Backcountry Skiing at Butler Gulch

Butler Gulch is a popular place to backcountry ski in the front range. It is a great place to get a very solid workout and make some turns.

Driving:

To get there, take I-70 West from Denver and take the Empire exit (route 40). Drive almost 10 miles through Empire, into the bitty town of Berthoud Falls. There is a left hand turn here for Jones Pass/Henderson Road. If you go around a huge switchback, you've gone too far. Take the Henderson Mine Road for 1.8 miles until you see a small road to your right. If you miss it, don't worry- you have to immediately turn around because the Henderson mine won't let you in. The parking lot is at the end of this road (about 800 feet), and most vehicles should be OK- however it does get a bit icy.

There are actually 2 parking lots at Butler Gulch- one for skiers and the other for snowmobilers- or people towing a Scamp!

Skinning:

Once your skis and skins are on, the approach starts at the other end of the parking lot. Head up the trail/road (it's a road in the summer). After 0.25 there is a turn to go to Butler Gulch on your left. Go around the gate and continue on. The other option at that juncture is to go up Jones Pass (that would be if you go straight/right instead of towards Butler). This is where the snowmobilers go, but there is some skiing options that way, too.

The skin is a gorgeous track through a deep forest. The first 1.5 miles are relatively flat, with a few downhill sections which are always interesting on skins. Remember those spots for your ski back to gain enough momentum! The first real climb starts around 1.5 miles.

After climbing this not too steep section for a bit, you finally come to a section where you can see the lines you will be skiing down (around 2 miles). When we ski, we typically stop at this point and head back up for another lap. The trail continues to your left up a few switch backs, until you reach the top (ish). There are still mountains above you, but this top basin area is where most of the ski lines are. You can continue skinning across this section until you pick your line. Enjoy the views!

The more or less top of the skin track

Skiing:

Getting ready to ski down!

Cody requests that you please take this ridiculous snow suit off

There are 3 different faces to ski down from the top of the skin track. None are terribly long, but they are fun! If you stop at the switch back section of the skin track, it's easy to do multiple laps on these runs. There is also a fun little gully on skiers left- just watch out for rocks!

Top of the gully

Wheee!

There is another section that climbs a bit more in elevation, with a nice face that is far skiers right- but we haven't skied this yet. I think there may also be runs in the trees, since I've seen people in them, but we haven't quite figured out the best line.

After doing as many laps as possible, take the fast skin track all the way back down to the car!

Butler Gulch is a great place to get in a solid workout while finding fresh stashes of powder. It is very popular though, and like most places, can be susceptible to wind crust.

And here is a Garmin file for map references:

Christmas Ski Adventure

When Ryan and I first started dating, some of our earliest adventures together were ski trips to east coast resorts such as Mt. Snow, Mad River Glen, Killington and White Face- sometimes with friends and sometimes as a couple. Those trips were always the highlight of a dreary east coast winter. We never did get around to living the ski bum lifestyle though- until this winter!

Since we were unable to visit family during the Holidays this year, we decided to set off on a winter ski adventure. Rather than make reservations at cheap hotels, we now have the means to bring our home with us- our Scamp!

Day 1: A-Basin Resort. 12 runs, 13,000 feet elevation loss.

We woke up early and eager to ski, getting to A-basin well before anyone else. We had some time to throw the disc with Cody on the slopes for a bit, but couldn't skin up with her since they were doing avalanche control work.

Cody climbing the snow dunes

With Cody safely tucked away in the Scamp, we hit the slopes hard- skiing almost every run off the Pallavicini lift. We took 1 break to have some food and check in on Cody- she was perfectly happy in her little house! The skiing was great- a lot more coverage than last time, and some soft snow in a few places. We spent a lot more time waiting in a lift line today than we have ever had to, so that's why we were only able to ski 12 runs.

Steep!

Day 2: Vail

After an amazing day of skiing at A-Basin, we headed out to Vail while there was still daylight in order to find a place to park the Scamp. Our first potential parking spot had 'no overnight parking' signs listed everywhere, but that worked out in our favor because the next spot was gorgeous- and legal.

Views from our camping spot overlooking Vail

The next morning we woke up to a frozen scamp. After spending a while warming up (even our contacts were frozen solid!) we got to the Gondola right when the lifts were opening. Since it was Christmas Eve day there was almost no one at the resort. So much for Vail being crowded!

This was our first time skiing Vail, and we both went into the resort with minimal expectations. Wow. What a place. I really have never skied anywhere quite like it.

The place is absolutely gigantic. It seemed like you could ski a new run every time- for a week!

The views were stunning and we were treated to a spectacular blue bird day!

There is just so much terrain. The back bowls- despite not being a perfect powder day- were still incredible to ski. We even found patches of powder left over from the 2 day old storm. 

Cody was happily sleeping in the 4runner in the heated, covered parking garage while we skied. We checked in on her and took her for a walk after eating lunch at La Cantina (an amazing burrito place IN the parking garage. $7 carne asada, 'nuff said). After a wonderful day of skiing, we settled into our cozy Scamp and watched this youtube video over and over again: http://youtu.be/35sfp9k5avI

Day 3: Vail

Christmas day. We finally got up early enough to make it to the mountain in time to skin uphill with Cody. What a blast!! After taking the lifts for the last few ski outings it was a bit of a surprise to work so hard, but it felt great. The morning was perfect and Cody had a blast running with us uphill.

