Its late april, and the ski season is beginning to wind down. We are at the point that the snow is no longer getting deeper, but the days are longer and we are 10% over average snowfall for the winter. While Boulder is not a ski town, not even close, april always seems to be a good month for the front range. Instead of storms coming from the west, they tend to come from the southeast and when they get to boulder and the weather begins heading up and over the mountains snow begins to fall, hard and fast. So last week, after a long work week, my buddy andy and I headed up to Eldora to check out the storm. In boulder it had been raining for two days straight, unheard of for us, but at eldora (which had been closed for two weeks), it was hammering, snow like I hadn't seen all year. We followed a plow truck up to the closed eldora gates and parked the van. Skiinig was amazing. We skinned to the top of the mtn, basically found another skin track and followed it up. Poles were of no use, as the 3+ feet of snow didn't allow the poles to find any traction.
At the top we pulled the skins and began to head down. Snow was so deep that turns were few and far between, one of these days to just be in awe that so much white goodness could fall out of the sky in one day. Back to the van by about 7:30, about 8 inches of snow had already fallen on the roof of the van. Began heading down the road back to ned when I heard andy holler "is the snow up to your window on your side? It is on mine!" Stuck. Luckily, as it turns out, backcountry skiers tend to be prepared. Shovels out, puffy on, and we dug the van out. 100 feet later, stuck again, this time on my side. Digging again. When the van was moving, it was getting face shots, beautiful snow flying over the nose and up the windshield. And then it happened.... avalanche covering the road. 5 feet tall, covering the entire road for 20 ft. And another one after that. STUCK and stranded. Oh yeah, neither of our phones work up there. So...austin powers 30 point turn and headed back up to the gate of eldora, where we started....
Getting back up wasn't too bad, just keep the tires in the tracks we just made. We got back up and there were about 5 other people sitting at their two cars. They had been trying to get out to a hut behind eldora, and realized that the epic pow and showshoes were a bad combination. We were only packed for a day trip, but luckily our day trip packs contain puffy's, full safety gear, extra mittens, hats, ect, so we were in pretty good shape. The only thing we were lacking was food, and that is where our new friends came in. They had been planning an overnight at the hut, so they were fully prepared with food, liquor, fireworks, ect. You know, the bare essentials. One of them had an at&t cell phone, which sort of works up there, so I skinned up to the lodge and found a place where the phone had reception. Then, i did what any ski bum stranded in a huge blizzard in a parking lot would do, I called 911. The operator was really sweet, and said that she would send a plow truck as soon as she could.
Several beers and packs of jerky later, around 1 a.m., a huge road grader pulled up with a cop car in tow. The driver of the road grader said he had gone through 5 or 6 avalanches to get to us. We made it home around 2:30 that evening.
Not bad for a quick ski trip after work. Yet another reason I love the garage ski pack.