Colorado 2017-18 Colorado Weather and Stoke

[nay]

A little peek at the northern ten mile range. Like Loveland, there is a lot of snow on east facing aspects.



The temps are pretty incredible. Today was a lot like a typical end of daily operations day in June where A-Basin has announced an extension weekend, except the still absence of Lake Reveal.

I think the Ramrod bumps are close to being harvested to keep High Noon open. I’d say that BMX will need to be used to upload and download to make it to June 3rd based on the disparity between upper and lower mountain conditions.

Either way, tomorrow is supppsed to be another warm before the storm day. Highly recommended as the season rushes to close.

 

[James]

Why would one go into a wiggle that's like two feet deep and of questionable line? Once they get like that it's a snowboard thing where the feet can't go in different directions. I saw two major carnage crashes by skiers in the one nearest west wall. That one got down to dirt eventually.

 

[SkiNurse]

Shush! If ^^^ goes too early it could force Aug and Sep at St. Mary’s. Lord, no.

Ugh....double ugh.

 

[surfandski]

MTB is not a tie...you have to deal with humidity...we don't...CO wins

With nearly 300 waterfalls in our county alone, many of which are accessible by our MTB trails, I'll be generous and give it a tie. Our skiing, climbing and hang gliding is a joke in comparison though so Colorado does win the all around!

 

[nay]

Why would one go into a wiggle that's like two feet deep and of questionable line? Once they get like that it's a snowboard thing where the feet can't go in different directions. I saw two major carnage crashes by skiers in the one nearest west wall. That one got down to dirt eventually.

Totally a snowboarder thing. You needed to be able to scrub speed on the lip. But it’s tempting from the lift.

Like this:

 

[tball]

I had no idea about wiggles. Somehow I've never seen one. Here's some info I found for others sharing my wiggle ignorance:

The Art of Skiing: The Worker's Wiggle
https://unofficialnetworks.com/2015/08/05/the-art-of-skiing-the-workers-wiggle/

 

[nay]

^^^^those tail kicks up on the lip to scrub speed without catching your tips are the key. My halfpipe skills are non-existent and my wiggle skills followed suit.

I did try 3 times, though. I even had a beer thinking it would help lubricate the over-thinking.

It didn’t.

 

[Doug Briggs]

It's (almost) summer, and the bulk of the snow came after the warm temps hit ... I wonder how summer skiing will fare. Last time I looked at Fourth of July Bowl (quite a while ago), it looked dire.

Have you taken a look recently? I probably haven't looked in at least a month, so I don't really know.

Pshaw. It looks pretty good, all things considered. The usual gauge of its 'fullness' is the amount of rock visible near the summit.

Did you ski the Wiggle? There are two of them. The one off the top of Pali was pretty fun until I shot out of it.

I guess I have got to get my wiggle on! I've been MTBiking the past few days.



So what is the story with wiggle lines? I remember seeing a video about the one at JH or somewhere else a year or so ago, but didn't know they were so prevalent. How much of an effort does it take to get one going? They seem pretty contrary to the bump fields they are in, so it must take some diligence to get one started.

 

[Monique]

Is a wiggle line similar to the "slalom" lines that get created in trees?

 

[James]

Is a wiggle line similar to the "slalom" lines that get created in trees?

Don't know what that is. Wiggles are intentional and in soft snow develop pretty quickly.
They're like a luge run. They can get quite deep with near vertical walls that don't allow easy speed scrubbing like in the video posted by @tball .
Last year there was one on west wall under the cornice. Looking at the map that's actually called King Cornice. Racer kids were doing it. The turns can develop non roundish shapes as the one this year did skiers left of the West Wall trail. It was ugly as were the two skier crashes I saw. The one on slalom slope someone said was "made by patrol". Allegedly for avy control. It became a pretty classic wiggle with round turns. That snow in North Chute was crazy wet esp where it didn't get much traffic the week before. It was rotten - you'd sink right down as there's so much air in it.

 

[nay]

That one yesterday may have also been part of avy control. If you look middle right in this pic, there is shelling debris and there were a bunch of spots. I’ve never seen them shell and close that terrain when it had a bunch of snow still.



Skiers left of the wiggle was closed from up top and roped off. You had to get down to near Slalom Slope to drop the cornice, where there are other wiggle lines (down to rock in spots)

There are some open areas and you can see rivers of water running under the snowpack - enough apparently that they had stuff closed.

I hadn’t thought of a wiggle line as a soft snow avy cut, but it makes total sense. The location in a bump field also makes sense, because that’s generally the steeper terrain.

 

[Tricia]

This is a pretty good shot of a Wiggle by @nay

 

[Monique]

This is a pretty good shot of a Wiggle by @nay

COMMIT COMMIT COMMIT ... yikes. Is it cheating to allow yourself to go up the banks to scrub speed?

 

[Tricia]

COMMIT COMMIT COMMIT ... yikes. Is it cheating to allow yourself to go up the banks to scrub speed?

Nope, but its likely that you'll shoot out of it if you get going too fast, which is what I did.
Its not really a problem to shoot out of it, just land in snow and keep skiing terrain outside the wiggle.

 

[nay]

COMMIT COMMIT COMMIT ... yikes. Is it cheating to allow yourself to go up the banks to scrub speed?

You have to, but on straight sections you have to kick your tails up to do it with tips still down. That’s shown In the vid that tball posted. My son (the 18 yo) had no problem - on 120mm 184cm Bent Chetlers no less - but he skis like that anyway.

 

[nay]

In other news, why Loveland actually closes.

 

[Eric267]

You have to, but on straight sections you have to kick your tails up to do it with tips still down. That’s shown In the vid that tball posted. My son (the 18 yo) had no problem - on 120mm 184cm Bent Chetlers no less - but he skis like that anyway.

That's the key to the wiggle! It's easiest on a ski with more rocker than camber. I have a pair of old bluehouse maestro rock skis that are completly flat under foot with a ton of rocker that are super easy to slarve turn. In the wiggles and tight gullies you don't ever have to worry about catching an edge. On a directional ski that's cambered you really have to fully commit or have it somewhat detuned. We've got 3 of them going at squaw right now.

 

[nay]

Wiggle this. It looks like mostly foothills and the GFS is saying up to 5-8” in parts of northeast CO. That’s rain.





Not clear if A-Basin will get much out of this or not. This is for Loveland Pass. Should be a good refreeze and some accums. And a million people chasing it when the slush was better.

 

[Monique]

Hmm. After seeing the Breck forecast, I opted to stay home this weekend and get some much-needed tasks accomplished. I did forget about the A Basin possibility - my mind was on hiking.

BUT might sell the BMW this weekend, so hey.

 

[nay]

I have my two oldest graduating high school today and their party is Sunday. I wouldn’t touch it anyway given the potential for some sticky May pow over reef.

I did just clear my Monday calendar, though.