Lift tickets at Wolf Creek are 46 Dollars.Today snow was $1.00 per inch Two 20+ inch (50.8 cm) days on top of a 70 inch base made for bottomless fun last weekend at
Wolf Creek. Mariah (Mo) and Derek (D) were host to some of the deepest hours on the mountain in my life to date.
Blowing snow whiteouts over an ice sheet highway, our defrost struggled to keep up with subzero temperatures on the drive down. The vehicle shook under high winds and visibility vanished but Mo kills the drive flawlessly in her red, snow tire equipped all wheel drive Subaru. These conditions could not keep the group away from a forecasted four foot dumping (pooping, puking) at “the Wolfie”. Five hours of winter driving conditions were met with a snow packed mountain driveway at Mo and D’s family home in South Fork. It was actually 14 inches of Blower POW over a thick ice layer. The driveway’s steep angle made it impassable for the vehicles, even the bomber subie.
Luckily Derek had their ATV’s dialed in for the snowy conditions, one was equipped with a plow the other with a winch. We ended up plowing a road for the ATV’s and shuttling the gear about 50 yards up to the house, leaving the vehicles just off the county maintained road. We had to dig out the car after one attempt up the driveway. It was a late night I remember hitting the sack at about
3:00 am. I love stuff like this, it makes the goods that much sweeter!
2 Deep days on the mountain
It is hard to put days like this in words. It is a physical challenge fueled by adrenaline in single digit temperatures. A powder frenzy where lunch is scarfed down on the lift, water bottles are sucked dry and the legs and knees are sore on the car ride home. It was sweet and deep!
I rode with my pack filled with avalanche gear, snow shoes, lunch, water, a GPS, extra clothes and gloves. This mountain is known for its backcountry type terrain. Some of the best lines are a short walk or skin. Recounting the snow conditions made for hours of laughs and reminiscing
Note worthy: We capped off day one with a tasty dinner. Mike (aka; Puffley) cooked up roasted chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, and steamed broccoli. We enjoyed it with a tasty white wine by fire light. Needless to say we crashed early in a post ski-day food comma! Slept like a mountain.
Note worthy: On ski day two the Wolf Creek pass from Pagosa Springs was closed in the morning for Avalanche bombing and road maintenance. This meant that the majority of the crowd was stuck in traffic and gave the folks coming from the South Fork side a two hour window with a deep empty Wolf Creek mountain. There were no lift lines and endless freshies!
This weekend will be hard to top!
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