Conditions Report
Report from December 23
As of Monday, December 23, the great state of Colorado has seen negligible snowfall this month.
My expectations were beyond exceeded though, skiing the all natural snow on a gorgeous day at Monarch Mountain.
One long-timer told me that this Christmas-week Monday was the busiest weekday at Monarch he has seen in 28 years, a great thing for the independent mountain!
Most of this crowd though, were families just learning and enjoying the scenery, we discussed as we rode the Panorama lift up to some of the mountain’s most difficult terrain.
There was some traffic in the beginner learning areas, but Monarch’s characteristically uncrowded slopes prevailed on the rest of its terrain.
Conditions were more than decent as the sun softened up the snow on runs across the mountain.
I really enjoyed the “Sheer-Rocko” lift-line under Panoramic and although I didn’t quite feel like sending the massive cliffs, the conditions were good enough to show off a little bit on the smaller rocks.
I also checked out the large rock feature further north towards “Dire Straits”, but concluded that those lines were not filled in enough to properly enjoy yet.
Most of the mountain’s visitors spent their time enjoying the sun closer to the base area while I searched for the goods.
Monarch’s “Mirkwood Basin” is a 130-acre secret stash of double-black, hike-to terrain on the mountain’s northern-most summit.
I had been eyeing this terrain zone ever since we got our first flakes in October, and I wasn’t going to let the lack of recent snow stop me from exploring.
Although runs like “Mirkwood Bowl” and “Orcs” were closed due to thin conditions, the hike up provided excellent views and the run down “Southbound” provided snow still untouched from weeks ago.
Despite others’ claims of “not worth it”, I actually hiked up three times, always enjoying some in-bounds earning of turns.
For now, I can only imagine the thrill of skiing this zone in proper conditions.
My dream will soon become reality however, as this holiday storm moves into Colorado with light, but consistent snow.
Flakes started to come down as we left the mountain, but there was no real accumulation overnight.
Conditions are expected to improve greatly across Colorado, with multiple low-intensity storms to hit the state over the next week.
Check out conditions reports and forecasts below:
WEATHER FORECAST
SNOW REPORT
