Join Colorado Wild, Pine Needle Mountaineering and Southwest Adventure Guides for the 2nd Annual Banff Mountain Film Festival In Durango, Colorado.

When: Sunday, March 21 – 7:00 pm

Where: Smiley Theater – 1309 E. Third Ave, Durango, CO

How: Advance Tickets At Pine Needle Mountaineering: $10 Adults, $8 Students, or at the Door: $15 Adults, $12 Students (Kids 5 and under FREE)

One of our last AIARE Level 1 Avalanche Courses of the season had 8 motivated students from as close as Durango and as far away as Los Alamos, NM. As is typical of our Level 1 Avalanche Course, we began with a full day of classroom activities and presentations, during which participants had the opportunity to become familiar with terminology and ask a lot of questions. Sitting in the classroom all day is a lot to ask, but it frees us up for 2 full days in the field on days 2 and 3 of the course.

View from Molas Pass

Day 2 was spent near Molas Pass, where participants became familiar with topics including companion rescue and test pit construction, in addition to exercises related to the AIARE Observation Checklist, which allows participants the chance to start to put things together from the broader perspective of the decision making framework that was introduced on Day 1.

Constructing test pits on representative slopes.

The final day of the course was spent touring up a sub-peak just north of Snowdon Peak.  The forecast was calling for snow and it certainly delivered, snowing an inch an hour at times.  Participants took turns leading the group up to about 11,700 feet, practicing and learning different types of travel techniques and terrain recognition/management, as well as route finding along the way.  The third day of the course offers everyone the chance to apply the knowledge and techniques they have learned during the previous days, with many new learning opportunities and teachable moments to help things sink in.

Descending on perfect snow conditions.

After assessing snow and weather conditions, the group decided upon a safe descent on a NW facing aspect.   Perfect snow conditions typified the descent and everyone had the opportunity to ski some fresh powder on the way down, a huge bonus after 3 days of coursework!

ND

February was a busy month in the San Juans, with numerous ice courses/trips, avalanche courses, and backcountry skiing days. Among those trips, was a 2 day Intermediate Ice Course that we conducted in both the Ouray Ice Park and the popular Skylight area.  Four great friends came for 2 days of ice training amidst some fabulous weather and fat ice conditions.

Scottish gullies area.

Day 1 technique demonstration.

Shaking out

On the upper pitch of Slip Slidin' Away

On the upper pitch of Slippery When Wet

In the narrow on Slippery When Wet

Check out these videos of backcountry skiing and avalanche coursework in the San Juans with our guides and instructors.  The footage is provided by our friends at IDTV and thanks to our sponsors RAB, Osprey, and BCA!

Though snow conditions were tough, Dana and I still had a great Introduction to winter mountaineering course this last weekend.

Day one consisted of Dana slaying it on the vertical ice of Cascade Canyon where he learned the basics of belaying,  rope work, and climbing techniques.

Day two we made our way to over 11,000 feet to camp and live on the flanks of Engineer Mtn and learned how to set up a winter camp.

Day three was spent learning the basics of winter camping, snow condition analysis, anchors and snow anchors, traveling in avalanche terrain/ using avalanche gear, self arrest,  traveling as a rope team, and more.

Even though the snow conditions didn’t allow us a summit attempt, we had a great fourth day in the Ouray Ice park going over what was learned and slaying more ice.

All in all, we had a great course and I can’t wait for the next one.

click here for a  calender of the next course

BG

This last weekend’s Level 1 AIARE avalanche course was a huge success.  The recent storm that rocked Southwest Colorado and the San Juan Mountains left us a great snowpack to play with during this course.

After our classroom day of great learning, we ventured up toward Cascade Canyon north of Durango Mountain Resort to practice our companion rescue skills in the beautiful sun of Southwest Colorado.  We finished the day by heading to Colbank Pass to dig in the new snow and see how it was bonding with the old snow surface.  The snow was deep with almost 300 centimeters in some spots!  We all learned a ton about looking for strong over weak layers and performing some useful bonding tests to see how different layers could potentially be problems for backcountry travel.

