Late October Upslope Beat Down: Winter Comes Early to CO

Well,
I'm probably glad I didn't try to fly to Cali for Phish this evening cause there is 20 inches of Pow in downtown Denver and I don't know how many flights are takin' off cause it's still snowing. We've received 46 inches at my school in Conifer, CO which equals the last TWO days off, sick! My buddy Luke and I went up to Berthoud Pass this morning to check things out and were pleasantly surprised. Temp: 5 degrees Fahrenheit at the summit.

Warming up the lungs and legs for the 09-10 season:

Early season air:

Where's Knauer? Proving that Colorado has one of the longest seasons in the lower 48:

Winter is building momentum

Enough of this lovey-dovey wedding crap...back to the important stuff.

I thought this winter long range forecast was interesting:
http://www.accuweather.com/news-weather-features.asp?date=2009-10-14_12:55

since he draws a lot of parallels with the winter of '02-'03 which was my rookie year on ski patrol. And i've been thinking how much this fall resembled that fall as well. I remember that year, I arrived for an interview with the patrol director on Halloween and they had just opened Superstar on an all natural snow base, just for a couple hours. By Thanksgiving we could have opened the entire mountain with the exception of a few of the more gnarly pitches like lower Ovation & the Fiddle on an all natural snow base except the mountain didn't have the staff. I remember doing sled training in middle November in waist deep powder. Then came X-mas and a monster nor'easter that gave us 3+ feet of snow. Unfortunately that year fell short in comparison to the snows of '00-'01 because we went into the deep freeze after the New Year and struggled to get more than a few inches at a clip until March.
Taking a ski down memory lane

Defending Quadzilla

Ok, he might not be a golfer, but look at him ride this line on the White Rim Trail in Canyonlands this past weekend. He was the ONLY person who was able to clean this line from any group we saw try.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vHvx1IzesE

Maybe we should get him a pastel argyle sweater and knee socks for the weekend...

Bals wedding weekend BASH

Getting pretty pumped for a Balls Deep reunion of the best kind. Looking forward to seeing you all and watching the Balls and Carolyn bust a move. Planning on driving out from Boston mid morning on Saturday for golf in the afternoon in Amherst. We rented a car and have an extra seat if anyone wants to join us. Seth talks a big game about his former golfing prowess... bring it on Quadzilla.