Skiing New Mexico and Colorado 2009

Although New Mexico isn't known for its skiing, certainly not outside of Taos, there is a load of good skiing to be had that's close to the road and fairly steep. The Southwest Nordic Center runs a series of yurts near Chama, NM that are a great place to hike into and base out of for a fun backcountry skiing, snowboarding, or snowshoeing adventure. This last road trip took Kerry Hanes and I to Cumbres Pass where we were able to find some fairly steep skiing (up to 50 degrees). We skied this entire bowl and had a great afternoon.


Afterward, we moved on to Wolf Creek Pass and got in a great few days of backcountry skiing. A nice long tour from the Wolf Creek Ski Area to Big Meadows Reservoir via Gibbs and Spruce Canyons were a good morinig outing.


Then, the Western State Mountain Rescue Team in Gunnison, CO 5 year reaccreditation was held and I set the technical rock rescue scenario. They passed all 5 disciplines of the test. They have great energy and are willing to learn new techniques. I hope I never have to see them working for real with me as a patient, but I'm sure I'd be happy to see them if I needed them ! I've been an evaluator for the Rocky Mountain Region of the National Mountain Rescue Association for a long time and have seen nearly every team in the region perform under stress. It's a difficult task, but the real test is when things really hit the fan and someone's life is at stake. These tests assure competency and provide a good venue for continuine education. There is no professional rescue team for Search and Rescue in this (or most other) area(s). Volunteers do the best they can to help out fallen backcountry travelers in the United States.

Another week of Strike Rescue work kept me busy in Colorado. Tough conditions on a semi-spring snowpack provided a lot of work indeed. A high learning curve for those involved and future planning for other more intense projects are in the works !

On my way back to New Mexico, I stopped off and stayed with Chris and Amy at their place on the Dallas Divide. The next day Chris and I went out to ski the Snake Couloir on Mt. Sneffels. The gate was opened and plowed up to the Ruby Trust Mine.

We rode motorcycles with our packs and skis up to the mine. It was a good thing too since the gate was locked on our way back and we had to jump around the gate. The miners are great folks and their request is that people park at the gate until the county officially opens the road. Ouray County won't opent the road until the avi danger subsides. The Forest Service has its own opinions, and so the story goes...complicated.

Dropping into the Snake Couloir is a big commitment for sure. We did two rappels with a 30 m rope.

I did a lower and then a single rap off a single HB offset nut onto the wind slab that marks the high point of the Snake. A quick test pit showed easy shearing on layers 30cm and 60 cm down, but no failures in compression. The upper layers were a solid hard wind slab that I had confidence that we would not break through. I ski cut the top and nearly lost one of my Dynafit skis as the back end popped out. Good thing I locked the front.

We skied down to the dog leg in a few links as the avi danger subsided farther down from the 60 degree start.

Petal hops were a great technique to use as the couloir became only as wide as our skis. The lower section turned from a breakable crust to powder at 12,000'. we then hiked up to Lavender Col and then skied back down to the motorcycles on mixed conditions for a total of 6880' elevation for the day on skis !