Our last day was a huge success with some beautiful weather gracing us again.  We ventured up in the Red Mountain Pass area where we were able to get some great glimpses of the alpine and the avalanche activity that had been occurring as recently as the day before.  Great views of wind loading were obvious clues to the recent weather phenomenon that brought the new snow last week.  The skiing was incredible with preserved powder on most aspects.  This was the capstone to the day with smiles all around and lots of great knowledge gleaned from the full three days of avalanche education!  Until next time…

Aaron

Analyzing the Snow in our Test Pits

James getting ready for the Descent!

The crew on the skin track

Our turns in some great low angle pow!

Sarah and Evan feeling stoked!

Last week, Ari and Alex joined us for a 3 day blast of ice climbing in Silverton and Ouray.  On the first day of our trip, we decided on a climb of Whorehous Ice Hose.  The conditions on Whorehouse are superb this year, and the 3 of us had a great day on the climb.  The lower pitch is probably in WI 3+ condition on the left, and WI 5- on the right.  The upper pitch is a solid WI 4 on the right and WI 4+ on the left.

At the belay on top of the first pitch of Whorehouse.

The second day of our trip took us to the Ouray Ice Park, where we worked on perfecting steep ice technique and did a little mixed climbing as well.  We followed that with an asent of Horsetail Falls, which is in fantastic shape given all the cold temps and lack of snow recently.  Alex opted to go skiing on Red Mountain Pass on this day, with our guide Josh Coffin, while Ari and I climbed Horsetail.

Above the crux on Horsetail.

Perfect technique!

Ice conditions are great in the the San Juans right now, though it looks like with snow in the forecast we’ll be steering clear of areas like Eureka Canyon with avalanche danger sure to rise.  Stay tuned!

Horsetail Falls, WI4

The Southwest Adventure Guides ski posse had a great time exploring the skiing conditions in the alpine.  This was organized as an intentional opportunity to share tricks of the trade while getting out and enjoying the skiing of the San Juans.

We all met in Silverton for our guides meeting over coffee, and then carpooled to our starting point.  We decided on skiing near the Battleship slide path as it would offer some great aspects for skiing and provide opportunities to extend our tour up the ridge toward South Lookout Peak.  As predicted, the winds were ripping over the ridges from the west and loading the lee aspects toward Hwy 550.  After ascending the north ridge of the Battleship, we reconvened to discuss our options.  We decided to strip our skins at which point, Mark’s binding broke and his ski went careening down the south facing slope.  Obviously this left us with some difficult decisions about our next move.  We decided that the route down toward the unknown resting place of Mark’s ski was safe enough to venture into and ended with the luck of finding it resting in a rock garden well down the slope.

After climbing back up the slope and fixing Mark’s ski with straps (see the attached photo – it was a great fix), we decided to ski back down northerly facing slopes toward Hwy 550, one of the options we discussed that morning in the guides meeting.  Mark’s ski rocked it and we easily made our way back to the cars.

With a little adventure to keep us on our toes, we had an excellent day out that resulted in great turns, sound decisions, and great laughs among us all.

Aaron

Last week long time client Valari W. joined us for 3 days of ice climbing in the San Juans.  We spent 2 days in Silverton’s Eureka Canyon climbing a few of the classics, most notably Whorehouse Ice Hose and Stairway to Heaven.

Descending the upper bowl after climbing the 3rd pitch of Whorehouse.

Both climbs are in super shape, with many choices in terms of which line you’d like to climb.  We climbed the left side of Whorehouse with was in WI 3+ condition, with just about perfect ice conditions on the pitch.  The right side looked like tricky WI 4+/5-, with some potential hollow spots near the steep section at the top.  Stairway is in FAT condition, and good threads were in place for an easy descent of the route via a few rappells.  There have been many parties on the route recently and if conditions stay the same the route is going to be picked out before you know it.  The middle pitch is still quite steep and feels like WI 4.

Cool view on the 2nd pitch of Whorehouse.

All in all it was a great couple of days with good climbing the entire time.  Ice conditions are fantastic right now, though still a little thin in Cascade Canyon.  Hopefullly the continued cold temps will firm things up nicely for the bulk of the season.  Stay safe out there!

ND

First pitch of Whorehouse Ice Hose.

Topping out the 1st pitch.