Wolverine Basin 1.30.10

OK, maybe not the greatest movie ever, but for a Colorado kid it’s tough to beat a movie about Colorado kids kickin’ some butt. I just had to mention that, since “Wolverines!” kept going through my head as we headed up Emmons yesterday.

Originally Brittany and I were going to ski Redwell, but after hearing that conditions in Wolverine were good, we opted to check it out instead. Wolverine is Emmon’s steepest bowl, and a line I’ve only skied once or twice in the past. Red Lady was getting its’ usual hammering, surprisingly still powder despite the hot temps of late. At one point, we watched three people skiing the bowl at once, always interesting even if there are a bunch of tracks there already. Meanwhile, not a single track went to the looker’s right side of the bowl, which was also “interesting.”

Things are looking considerably better than they did a couple of weeks ago when I skied the South face of Schuykill

We made a couple of turns to check out the top of Wolverine. Brittany:

The view from the top was far from disappointing…

And the turns weren’t disappointing either…

Brittany, looking more and more comfortable on steep, sloughy terrain:

Our line was just a hair looker’s left of the summit…

After the steep upper bowl, we still had 2,000′ or so of good meadow skipping below us. The warm days and cold nights have once again created a ton of surface hoar, which made for great skiing on our way out, but will soon be yet another layer in this season’s poor snowpack. Frank:

A much better shot of Wolverine from a couple of days later..

Brittany’s camera batteries died, so we didn’t get a ton of photos, but there it is, the day of the year (so far).

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Frank Konsella

Frank loves snow more than anything... except his wife.  He ensures his food is digested properly by chewing it 32 times before swallowing.He is a full-time real estate agent serving Crested Butte and Gunnison and would be honored to send you his monthly newsletter.

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