Unofficial Rose

 Big thanks go out to Rose Patrollers Matt and Andrew who were able to give Tim Briody a comfortable courtesy ride down Bonanza Monday morning when he bit off a little more first run than he could chew. Tim says these guys were "the best there is" and thats coming from a veteran Rose patroller back in the early sixties. Good job guys. You saved him so he will live to ski again... just maybe not Bonanza first thing in the morning! Sven

 Big shout out to local ski store Bobo's for outfitting 96 year old Raymond Joseph with new skis and gear, free of charge. How is that for supporting our local ski community and a nice early birthday present for Ray! Flanked by supporters Pat Parragurie of Bobo's on the left and veteran Rose patroller John Talbot on the right, Ray shows off his new gear and flashes the smile of gratitude. The big question is: With all this new gear will his ski wives be able to keep up with him? Only time will tell.  Remember to shop local and support our senior skiers! Way to go Bobo's!  Sven

 Poke around a little and you can still find untracked, BC is still good on Northern Exposures. You will enjoy for sure. Back to cold temps later in the week with some potential for a small slider perhaps this weekend.  Sven

 Skiing was excellent on Saturday as our meager winter continues to deliver smallish storms every so often. We will take what we can get, right? Although lines were long the rewards were wonderful once on the mountain as you can see! Hope you were able to indulge. Sven

 Kicked off a pretty good slide off Hank's today. New storm slab slid on icy bed surface on a South, Southeast Exposure and ran a mile, literally. The wind played with the snow and some spots were deeper than the 5" to 7" reported but as the sun warmed things up instability increased significantly. I was pretty sure it was going to fracture along the breakover and had a nice escape route planned.  All was great today but the long long lines... argh. Wish "The Gov" has said  you can now "Load up full chairs" in last nights press briefing but that did not come to pass. Sure was nice when they at least were loading 3 singles and 2 doubles... that really helped but word on the street is that the county and state stepped in and said "NO, NO, NO!" so now we are back to lines that make you want to take as long as possible on the run down so you don't have to wait in line again... the ratio of 15 minutes waiting for a 2 minute line just doesn...

 With more folks in the backcountry skiing, boarding or riding sleds more deaths are inevitable given unstable new snow. The only thing that can lower avalanche morbidity might be more avalanche education and heightened avalanche awareness. If you or those you love are visitors to the backcountry in winter, please ask them to consider taking an avalanche awareness course. If they are more than occasional users or like the steeps in particular an Avy 1 course would be highly recommended.  Good luck in the weeks ahead and may your education pay off when out there in avalanche terrain! Sven

Fed up with the lines this weekend so... to lose the crowds, stay out of line and get away I spent a few hours exploring the chutes, taking some pics and noting conditions. My first impression was that it was nice, peaceful and quiet in every chute and the ride up was lineless surrounded by empty chairs. This begged another run and another and another. After seven or eight runs I had been just about everywhere picking my way down. Some were pretty nice, others rocked, and not in a good way. Altogether though it made the long waits at Zephyr worthwhile and led to a much nicer ski experience with more skiing and less waiting. Here is a synopsis:  Beehive: bumped out but fun with mostly good soft snow conditions. The following were traversed into as the El Cap and Yellowjacket gates are closed (for good reason) Yellowjacket: Gate closed up high, traverse in yields good snow and smaller bumps than Beehive. There are a few harder icy plates to watch out that appear to be bed surfaces th...

 If you are as interested in snow as I am you'll appreciate the resolute beauty of photographer Nathan Myhrvold's. Myhrvold has pioneered a new type of camera that captures the highest resolution images of snowflakes to date. One part theoretical mathematician and one part Microsoft engineer put him in the perfect position to give us an up close image of snowflakes and their incredibly delicate structure. You can check out more at Smithsonian Magazine at:  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/these-are-highest-resolution-photos-ever-taken-snowflakes-180976710/ Sven

 A large backcountry avalanche between the towns of Silverton and Ophir Colorado (near Telluride) buried 4 and killed 3 on Monday. The three remaining skiers in the group of 7 rescued the one buried victim that survived. Body recovery is still underway at this time. Once again, this points out the wisdom of skiing areas identified as having avalanche potential one at a time and stopping at only agreed upon safe zones in order to keep your eyes on other members of your group skiing the area in question and keep your group members safe.  Although we were lucky in the last storm cycle to experience fairly moderate danger in contrast to the quantity and amount of snow that fell, we will experience other storm cycles that will not be so stable. Please keep in mind when determining where and when you'll ski avalanche knowledge and follow the old adage that's kept many a skier skiing for years... "If you don't know. Don't go." I encourage everyone to enroll in a ...

 Oh yeah, the lines from hell... thats whats not to like. Thankfully Rose management injected a little reasonability into the frustratingly long lines during the first Powderfest of the year. Now they are loading three singles on a chair or two doubles as long as folks are good with it. This reduces the lines substantially and on behalf of all Rose pass holders we thank you from the bottom of our time management.  Skiing all morning and only getting in a half dozen runs was just not cutting it. And thats why BC sales are again off the charts this year. With up to now what has been a very meager season, long lines at the chair and the pandemic social distancing, this trifecta along with a year of quarantine has pent up demand to ski is at an all time high. I can only hope your love and commitment to skiing was reinvigorated by this last dump as much as my own. Felt good to do the sacred Powder Tango once again on steeps and deeps. Pic was captured of your truly by ski photograp...