Spent another day in the backcountry with Ben from Oklahoma. We’ve successfully converted him from resort skiing and claims he’ll never go back after a few days of powder with us in the San Juans. Our tour near Minnesota Gulch started a little sloppy, but ended beautifully on a mixture of north facing powder shots and east facing corn gullies. A fantastic ski run from top to bottom!

It was very warm all day, with little to no wind. I’d suggest bringing some glop stopper wax for the ascents for obvious reasons. Might think about switching to a warm weather wax as well?? Looks like very warm weather going forward, with highs in the mid 50’s during the day but lows still dropping into the high teens at night. This looks to be a good window for an early taste of spring skiing conditions here in the San Juans!!

ND

Did some backcountry skiing today with Ben from Oklahoma. It was his first time bc skiing but he performed like a pro! We toured up and skied down the Pumphouse run, a popular and classic tour near the town of Silverton. The recent snow was the perfect powder refresh for this NNE facing run.

Snow and avalanche conditions are generally stable right now, but as always you still need to be wary of steep windloaded slopes. North facing runs, especially at and above treeline are still holding excellent powder, though the warm temps predicted for the next few days will settle that out pretty quickly. Solar aspects are in a transitional phase, but spring skiing conditions should really start coming into play mid to late next week. Have fun and be safe out there!

ND

Great weekend in the San Juans. About 6 inches of snow on Saturday gave way to perfect weather on Sunday. Did an overnight on Engineer Mtn. with Ian from CA, and Nick from NYC. The conditions on the NE Ridge of Engineer are just about perfect right now. Generally stable snow and great cramponing led us to the summit and great views of the Weminuche Wilderness, the La Platas, and the Sleeping Lady. Great job Ian and Nick! Looks as though winter will be hanging on for a little while longer with generally colder temps predicted for the next week or so.

ND

Climbed Stairway to Heaven in Eureka with 2 clients today. Nice job Ari and Alex!! Forgot the camera, so no pictures. It looked like it was going to dump snow all day, but only a few flurries actually fell. It was very windy with gusts in the 40 - 50 mph range. The climb is in great condition. Sticky, though a bit picked out in the path of least resistance. You can still make it WI 4 by climbing out of “the path”. Depending upon how weather and temperatures trend during the next couple of weeks it could still be in good condition 2 weeks from now or not. Certainly showing signs of pronounced melting on most of the climb from the recent warm temps.

Other climbs in the area like Goldrush appear to be out of condition, or at least like you’d have to climb most of the 1st pitch on rock. Whorehouse and Highway 66 are still looking good.

Transitional snowpack right now. If it snows at all tonight or tomorrow I’d expect a lot of storm snow avalanche activity, in large part due to poor bonding with the snow surface. Keep a good eye on storm totals and wind speeds and direction if you’re planning to head to Eureka this weekend.

ND