{"id":418968,"date":"2016-01-13T17:59:04","date_gmt":"2016-01-14T00:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/?p=418968"},"modified":"2016-01-13T18:06:18","modified_gmt":"2016-01-14T01:06:18","slug":"crested-butte-backcountry-report-january-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/crested-butte-backcountry-report-january-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Crested Butte Backcountry Report | January 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After the big storms of Christmas, backcountry skiers throughout Colorado seemed to play it smart, and (knocks on wood) we haven&#8217;t had any major avalanche incidents. Then again, maybe the dragon got poked a few times, but preferred to slumber. In any case, let&#8217;s all hope that the year doesn&#8217;t take a turn for the worse, and we all stay safe out there.<\/p>\n<p>As is so often the case, the Crested Butte backcountry received a lot more snow the first week of January than the areas close to town and the ski area. In fact, it was about a foot of cold smoke that fell with very little wind- in other words excellent conditions were the norm for the past week.<\/p>\n<p>I spent a couple days skiing the upper Slate river valley (Share the Slate!) with a couple of different &#8220;Ben&#8217;s&#8221;. Day 1:<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/upper-slate\/6653.jpg\" alt=\"Ben McShan skiing in the upper slate river valley of Crested Butte\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/upper-slate\/6580watermark.jpg\" alt=\"Crested Butte backcountry\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/upper-slate\/6567.jpg\" alt=\"backcountry near Crested butte and Aspen\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/upper-slate\/6613.jpg\" alt=\"crested butte powder\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The area we were skiing in has several steep rolls in the 45+ degree range. They were sloughing pretty hard for anyone wondering.<\/p>\n<p>The next day we explored an area that I have looked at for years, but normally avoid since it&#8217;s a sunny aspect. The cold temperatures we&#8217;ve been having, combined with new snow, made it seem like a good choice to do something different. It didn&#8217;t disappoint.  Cinnamon:<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/upper-slate\/6624.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" alt=\"slate river crested butte\" class=\"alignnone\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/upper-slate\/6632.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" alt=\"ben morello skiing crested butte backcountry\" class=\"alignnone\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/upper-slate\/6676.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" alt=\"powder\" class=\"alignnone\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/upper-slate\/6680.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" alt=\"cold smoke\" class=\"alignnone\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Next, it was time to cross the valley for a more traditional run.  Also good.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/upper-slate\/6698.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" alt=\"skintrack\" class=\"alignnone\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Then a bit more snow came in, and ruined all our light.  The skiing didn&#8217;t suffer too much.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/gallery\/upper-slate\/6709.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" class=\"alignnone\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Much like last week, the forecasters said we&#8217;d be high and dry for a while, but instead it looks like we might get another series of storms that add up to great conditions.  Here&#8217;s hoping for a refresh starting tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"\/\/www.avantlink.com\/link.php?ml=387082&amp;p=23393&amp;pw=29053\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After the big storms of Christmas, backcountry skiers throughout Colorado seemed to play it smart, and (knocks on wood) we<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":418969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-418968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-backcountry-skiing","category-crested-butte"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418968"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":418972,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418968\/revisions\/418972"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/14erskiers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}