Backcountry
Report from Sunday, January 19, 2025
A beautiful sunrise was breaking the horizon as the four of us huddled in the car to capture the last bit of warmth before we set off for the day’s tour. The plan was a quick tour, about two miles and 1,200 vertical feet. We set off from the Jones Pass trailhead near Berthoud Falls, Colorado. The first mile of the uphill was along the Jones Pass Road, making for easy skin-track conversations.
The temperature at 7:30 a.m. was -5 °F, and after about 10 minutes into the tour, we noticed frost forming on each other’s eyelashes, eyebrows, and beards.
Everything was moving smoothly until we noticed that one of our friend’s skins was not on the bottom of his splitboard. Both tail clips had popped off, and snow had been accumulating on the glue of the skins. It was his first time with the new setup, and the tail clips weren’t fastened properly to begin the tour. The glue quickly became compromised, and we could not get the tail clips to lock in, so we tried to use Voile straps to fasten the skin to the splitboard.
After a couple of unsuccessful attempts, our buddy called it quits, and he followed the skin track back to the car. The rest of us started the bulk of the ascent and pushed up through the treeline. As we reached the treeline, the sun shone on us, melting our snowy beards and warming our hands.
The view from the top was incredible. The mountains and trees were covered in fresh snow from the day before. We took in the beauty and warmth of the sun for a moment before transitioning. The descent started with incredible east-facing terrain that skied so deep.
We eventually dipped back into the sparse trees, enjoying the snow. It was bottomless, and we floated back to the skin track. We returned to the car and rejoined our buddy who had turned back earlier. His spirits were high, and he even fixed the tail clip with the help of another skier at the trailhead.
The Tour by The Numbers
- Total Vertical Climbed: 1,200 feet
- Total Uphill Distance: 2.0 miles
- Season Snowfall: 129″
- Snowpack: 103% of the seasonal average
Weather Forecast
