It was so promising, this potentially last storm of the year. Up to two feet of snow were forecast and we nearly hit that…13-or-so inches at Bear Lake, in Rocky Mountain National Park. Problem was, the sun came out and turned it all to overcooked spuds in the space of an hour.
I met Joey “The Matador” Thompson at the guide shack in Estes Park at 8 a.m., at world headquarters for the Colorado Mountain School. Along with Joey came Andrew Councell and Eric Whewell, fellow guides with CMS. We busted up to the Park…and sat at the gate for an hour while the plows opened the road to Bear Lake.
Late start.
We headed to the Dream Chutes, while several other crews skinned towards Flattop Mountain. An hour into the day and the sun threatened to pop out. Another half hour and the sun was indeed sneaking appearances between the clouds. Fifteen more minutes…and we were baking. The drop-in to the Dream Chutes was chunking up good…
We would manage a few good turns before deciding to head towards the slopes beneath Hallet’s. First, though, the skiers who’d headed towards Flattop appeared at the top of the Dragontail Couloir. Long story short: we watched a pretty good-sized (D2 for sure) wet slide rumble out of the couloir and onto the apron above Dream Lake. A person probably wouldn’t have died in there…but you’d have been five-star bummin’ to have taken the ride. We scanned the debris pile and looked for panicked rescuers. Nothing.
We skied, then labored up to the Second Buttress on Hallet’s, transitioned, and got some good turns down to Dream Lake. Then the pole-push routine over to the skintrack out…and that was (probably) the last powder day of the year. A little chunky with the sun, but hey…it was better than working.
Thanks to the CMS boys for a safe day in the mountains and who knows…maybe we’ll sneak another powder day before we wax the boards for their summer sleep?