When we got to the top, she started getting excited to head down. She knows the whole routine we do when we switch from uphill to downhill, and if she's really excited, she'll start barking at us.

On the way down Cody ran faster than I've ever seen her run- she LOVES the groomers (that makes one of us)!! We also skied a mogul run, but that was a lot trickier with Cody- she got in the way of some of the tighter turns because she was so happy that her parents were turning like maniacs!

Here is Cody skiing at Vail with us:

After dropping Cody back off at the car, we were ready to hit the lifts again. This time we spent most of the day at Blue Sky Basin area. Another amazing spot to ski at Vail!

Day 4: Backcountry skiing at Hoosier Pass

Our epic local pass has blackout dates at Vail starting the day after Christmas, so we decided to head to the Breckenridge/Keystone area in hopes that some of the snow storm that was hitting Vail would follow us. When we woke up the next morning to no new snow, we decided to venture away from the resorts and find our own powder. The closest backcountry ski spot was at Hoosier pass. The scenery was absolutely stunning and there was a TON of fresh snow, however the slopes weren't quite steep enough to actually make it through most of the powder. We still had an excellent time touring around in the backcountry. Nearly all of the mountains surrounding us were 14ers that we had climbed- so that was cool!

There was so much snow that Cody kept getting stuck!

After living out of the Scamp for 4 days and 3 nights, we decided to head back to our house for real heat, running water and a shower! We also determined that the best snow was actually in the front range, and had a new backcountry spot we couldn't wait to check out.

Day 5: Jenny Lind. 9.3 miles, 5 hours, 51 minutes, 4,900 feet of elevation gain

After sleeping in our big, comfy bed and taking as many showers as possible, we headed out to Jenny Lind Gulch to earn our turns in the backcountry (with Jon). We had scoped this spot earlier in the year, but it didn't have enough coverage for good skiing. Based on the newest storm, we were hopeful that there would be plenty of coverage + fresh powder. We were right!!

The sweet rewards of earning your turns!

Well earned skin track

The day was so perfect- and we got it on video!!

Day 6: Rocky Mountain National Park

We desperately wanted a repeat of Saturday's awesome powder, so we headed up to Hidden Valley in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a lot colder and windier than we had expected, and the coverage wasn't great. The snow was super wind crusted, and the only runs that looked good also had the potential for wind slab avalanches. We finally hit a good run twice, then called it a day. The skinning at Hidden Valley is a lot farther than the other places we go!

And with that, our 6 day skiing adventure was done!! We had an amazing time, and are incredibly lucky to live in such an amazing place and be able to go on whatever adventure we choose! At the end of this adventure, we have skied 17 days so far this season :)

Trail Review: Backcountry skiing at Arapahoe Lakes, East Portal Trailhead

Ryan and I are on a quest to find the best spots to backcountry ski when the avalanche danger is high and we don't want to get stuck on I-70.

Here is the video version of skiing at Arapahoe Lakes:



This past weekend we explored an area outside of Rollinsville, near Nederland, CO. The drive from Golden is easy since the unpaved road to the trailhead is actually plowed. We parked at the East Portal Trailhead, near Moffat tunnel. By the time we arrived at 10:30am on a Sunday, the parking lot was full! That being said, we saw very few people while out skiing since there are a lot of trails to explore.

The parking lot cleared out by the time we left

On our previous excursion to this area, we stuck to the South Boulder Creek trail. To get to Arapahoe Lakes, we started out on the South Boulder Creek Trail, but at ~1.2 miles, we turned right at the trail sign to go on the Forest Lakes Trail. At around 2.8 miles, we came to an open meadow (?) area. There were some skin tracks that went up to the right, so we first tried that path.

Choosing our path

The forest was a bit dense, so we weren't too keen on coming down through that area, so after about 200 feet of climbing, we turned around. We then took the more well used skin tracks to our left and climbed up through the some well spaced trees. This was definitely the way to go. The grade was mild, the trees weren't too dense, and it didn't look like there were any areas that could trigger an avalanche.

Skinning up!

We climbed about 500 feet to a little bit of a clearing area, where we could actually see the mountains. There were some awesome bowls and peaks above us, but we could see a few natural slide areas, so we didn't want to risk going any higher.

Cody wants to keep exploring

Maybe some day we will ski there

With our slight detour, the total ascent was 3.6 miles to this point. Skiing down through the trees was a blast- the 12" of fresh powder felt amazing, the grades were nice and mellow and the trees were well spaced.

The view near tree line where we took off our skins

Perfect day

I highly recommend this area if you are looking for a very long, very gradual climb, with little avy danger and great tree skiing. I also can't wait to get back here and check out some of the bigger bowls- you could make a really long run from the very peak all the way back to the car!

Powder!

Family ski day

Cody the ski dog

Perfect lines through the trees

Cody is swimming in powder!

Definitely bring food and water because you can spend a lot of time out there. The ski back down to the car was a lot of fun, but be careful of other people coming up!


Here is the Garmin Data: