After a series of big storms (3' pre-xmas, 2' pre-new
year) the front range mountains have been skiing
better than I have ever seen them for this time of
year. The upslope storms have been rolling through on
almost a weekly basis, laying down a great base and
providing some amazing pow skiing from Pikes Peak all
the way up to the Wyoming border.






After a few days of high pressure and some much needed
settling of the new snow, we headed out of East Portal
looking to ski some fun lines around the Roger's Pass
area of the JPW. We arrived to an empty parking lot
around 8 AM and started skinning up the popular S.
Boulder Creek trail to a windless and beautiful New
Years day morning. January is typically the coldest
month here in Colorado, but today was a bit on the
warm side for this time of year.


The S. Boulder Creek trail is pretty boring from the
start, as the first couple of miles have very little
elevation gain and thick forest for most of the way.
We cruised up the well-packed trail to tree line at a
fairly fast rate. The weather was perfect for
skinning (not too warm, not too cold). Once you reach
tree line on the S. Boulder Creek trail you get a
beautiful and rewarding reminder as to why you just
skinned 4 miles through dense forest and flat terrain.

We continued up along the south side of Haystack
Mountain and began our climb up the north side of
James Peak. This basin is filled with steep and
aesthetic lines. We all talked about coming back in
the spring and setting up camp along the basin floor
and hitting the multiple lines strewn across the upper
part of the basin.






We zigzagged our way up a good 1,300' before calling
it quits just short of the James Peak summit. We
skinned up some of the best high alpine snow I've seen
in winter here in Colorado. There was a consistent 8"
of wind buffed fluff sitting on top of a thick and
safe concrete hard slab. Perfect for high speed turns
down a nicely pitched slope.

Stoke levels were on the rise once we reached the top
and knew what we were about to ski. Conditions like
this are rare for this time of year, as most of the
time you have to deal with punchy wind slab or
variable snow at this elevation. We struck it rich in
the form of some soft and creamy goodness.






High wispy clouds slowly moved overhead with bright
sunshine beaming down upon our faces. The snow capped
peaks in the distance glistened from the freshly
fallen coat of snow. Hawks and eagles gracefully
soared overhead, occasionally swooping down into the
deep basins to the north and west. The only sound in
the air was that of our boots crunching in the snow as
we walked along the ridgeline. The sublime nature of
the day grew stronger as the hours grew older.

When it was time to descend, we geared up and made our
way over to the top of the line. The line wasn't
anything overly steep, but had a sustained pitch of
around 30 degrees all the way to the basin floor.
I'll take 1,300' of sustained 30 degree pow any day.
Marshalolson dropped in first and made some effortless
high speed GS turns down the line all the way to the
lower floor. As he cruised by me there was not a
sound in the air as the snow was of perfect
consistency and buttery smooth.

Mark followed and gracefully etched some high speed
arcs in the snow all the way down to the bottom.







Stoked and ready to drop-in, I quickly put my camera
gear away and pushed down my goggles from the brim of
my helmet onto my face. A couple of taps of my poles,
a quick push-off with my right ski, and suddenly I was
'in it'. I was in that state of mind where everything
shuts down for a moment and the only feeling in your
body is that of skiing silky smooth powder turn after
turn after turn. Time had stopped, sound was muted,
and all stresses in life vanished. This is the moment
that I long for day in and day out. This is the
moment where all that hard work pays off and the only
thing running through your mind and body is pure
bliss. For 30 seconds or so I escaped to that magical
place.

I skied down to Marshal and Mark and high fives were
exchanged as we celebrated. You could tell that we
all had just experienced the same feelings and
emotions of that moment of floating effortlessly down
the slope. Awesome! Absolutely awesome to share such
a powerful moment with a couple of buds.

We glanced over at the other side of the basin and
decided to skin up and give another line a try. We
worked our way up to the saddle of Haystack Mountain
and then climbed our way as high as we could go to a
steep east facing chute just west of Haystack. Still
beaming from our previous descent, we climbed hard and
fast and quickly arrived at the top of our next line.







With one more lap in us, we decided to skin up to
Haystack and give its westerly facing slope a shot.
The snow looked money and it was still in the sun, so
we gave it a go. We ended up finding the same great
snow we found on our first run and made our way down
to tree line.

An excellent day spent with some great friends. It
was a pleasure ringing in the new year with some good
company and fun terrain. I sit here at work jonesing
to get back up to that area and check some more of
those beautiful lines off the list.