant. The bottom section to the car was a full blown mash potato fest with a few comical moments thrown in.

All in all, another fantastic week to add to our annual ski with friends tradition.

A few photos from the back half of the week:

The clouds and wind move in at the top of Baldy.

Heading up the first bowl on Quandary.

Amanda above the second bowl.

Braving the wind: Obligatory summit shot

Quandary: Approximate route